Tuesday, August 4

"One Hour Wargames" - Scenario 3 - "Control the River" - Set up

Time for a return to the table and this time we are playing the third scenario from the excellent "One Hour Wargames"

Following on from the last scenario where we had tried out DG's modification/variation of the Marlburian rules we normally use, DG has made further changes*, so I have again set the scenario in the Marlburian period; we will try another period for the next game.

* one modification features the return of DG's beloved average dice, so I need to hunt some out from the dice box!

The third scenario is another encounter battle, but this time the forces represent the advance guards of two larger forces, tasked with seizing two vitally strategic river crossings. The winner is the player who controls both crossings by the end of the game - we will use our standard method for deciding this ie. whoever last crossed the bridge controls it. We have 15 moves to do this in.

An interesting feature of this game is that the players do not start the game 'on table', they arrive anywhere on the relevant edge - no setting up your artillery straight away to cover the bridge then! Any formation is allowed.

Although it doesn't specifically state either way, it doesn't say whether the river is impassable except at the bridges - in fact it says no special rules apply - so I'm going to play our standard rules for crossing water features.... 

As in all the previous games, all unit morale modifiers will be 0 (for both sides), no National characteristic bonuses will apply for either side (ie. British/Dutch firing bonus doesn’t apply etc etc) – as much as possible each side will be totally equal, except for the results of the randomised force generator. Also as per the last game there are no brigadiers for either side (these are used in the rules for morale saves/improvements)- commander in chief only.

The scenario is another six unit per side, game so we diced using the same randomised force table, this time DG threw a 3, and I threw a 5, giving us the following forces, DG is playing the Allies, and I will play the French

DG first - this is the same force he commanded in the first game:

...then me.. sharp eyed viewers will spot that I rolled the same this game as I did in the last, so I decided to re-use my orbat from that game:


Table was as follows - starting edges top and bottom:


...and from the side - so starting edge left and right.



Both edges are of equal value - the hills are equidistant from the bridges, so I have given DG the left in the above.

Bear with... the game will follow!

4 comments:

  1. I'm really enjoying these play through reports Steve. I'm on the verge of doing something similar for the Great Northern War, so I'm painting frantically to get started. I thought I'd roll a d3 and a d10 and choose scenarios at random to create a campaign. Looking forward to the battle report for this scenario.

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    1. Natholeon - that's a clever idea... I remember reading someone else blog who had strung four or five of them together with a narrative, but random makes it interesting... I did it a while ago with the Programmed Scenario's book.. game write up soon, but the arrival of troops from off table is an interesting twist for this scenario

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  2. "Although it doesn't specifically state either way, it doesn't say whether the river is impassable except at the bridges - in fact it says no special rules apply - so I'm going to play our standard rules for crossing water features.... "

    The scenarios assume that you're using the rules in the book, and terrain effects for each period are covered there. In fact in all nine sets rivers are impassable except at a bridge or ford. I imagine that the dynamics of this scenario change if you can cross the river, but then even using the sets in the books you get differences in the way some scenarios play out depending on how impassable certain terrain is or whether it offers defensive benefits.

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