The shape of things to come

  

I’ve always had a love of science fiction, sparked initially by the likes of Wells and Verne, and it must have been at the back of my mind when I recently decided to branch out, wargaming wise, into the whole colonial thing.

Quite rightly it’s now considered bad taste to glorify the exploitation of other cultures or worse the annihilation of natives attempting self determination against a technologically superior opponent. Since I didn’t fancy gaming the morally dubious massacre of fuzzy wuzzies beneath the barrels of a maxim, the clash of similarly equipped if differently motivated empires in this period seemed to grant a more morally acceptable fight amongst equals. 

The Empires of Britain France and Germany had competing interests and borders at this time and friction between them could have erupted into more than one conflict given the jingoistic nature of their respective  politicians and population.

 

Setting my games in the mid 1880’s, before the science of industrialised warfare had really taken hold, would allow the possibility of the thin red line, and the attraction, were I to focus on Britain in particular, of felling Johnny Foreigner with the occasional well placed upper cut. Stirring boys own adventure stuff eh! Huzzah!

Given that I needed a point of departure from our real timeline I chose 1870 and had the Franco Prussian war leave a shattered bankrupt France in a semi permanent state of anarchy lasting for years. 

While the newly emboldened German Empire began to spread its influence overseas the British Empire was thrown into total disarray by the arrival of Mr Wells’ Martians in 1880 (rather than the late 1890’s as per the War of the Worlds). The Martian’s susceptibility to earthly germs remained unchanged but Britain’s confidence, economic dominance, and  political capital has been severely shaken.

So I’m pitching this whole shebang in 1885 and I’ll be fighting with British forces against a new Martian landing or a German invasion - (I’ve still to decide which, but have forces for both).

I’ll be trying to stick to the militarily possible rather than the overly fantastical.... however the use of steam as a motive source of power cannot really be avoided. 

The British army prior to 1880 had adopted tactics appropriate to the overseas policing of an enormous empire - tactics including forming square and volley fire that did them no favours when faced with the Martians black smoke or heat ray. Though the old ideas still had a part to play in suppressing recalcitrant tribesmen new tactics and equipment were clearly needed for combatting a sophisticated opponent in a European setting.

By 1885 most regular home service battalions (whose number had been increased threefold since 1880) would have looked a lot like these chaps from 1st Battalion South Wales Borderers.

British home service infantry. Miniatures by Fighting 15’s

Difficult to discern from the photographs are:*

The ’83 pattern Baker Monroe breath preserver which confers short term protection against Martian black smoke or the chemical and biological agents deployed by the French Corps de Miasmatique.

The Mk III “sticky” bomb (issued 2 per section / troop) which due to handling problems is usually affixed to the end of a lance or an adapted infantry bayonet. Intended to destroy the legs of Martian tripods they are greatly disliked (not least for the amount of time taken to remove the numerous layers of protective brown paper). Frequently the first thing to be discarded in the field they are no longer thought to have any practical use.

The Shackleton “Hallelujah” smoke pot. 1 issued per section. Difficult to ignite in damp conditions but then very hard to put out. It’s dense white smoke was discovered, by accident, to interfere with the vision of the Martian tripods, and thus offers a degree of cover to the user, even in open terrain.

Painting of all the relevant forces is now continuing apace, and I’ll document my progress here from time to time. I anticipate that battles will be small scale skirmish affairs and thematic rather than strictly chronological or part of a rigid campaign. 

Yes, that’s right, I’ll be winging it again.

Surprise surprise.

* Don’t bother looking on the internet - they’re all, as is my want, totally made up.

 

 

Fear and loathing in West Wales

I’ve never thought of myself as a scaredy cat, but it seems just recently the times they are a changin’. 

Lord knows over the years I’ve confronted a house full of beer fuelled rugby players at 3 in the morning because of the noise they were making, had a fist fight with a bloke because he pushed his way in front of me into a shopping queue, (on balance it was probably a draw.... but I like to think the point was made) watched more than my fair share of horror movies, and I’ve never had a moments qualm about walking around in the dark. In fact the only thing that, until last week, I can honestly say scared me was this fellow and his mates...

Yeah the common or garden house fly. They make my flesh creep and my toes curl in disgust at the mere thought of them. They’re so repugnant to me that I can’t even pick up a dead one and put it in the bin! Axe wielding maniac at the front door...not a problem I’ll send him packing. Zombie apocalypse in the town... I have my brain splitting ice pick ready with my bug out bag... common house fly buzzing around the light shade... I’m out of there.

True story. It’s 1981 and I’m riding on my scooter to Scarborough with a pack of mates. It’s a lovely sunny day and I’m at the front thinking I must look pretty damn cool....

