Review of WSS (WAS & SYW) Rules

Historically, I have always loved reading rules, but I have the concentration of a goldfish when it comes to wargaming a period. I tend to flit from one ruleset to another, never settling on a single set. However, I've decided to reduce the number of rules I use and focus on my favourites. As part of this effort, I've decided to fight roughly the same War of Spanish Succession (WSS) battle using different rules to see which I prefer.  Below are two tables of reviews with links out to the individual battles/rules review.

I wanted the battle to contain the following elements:

• Crossing a small stream (as per Blenheim and Ramillies)
• Attacking a village 
• Cavalry frontally charging Infantry
• Infantry v Infantry
• Cavalry v Cavalry
• Artillery 

	Kampe in Reihen	Twilight of the Sun King	Honours of War
Battle review	Review	Review	Review
Clarity of rules	Average	Below average but good in supplements.	Good
Friction of command	One free move but can gamble for more	Limitations if a unit wants to do anything other that just advance.	Commands alternate  movement & firing with opponents commands.
Speed of play	Average	Average	Little faster than most
Movement & obstacles	Average	Innovative works well	Average
Attacking Buildings	Hard to succeed	"Realistic"	Defenders can be worn down
Army size	8-12 units per player	12+ units per player. Unit is brigades	8-12 units work well
Notes	Player feels involved not an observer.	Good but felt like a simulation rather than a game  Very innovative combat with moral replacing  "to hit" rolls.	Good but combat results are to varied for my taste
Cost	Charity payment	£14 (excellent supplements £20)	£9.99

	DNB - SYW	Maurice
Battle review	Review	Review
Clarity of rules	Clarity: Average  Presentation: Poor	Good
Friction of command	Generals roll 1d6  points and pat points to move units.	Generals move one command per round.
Speed of play	Average, 3-5 rounds to destroy a unit in combat.	Quick
Movement & obstacles	Bad terrain slows unit movement	Bad terrain may disrupt units
Attacking Buildings	Very difficult in DBN but only slightly difficult in the SYW supplement	Hard to succeed
Army size	12 units per player is not a problem.	12 or so units per player
Notes	Combat is opposed rolls.  There is no I firem you take hits then you fire with what troops you have left.	Different mechanic for shooting and melee. Melee always wears down troops even the winners.
Cost:	$15 for the pdf.  Seven Years war rules are a free download but require the full rules.	£30 rules & £30 cards (or lite version for free)

Shilo-ish 6mm ACW

 

Background to the Game

I've always enjoyed re-fighting real battles.  There as always been an attraction is trying to understand the  challenges faced the real life troops and generals.  I have found Alter of Freedom and Bloody Big Battles to be vey good rules for recreating historic ACW battles.  For this game, I knew I was going to have between one and four friends playing with me, some experienced wargamers and some less so.  None of them were familiar with AoF or BBB but all had played the SKT rules and most had played the STK’s Flames in the South, ACW rules for the ACW.  One of the strengths of the SKT rules are that once you have played one period you will find you know 90% of the rules for any other period. I therefore decided to set up this game for the STK’s Flames in the South, ACW rules.

Scenario

As this wasn't going to be a full historical recreation I decided to form the game around the battle of Shilo but taking various liberties with the ground scale and forces.  I wrote the scenario and then asked my friend John to set up the terrain.  Splitting tasks between players helps prevent one player (me) having too much control over the battle.  

One mistake I made when setting up the scenario was not limiting the power of gunboat USS Tyler.   In the actual battle of Shilo the Union gunboats were of limited value and I should have toned it down for our battle.

The battle was fought in 6mm with ~1,800 Baccus figures.  The figures were mainly on the standard 60x30mm bases but with a few, skirmishers etc based on 30mmx30mm, as I can place two together to create a 60mmx30mm base.

The Scenario can be downloaded here...Shlio-ish

Hidden Forces

The other thing I did to prevent myself and the other players from knowing all the details of the forces opposing us was to create a number of "forces" for the players to pick between.  Some troops would be on the table at the start of the battle and others would join as the battle proceeded.  This approach meant that the players didn't know if they would be facing green troops or veterans, all infantry or also some cavalry. 

In the game the Confederate commanders left their inexperience troops in the rear as reserves, thinking that by the time the reserves came into play the union forces would be worn-down and easier to beat.  The Union general took the extra artillery and cavalry thinking that they could punish or pin the advancing confederate forces.

Dawn

The Union side of the battle field was very sparse with just a few pickets spread around the various camps.  The Confederate forces concentrated their attacks onto the ridgeline past the Shilo church and up the bank of the river towards Pittsburg Landing..

Heavy Fighting

The union forces reacted quickly and rushed to occupy defensive positions on the ridgeline .The Union forces around Pittsburg Landing held back.  Their plan was to deploy skirmishers in the woods near the advancing Confederates and bombard them from both the front and enfilade from the river. 

