6mm ECW: Victory without Quarter

 Today we tried out a set of ECW rules called 'Victory without Quarter' that are freely available on-line.This is a set of rules that I have fancied trying for some time now as they read like they will have a good 'in-period' feel to them. Although really written with 28mm or perhaps even 15mm figures in mind we used our 6mm figures as that is the only scale we have enough figures ready painted, (my own 15mm collection is only about 9 units strong, and all Parliamentarian whereas we can field about 100 painted units in 6mm between us). 

For a first game we used small, reasonably balanced sides and fairly open terrain so we could concentrate on learning the basics of the rules. Ian and Nigel took charge of the Royalists whilst Howard and I lead the Parliamentarian forces. It was lovely to get Howard back gaming again. 

Our armies are all made up of 6mm Irregular Miniatures, they paint up really well.  

Parliamentarian forces deploy, the infantry were to hold the centre whilst their cavalry would try to outflank the Royalist Infantry.  

Royalists deploy with their cavalry trying to take the village opposite and their infantry hold the centre. We discovered at this point that we had deployed a little too far apart but at least there was plenty of room for manoeuvre. 

Victory without Quarter is a card activated game and my Cavalry were in luck early on and managed to speed across the table. The card activation worked a good degree of uncertainty  into the game. Movement, Shooting and Melee are easy to work out making for quite a fast moving game in which all players are kept involved. 

The Parliamentarian Dragoons took cover in the woods and harassed the advancing Royalist cavalry. Rules for the effects of terrain on moving, shooting etc... are simple, another positive point for us.  

Sensing victory, the Royalist infantry advance. 

My Trotters perform Caracole in front of Ian's Royalist infantry, but the dice were against us and Ian forced my cavalry to Rout with his superior shooting. Things were not going well.  

The Roundhead guns open up on Nigel's Royalist gallopers, but caused little damage.

But Nigel gets to charge and disperse our guns. You can also just make out top left where the Parliamentarian Dragoons are routing from the Royalist Dragoons.

We sadly ran out of time to complete the game but the Royalist forces certainly had the upper hand so victory to Ian and Nigel. 

As for the rules, at about 12 pages long they are brief and a few area's of the rules were a little vague but we managed to work our way through them. There is an interesting section on period specific random events and also a chart to add random abilities to your command figures. We play again next week but will deploy a bit closer. We may also tweak one or two other parts of the rules once we have had a re-read to see where we went astray. 

Overall we enjoyed the rules and they are a keeper!

Finally, last week Ian was disappointed that I did not mention Larry Hagman in his jeep who scouted  ahead of the American forces and managed to destroy the German Nebelwerfer and cause all sorts of problems.   

Rapid Fire: Claim the Villages

 Todays game of Rapid Fire saw 300 points of Americans fighting for possession of 4 villages against 300 points of Germans. Ian and Phil led the American's once more and Nigel and I were in charge of the Germans again. 

Nigel moves his infantry into one of the villages... 

...and then claimed a second village!

Ian and Phil had claimed one village and then moved up some support. 

My Puma took a position on our right flank and never had a target all game as Phil played a very cautious game, waiting until the next to last turn before trying to claim their second village.   

By now the American's were well established in their first village, a ruin. 

First time Ian had used a flame thrower, he even made a special effect measuring device. 

He enjoyed frying my Nebelwerfer. 

Phil's mortars were very effective against our pak 40's and the Pz III observation tank.  

It was an odd and very static game really. Both sides dug in around their closest villages and fought from there. No surprise that the game ended in a draw as both sides controlled two villages each and suffered quite a few casualties as any forward movement was easily defeated.    

More Rapid Fire

I played around with another scenario out of the Normandy Battlegame's book, Ian and Phil as the Americans again and Nigel and I repeated our role as the Germans. At 400 points each it was quite a large game with the objective being to control the village in the 'almost' centre of the table. Control of each house was worth 1victory point, the Church and Churchyard 2 vp and the large factory 3 vpts.  We set ourselves a target of 15 turns but only managed 9. 

The American forces got the first turn and sent their Recce vehicles into the village. 

One of Phil's Recce vehicles regretted being so bold. 

German re-enforcements arrive. 

Nigel's German infantry manged to quickly occupy the eastern side of the village. 

Ian got the American re-enforcements, the Sherman's. . 

Phil plastered my Pz IV's with smoke so they could not target his advancing forces.  