When I spot a blob hurtling towards me through the air. I’d have classified it immediately as a fly if it hadn’t  been so ruddy big. I swear to god it was like a quarter pound beef burger. Anyway it hit me in the chops square on, which would have been bad enough, but worse was the fact that it then contrived to crawl right up my nose. Lol. The more I tried to snort it out, the further up it went, buzzing in angst. There was nothing I could do whilst riding apart from avoid crashing straight into the curb. The experience clearly scarred me for life!

Sorry just went off to puke for a moment. Where was I? Ah yes.... And that was it; my kryptonite as it were...until last week.

I’ve always had a love of the sea, which is probably some sort of reaction to having spent most of my life living as far away from it as nature could contrive. Now in splendid retirement by the coast I’ve had the opportunity to redress that and have taken to swimming off this local beach.

Of course it’s bloomin’ cold in there at the moment so I eventually kitted myself out in full wetsuit etc, the only downside being that I now bore more than a passing resemblance to this chap who has recently lost his bearings and ended up on the Pembrokeshire coast. 

I’m sure Wally the walrus is jolly nice but The Current Mrs Broom jokingly asked what I’d do if he came across me in the sea and became amorous. Would I be able to stop a 2,000Ib walrus from humping me? 

Good question!

Anywhoo... we had one day last week when it wasn’t lashing down with rain so I took the opportunity to nip out for a quick dip, undaunted by the prospect of being buggered by an over large sea mammal. The sea was crystal blue and very inviting until I got out by the end of the rocks. It was here that the clouds rolled in and the water turned icy grey. 

Doing the front crawl I occasionally lifted my head from the water to grab a breath and I noticed the change in the weather and something looking remarkably like this...

About 20ft away.

If I’d been towed by a speedboat I don’t think I’d have got back to the beach any faster. 

I mean, on reflection it had to be a dolphin didn’t it!

Didn’t it?

So...I guess the common house fly has just been pushed into second place. 

If anyone wants a cheap wetsuit, get in touch. 

Yeah...it was definitely a dolphin. 

Bound to be.

Medieval mayhem with B.O.B.

This post was meant to be the next step in my ECW campaign but sadly...we now have house guests. (I know, right). Guests who expect the spare bedroom to be turned over to them for sleeping in, of all things, and guests who insist on eating their meals at the dining room table...otherwise known at Broom Towers as gaming platform B.

Anywhoo...while they were all off getting cold and thoroughly miserable at the beach I resolved to spend the five minutes they weren’t sucking at the teat of my largesse to test out some recent tinkering with my home brew WOTR rules and more importantly my “absent opponent”. 

One of my nobles with his household troops in a large company.

For the majority of my gaming life I’ve played solo battles using the “do the best thing for both sides” approach but in the last year I’ve noticed a bit of “favourite unit bias” creeping in. You know the one - where a bad combat result wasn’t quite what you thought was reasonable for your newly painted / best looking / most highly ranked chaps and the temptation to ignore or change the outcome insidiously creeps into your mind. In January I started using a basic Absent Opponent to control the manoeuvrings of the “other side” but in truth I wasn’t sure I’d got it quite right and so I continued to explore how other people had approached the problem. 

Weeks spent on the internet looking at AI algorithms and slick card systems made me realise that I didn’t want to spend every turn consulting a rabbit warren like decision tree nor did I want to construct an elaborate set of action cards for the enemy to draw from. 

Having settled on what I didn’t want, I created B.O.B. 

B.O.B. is, (as you’d quite rightly expect from me) a highly contrived acronym standing for my Battlefield Orders and Behaviour system. 

Having had a hand in creating my own nemesis as it were I’ve become tempted to go the rest of the way and dress up a potato, or perhaps a melon, in homemade (but period specific) military attire so that I can position it opposite me during a game - giving BOB a physical presence. The Current Mrs Broom rolled her eyes and sighed in approval when I mentioned the idea, so I suspect the concept has merit!*

I probably ought to mention as well that my home brew WOTR rules have undergone a massive transformation since they were last played in January, chiefly through the theft of a unit activation mechanism from Mr Cordery’s excellent Clash of Empires rules, discovered entirely by chance while researching project x.

In case anybody’s mildly interested in how B.O.B works I’ve sketched it out for you below.

Battlefield Orders and Behaviour - BOB

The absent opponents posture or “stance” may be defined as aggressive or defensive, and may differ across the width of the AO’s command. A single card drawn (from a deck of twelve) at the start of a game will determine the AO’s initial stance. The card is divided into three to reflect the two flanks and the centre of the battlefield and has icons showing which sections must adopt which posture.

 

A B.O.B. card also indicating a flank attack will be made.