Confederate assaulting the ridgeline

Confederate Forces Assaulting towards Pittsburg Landing

Beginning of the End

The Confederate assault on the ridgeline failed.   It was well defended by Steve and John. It was my fight to loose and I lost.  In retrospect I should have pushed on harder but with bigger gaps between my ranks.  I allowed them to bunch up too close to one another and cascading moral failures stopped my attack.

The Confederate assault on Pittsburge Landing received huge casualties from the Union artillery, especial the Gunboat USS Tyler.  I can only apologise to my friend Paul for giving him the short end of  the stick, by giving him the task of having to lead his men into that bombardment.  In retrospect I should have greatly reduced the firepower of  the USS Tyler.  The Union skirmishers deployed in the wood  caused disproportionate chaos to the attacking Confederate and we should have deployed a couple of regiments into skirmish formation and swept them out of the woods before pressing on to Pittsburge landing but the need to advance out of the effective fire from the USS Tyler force the Confederates to by-pass the woods.

Reserves Arrive To Late

From a Confederate point of view the reserves arrived too late.  The Union troops were in good defensive positions and a fresh Confederate assault would have had a harder task that their morning assault.    It was time to use the reserves to cover the retreat while the cowardly yankees, did the sensible thing and sat in their defensive positions and watched...

Points to note

The left flank saw a full on cavalry change between Union and Confederate cavalry.  Rare in the ACW but impressive.  Odds were on the side of the Confederates ...but it keeping with the day the Union swept the Rebel cavalry from the field.

Depending on the rules you use, you should be carful not to allow the fire from the USS Tylor dominate the eastern edge of the battlefield.

|Conclusion

Despite it being a crushing victory by the Army of the USA over the CSA, it was a fun game.  Thanks to my three friends who were able to join me in the game, John, Steve & Paul. 

6mm ACW  Fight over the Shoe Factory

Setting up the game

The challenge for this game was having a scenario which had three players, one of whom, although an experience wargamer did not know the rules.  The approach was to have one experienced player control two Confederate forces in a strong defensive position and for the other players to control a larger attaching Union force of four commands (two each).

Hidden command selection

Each side had a pick list of eight commands to choose between, ranging from one cavalry unit with a horse gun  to four conscript infantry units with a conscript foot artillery battery.  The pick list approach meant that  each side know roughly the size of the opposing force but not they mix between troop types or their quality.

Hidden deployment

The initial deployment was by the defending confederates but with their units replaced by cards.  Each card representing 1-4 units and 4 dummy cards being used. This gave the attacking union forces a rough idea of the deployment of the defending forces but little idea of their number or exact placement.

Map v’s reality

The attacking Union forces had a map pf the battlefield but hadn’t seen the actual table, until the day of the game.  This giving the defenders a better chance to plan their tactics for the terrain.

Rules

The game was fought using STK’s Flames in the South, ACW rules. These rules are very quick to pick up, see my review.

The scenario can be downloaded here.  

Forces Selected

The union chose the following four commands

(1) Regulars with attached Artillery 2x regular Infantry Coy (4 bases) 1x Smoothbore Field Gun battery (1 base) Jolly Good chap Gentleman	(2) Raw Infantry & attached artillery 4x Raw Infantry Coy (4 bases) 1x Raw Smoothbore Field Gun battery (1 base) Jolly Good chap Officer
(3) Cavalry Force 1x Cavalry Sqn with repeater carbines (4 bases) 1x Smoothbore horse battery (1 base) Jolly Good chap Officer	(4) Regulars with  Skirmishers 2x regular Infantry coy (4 bases) 1x Skirmishers sqn (3 bases) Jolly Good chap Officer

 

The Confederates selected

(1) Regular Infantry with Artillery 4x Regular infantry Coy (4 bases) 1x Smoothbore Field Gun battery (1 base) Jolly Good chap Officer

(2) Veteran Infantry 2x Veteran infantry Coy (4 bases) 1x Veteran Skirmish Coy (3 bases) 1x Veteran Cavalry Sqn (4 bases) Jolly Good chap Officer

 

The Union forces attacked from three directions. The 1^st force from the east, the 2^nd from the north and 3rd & 4^th from the west.  The confederates had their veterans facing the west and their regular forces facing the north and east.

 

The Union forces attaching from the west took heavy casualties from the defending foced who were sitting behind stone walls and repulsed. The Union forces from the north did better than the forces on the east but had some unlucky breaks, combined with being raw and where held off my the outnumber confederate forces. The union forces on the west became bogged down in a sniping del with the more experienced veteran Confederates. They were just starting to break through the confederate defenced when time brought the battle to an end.

A victory for the Confederates  and a good test of the SKT rules.  

Thanks to my friends Ian & Paul for a great game

Review of SKT Wargaming Rules

This is a review of the American Civil War (ACW) wargaming rules by Steve Thompson (SKT Wargaming) Flame in the South

Firstly, let me start by saying this is a review of Steve’s Flames in the South rules for the ACW. The SKT Wargames site contains a suite of rules, each customised to cover the foibles of the period but build around a common core covering orders, firing, melee combat and moral.