My Panther behind the ruin took some heavy damage whilst taking pot shot's at Ian's Sherman's and Phil's Stuart Tank. On the last turn of the game about 4 tanks got brewed and the Stuart tank which had been on from turn 1 survived, damaged but still shooting!

By the end of the game the American's had taken the factory despite heavy indirect artillery fire but the Germans controlled most of the rest of the buildings. Whilst the fighting had been fierce, casualties were fairly even but the Germans easily had the most victory points. 

Another great game but we were perhaps too ambitious with the size of our forces. We play again next week but with 300 points a side to see if we can get through more turns. .  

 

A USA WW2 Blog for Ian

 Here we go...

and click on the photo's if you need them any larger. 

Back to Rapid Fire

 We haven't played Rapid Fire for some months but today we returned to the game with a heavily adapted scenario based on the 'Cambes' scenario from the Normandy Battlegame's book. We had to replace the British troops with Ian's American forces. I also had to swap the terrain about a bit as I did not have enough road sections. As suggested in the book we allocated points values to all the main buildings and crossroads but played a straight, who was in control of the most points after 16 turns. 

Ian and Phil were in charge of the Americans whilst Nigel and I were the Germans. 

To celebrate getting back to Rapid Fire I painted up three more Panzer IV H, only two survived the game. 

So at the start of the game the Germans are dug in around two villages. The Americans have to push them back and try and claim the villages, taking points from the Germans for each building and cross roads taken. 

Turn 1 the American Recce unit enters the board. 

Turn 2 the American Recce unit gets blown up!

Meanwhile some Panzer IV enter at the far end of the table to support the German forces. . 

But the Americans are coming onto the table in force now. 

My pak 40 bags a Sherman. 

The Panzer IV's take cover behind some brewed up Sherman's. 

The American's start to take control of the main village, Cambes.

Loads of Americans all over the place, despite the Germans destroying quite a few of their tanks. 

View from the American entry point, they Americans now control most of Cambes. 

One of the Panzer IV's takes a lucky hit from a Sherman. 

As time ran out we had only played 12 out of the planned 16 turns. The Americans had taken about 40% of the objectives but did look set to take over the whole of Cambes in the next few turns which would have won them the game. 

We really enjoy Rapid Fire for our WW2 games. It is as fast moving as it's name suggests and manages to keep all players involved for the whole game. We aim to play again next week.  

General De Brigade in 25mm

 For our first game of 2023 Nigel had very kindly invited us over for a game of General de Brigade using his wondeerful 'old school' collection of MiniFigs, Lamming and Hinchliffe figures.

 He even provided lunch, what a legend! The table looked great with lots of well painted resin buildings adding to the overall atmosphere. Nigel had also cooked  up an imaginary scenario of British v French fighting over two objectives, a village and a large hill. The dice decided that Phil and I commanded the French with Ian and Nigel in charge of the British. The two sides were fairly symmetrical in design with a few slight differences in troop quality. Phil and Nigel ended up fighting over the village whilst Ian and I contested the Hill, a far simpler objective. 

Phil's Infantry Brigade approach the the village. 

The view across the table after deployment. 

Here comes Nigel's British Infantry, also  aiming for the villlage. 

On the other flank Ian's British Infantry Brigade with cavalry support rush for the top of the hill. 

However, my French Infantry also rushed the hill supported by some Hussars who proceeded to chase Ian's cavalry from the board. They then swept round onto the French Infantry's flank and rear causing mayhem.  

A good view of the tussle over the village as both sides seek cover to fire from. 

My French Hussars in the bottom right about to chase of some British light cavalry. Although my dice throw's were fairly average Ian's were dreadful. 

The British trying to take the village. 

Where have all the British Infantry gone? The top of the hill claimed by my French Infantry after defeating the British aided by the Hussar's. 

The firefight in the village was fairly even. The British column top centre, try to charge the French line behind the wall but get stopped by the French shooting. 

Eventually the French firing cause Nigel's British Infantry to 'Falter' just as my Brigade start to swing round and advance on their left flank. Game over with a solid victory declared for the French. 

General De Brigade gave us great game although we do need to check one or two things in the rules to make sure we were playing it right. I found them easier to understand than some aspects of General D'Armee but a few rules/areas were also a bit predictable such as melee casualties although the morale checks caused by melee were far less predictable.

Very happy to play this again and Nigel's 'old school' armies are just brilliant!