Reading from left to right, (from the human players perspective) the areas include any unit in the 4 hexes on either flank or 5 hexes in the centre of a standard C&C battlefield. If a unit moves from one zone to another during the game, in its next activation it adopts whatever posture is indicated for the zone it now occupies.

 

Red triangles indicate an aggressive posture and blue squares a defensive one.

 

Activation

 

The AO’s units will behave according to their type within the confines of an aggressive or defensive posture such that:

 

Aggressive

 

o Aggressive - Missile units should firstly - try to shoot at targets, but if none are in range they should move in order to bring the closest one into range.

 

o Aggressive - Foot units should always try to move to melee the closest visible enemy. If none are in range they should move towards an objective (WOTR – units containing enemy leaders).

 

o Aggressive – Mounted knights (in WOTR) should ride straight at the closest enemy leaders position in order to engage in melee. They may ride straight through hexes of opposing levy leaving a disorder marker on them in the process but may not engage in combat. Other mounted unit types may only move towards opponents of equal or lesser quality (retinue or levy) with a view to engaging in melee – albeit without a charge combat bonus.

 

Defensive

 

o Defensive - Missile units should move towards the nearest cover (including adhoc defences and in hexes behind foot units) and if in cover already, fire or make ready. Units that have made ready must fire at a target as soon as it becomes visible or moves into range.

 

o Defensive - Foot units move in order to be adjacent to another friendly unit and may defend themselves in combat only.

 

o Defensive - Mounted knights should move to where the defence is weakest and dismount to be treated as foot (WOTR - replace mounted with a men at arms stand).

 

Changing posture

 

o Two melee losses, two combat induced retreats, two failed activations or the loss of a leader in a battlefield sector (in one turn) causes an involuntary move from aggressive to a defensive posture there.

 

o Two defensive melee wins, all units activating in a battlefield sector (in one turn) or no enemy attacks or advances in the sector causes a shift from a defensive to an offensive posture. 

 

o Posture change occurs in the admin phase at the end of the turn. A card is taken from the pack (as an aide memoire) to replace the original and reflect the current posture stances across the battlefield.

The new game rules include fire arcs, zones of control, unit facing, ammo supply for archers, disorder due to terrain or combat, large units, class, and a bespoke set of combat dice in the manner of C&C (should they ever arrive from America).

The game in question never came to a conclusion since my soaked and sand encrusted “guests” returned bearing fish and chips sometime around turn 5. Though I was forced to surrender gaming platform B...the chips were pretty decent compensation. 

For what it’s worth my game tactics were to sit on the ridge line and lob arrows at his advancing units. His flanking force would arrive when a cumulative dice score (added to at the end of every turn) exceeded or equalled 21 and they would appear on the indicated flank, 3 hexes closer to my board edge than his most advanced unit. His crossbowmen had managed to get into the lee of the ridge without loss and their advanced position meant that when his flanking force arrived on turn 4 they came on behind my lines. Ouch. 

Bobs flanking unit came on behind my lines...ouch!

On my left I sent a group of men at arms into the woods where his archers had just arrived. Disordered by the terrain and the run downhill they never managed a crippling blow despite their expected combat superiority. 

Rumble in the jungle? Nah...more like lots of asthmatic wheezing as my men at arms legged it across the valley then clanked around in the undergrowth.

A quick view of the “at start” battlefield.

The tipping point came when the units forced to retire under my archery fire bunched up and were forced to flee through each other causing mass panic and unit disintegration. 

With numerous disordered markers accrued whilst retiring under archery fire, the units set off a cascade off disintegration when forced to flee through each other.

On their way to put the boot in...my Billmen set off after BOB’s fleeing long spears.

This happened just as his flanking force and the fish and chips arrived - so I’ll never know how things might have turned out.

Conclusion 

Overall I was very pleased with the new rules and how BOB worked. I couldn’t guarantee his behaviour in advance, but he didn’t do anything strange either. I only had one moment of “mmm, never thought of that” in which I decided that any unit with 3 disorder tokens has become so combat ineffective it should be removed as a loss, so I think I might actually print this lot out and use them again. It occurs to me that with a little added period flavour the mechanisms might work for the ECW as well.

If you’ve just worked your way through this lot then go and have a stiff drink. You’ve deserved it.

Ooh hold on. Before you go I thought I’d share this interesting fact with you. It’s something I came across when researching the Martini Henry for project x (I’m going to have to think of a better name than that soon). I’ll quote directly from my source - Mr Haythorthwaite’s seminal Colonial Wars Source Book...

“A bullet did not fly upon a level trajectory, but was affected by gravity during its flight, and the arcing trajectory which had to be used varied according to rifle, projectile and range. To hit a target at 700 yds, for example, firing over even ground, a Martini-Henry bullet had to describe an arc of which the highest point was more than TWENTY FEET above ground level.”

Cripes!