Although this review is focus on the ACW rules I have also used the "Will Victoria be amused"  rules covering the Sudan war (1884) and "Carry on up the Raj" covering the Indian Mutiny (1857). Other sets in the range include:

•        Zulu’s Thousands of Them – 1879’s Zulu wars.
•         Good old Hook nose – Napoleonic
•         Kampfe in Reihen – Lace wars (WSS)
•         An Uncivil Affair – English Civil War (ECW)
•         Landsknecht – Renaissance

Price

Always a question of interest to wargamers with a lead mountain to buy. The rules are free! But Steve does ask for a charity donation to Combat Stress, which seems an appropriate charity for us to support.

Style

The rules feel sized for a “traditional” wargame, e.g. a dozen units per player for a afternoon game. They do not feel like a military simulation intended to refight a major historical battle in an evening. As much as I don’t like comparisons between rules they are more “Blackpower” than “Blucher”. Having said all this, Steve regularly collaborates with Mark Frith at the War Games Holiday centre  War Games Holiday Centre (wargameshc.co.uk) to run huge multiplayer (8-12 player) battles lasting a weekend.

Scale

The rules are figure scale agnostic. Units consist of a number of “bases”, typically 4. In my last 6mm game we used 30mmx30mm as a base and as my figures are bases to the standard Baccus 60mmx30mm, each physical base counted as two logical bases.

Equipment

When the rules were written Steve was using a pack of cards (red & black) to generate success or failure. Lately he’s moved to dice with three red sides and three black sides. The game plays perfectly well using any 50/50 mechanism, if you don’t have these special dice, I’d suggest a d6 with 1-3 fail and 4-6 success.

Command & Control

To me C&C is one of the great strengths of these rules. The fashion in wargaming for command and control has changed over the years. In the early days commanders got to move all their units exactly as they wished. Many felt that this did not capture the “friction” of command & control. The fashion moved towards a limited pool of command pips, forcing commanders to focus on the area of the battlefield they really wanted to win. The downside of the pip system was that some units would sit unused through the battle when in “reality” their commanders would have been following their pre-battle orders.

More recently a number of rules have introduced activation rolls to get a unit involved. Various flavours exist in rules such as Blackpower, Bloody Big battles (BBB) and the Twilight of the Sun king. etc.

For those of you who prefer guided missile control of you units consider that it’s not the units refusing to follow an order but rather unknow factors, e.g. the Prussian infantry at Kolin (1757) advanced through a meadow and found themselves mired in the mud of several drained unmapped ponds At the Battle of Minden (1759), the entire Cavalry Right Wing under Lieutenant-General Lord Sackville failed to advance and engage the French. Sackville was court-martialled after the battle. A number of people I play with do not like the activation roll approach as they don’t like their command sitting around unwilling to do anything. It may be realistic but it’s not fun. The SKT rules have a more fun/generous approach to unit activation. A commander can take a single activation for a unit (more or shoot) but if he wants to gamble with the command dice he can get two or even three activation…or loose his activation altogether. It’s a nice mechanic as a commander can have a unit ”plod” along but when the actins gets hot he can push his luck, at a risk. These rules make you feel like it was your choice to push for an extreme activation rather than you roll your dice and sometimes you don’t get to go.

Shooting

The shooting rules are quite straight forward with a unit having 3-4 bases and one firing die being rolled for each base, plus or minus a number of dice to allow for situational factors.

Melee Combat

This is fundamentally the same as the shooting rules.

Moral

Units take hits from combat. Once a unit has taken one hit for each base subsequent hits are moral hits. At the start of each turn units with moral hits test to see if they stand, retire, or flee. Players need to be able to track hits and moral markers on units. In the games I’ve played we’ve used two dice to track hits and moral both held in a double dice holder.

Customisation

The rules allow for elite, regular and conscript troops as well as various types, dragoons, skirmishers etc. Some rules (e.g. Blackpowder) will give “special powers” to units. In these rules customisation is applied to the commanders as “Style of commanders”; e.g. The Cavalry Commander - This chap loves the service and the feel of a horse under him in combat. Add one in combat if against foot, and two against other cavalry.

There are also commander cards which can be used to enable a commander to tip the battle at the right point, ranging from “+1 Shooting” to “Where the hell did that come from: place a 6” round piece of marsh on any open terrain within 20” of the commander at any time!”.

I have played both with and without the Style of commander and commander cards and without them. They add a touch more random chance to the game but are in no way necessary.

Overall

Pros	Cons
Very easy to learn. 1-2 turns to pick up the basic rules and by the end of the fist game you’ll have picked up all the rules. Great price Give a fun game Point system for sizing armies	Rules give a feel for the period and the way command and control works in war.  They make no claim to be overly historically accurate.             Players need to be able to track hits and moral markers on units which adds clutter to the table.