Matchbox Challenge - Finishing up (Part 5)

The final step of the matchbox challenge was for me to write up the rules (click here for post on rules). Since I do not have access to a printer yet (our household goods are sitting on Wellington docks waiting for customs inspection) I had to handwrite everything. I realised it has been half a century since I have handwritten any rules, aside from brief reminder notes. The last time was in my early teens when I copied rules from the book “Practical Wargaming” borrowed from the library. 

In a previous post I mentioned that the best way to save space seemed to be by unfolding the outer matchbox cover and using it to write the rules on. This idea needed a slight adjustment, as the rules did not fit. To solve this problem, I extended the paper covering the matchbox so it still wraps about the “drawer” and, with my neatest and smallest handwriting, I managed to fit all the rules. There was sufficient space to add a couple of tables. The finished matchbox is held together with a paper band.

The finished wargame in a matchbox. The matchbox is held together by a paper band.

With the paper band slid off, the rules and contents are revealed.

The rules are all written on the outside of the outer part of the matchbox which has been covered in paper and extended so all the rules fit. 

The flip side.

The contents

Some final notes…

I am considering adding an elastic band to the contents to represent river sandbanks. It would just fit inside the box or could be used to hold the box together, offering a more robust alternative to the paper band I made.

This has been an amazing challenge posted by The Duchy of Tradgardland and came at the perfect time for me, as my wargaming supplies have yet to arrive. Most of the challenge was completed using readily available materials: paper, colouring pens, card, a matchbox (of course), scissors, and string. I did have to purchase a glue stick and some Milliput epoxy putty used for making the ironclad models.

There is the option of using the upturned drawer of the matchbox to make a fort and to add a fort status card to the game (see photo below). Forts played important roles in the riverine battles of the ACW.

The damage rules from this game will work their way in my Mech game rules, as they are much more interesting and narrative-driven than my current system. Once that is done, I can return to my Mech campaign, which has been on hold while I worked on this challenge.

A rubber band is used to represent a sandbank in a game.

The rubber band fits snuggly inside.

A flotilla of ironclads try to pass a fort.

Matchbox Challenge - Battle Report (Part 4)

If you have been reading the past few posts on the development of a matchbox wargame, you maybe wondering how does it play with the rules. This post is a game report on an encounter between a couple of opposing ironclads as they patrol a tributary of the Mississippi River.

(For details behind the wargame in a matchbox challenge see the blogs Man of Tin and Duchy of Tradgardland.)

Ironclads steaming down the river.

Background

Two ironclads are patrolling the winding waters of Silverbend Creek, a serpentine tributary feeding into the Mississippi River. The Confederate ironclad, CSS Thunderforge, is working its way upstream under the command of newly promoted Captain Calder. Heading downstream is the Union ironclad, USS Resolve, commanded by the battle-hardened Captain Barrett.

The game setup CSS Thunderforge on the left and USS Resolve on the right heading down river.

Game Report

As the two ironclads round one of the many bends of Silverbend Creek, they come into view of each other. Both ships open fire with their forward cannons, but at long range, neither manages to land a hit. Undeterred, they both press forward, closing the distance to improve their shooting and to inflict damage.

USS Resolve shoots. A D6-1 and subtracts a further 1 for firing forward. A score of 2 means a range of 2 matchsticks as their gunnery falls short.

CSS Thunderforge’s shooting is just as poor as both ships close.

Eventually USS resolve scores a hit which causes crew casualties on CSS Thunderforge. They will no longer be able to affect repairs to their ship.

As the ironclads closed, the USS Resolve managed to ram the CSS Thunderforge, but the impact failed to inflict any further damage. The two ships pass each other and began turning around for another engagement. During the exchange, the USS Resolve sustained a well-aimed shot that damaged her rudder. However, her crew quickly sprang into action and successfully made repairs.

USS Resolve rams, but there is no damage.

On the damage table a second hit to the crew is ignored as the various ship areas can only be damaged once, unless they are repaired. However, crew casualties and hull damage cannot be undone in the repair phase.

USS Resolve has its rudder damaged. But with a full crew was able to later repair the damage.

As the battle continued, the USS Resolve landed several direct hits, damaging the CSS Thunderforge’s guns and boiler. Both crews by this time had suffered significant casualties, leaving them unable to carry out repairs.

Both ships turn to engage in battle again. USS resolve is now on the left and CSS Thunderforge is on the right.

CSS Thunderforge is suffering a number of hits and damage.

Leveraging her speed advantage, Captain Barrett on the USS Resolve orders another ramming attempt, which is successful, inflicting damage to the enemy’s rudder. Captain Calder, realising the severity of the situation, ordered his crew to abandoned ship as it slowly begins to sink.

A second ram by USS Resolve sees the enemy ship sink.

Wrap Up

The damage rules assign hits to various areas of the ship, such as the boiler, rudder, and hull, creating a more narrative approach to the game, rather than simply tracking damage until a limit is reached and the ship is eliminated. The rules allow the effects of damage to influence play, such as limiting movement if the rudder is hit or reducing speed when the boiler is damaged. While damage can be repaired providing there is a full crew, but crew casualties will stop repairs from being made. This approach helps with the storytelling aspect of the game, which helps create interest when there are only a small number of ships involved in a game.

Matchbox Challenge - Drafting the Rules (Part 3)

This weekend, I have been drafting the rules for my wargame in a matchbox. I now face the challenge of somehow fitting them inside the matchbox without shrinking the text too much. However, before getting to the rules my first task was to create some hit markers to use with the ship status cards. They are small card squares 5x5mm with a Red Cross drawn on them, front and back so no need to worry about turning the fiddly things the right way up.

(For details behind the wargame in a matchbox challenge see the blogs Man of Tin and Duchy of Tradgardland.)

Matchbox contents. The rules are yet to be added.

Hit markers for use on the ship status cards to track damage.

A box contents list has now been added and stuck to the inside of the drawer. 

For the question of how to best to fit the rules into a somewhat full matchbox I may have an answer. The current solution (still a work in progress) is to see if I can make full use of the matchbox itself. By unfolding the box, I can write on both the inside and outside surfaces. To keep everything intact, I’m using some paper tape I made which slides over the outside to hold the box together.

The paper tape holding the matchbox together.

With the drawer removed the outer matchbox can be opened up and used to write the rules.

Draft Rules…

Since this game fits within a matchbox, it felt fitting to use matchsticks for the measurement of movement and shooting distances. I have now included five and a half matchsticks for this purpose. Below are the draft rules. I plan to use the inside of the matchbox drawer to sketch out how movement works, replacing the current photos I am using below.

ACW Ironclad Wargame

This is a matchbox wargame for playing riverine battles of the American Civil War on a flat surface of 2 by 1 foot. 

Game Setup

Lay the two lengths of string on the tabletop to represent the riverbanks, ensuring they are spaced between 4 to 5 matchstick lengths apart. Decide the direction of the river's flow and position the flow marker.

Sequence of Play

Each game turn is divided into the following phases:

1. Movement and Ramming 
2. Shooting
3. Damage Resolution
4. Repairs

Movement and Ramming

Ships move one at a time, starting with the one furthest upstream and proceed downstream moving ships.

On their movement turn, a ship has 3 choices:

1. Stay stationary,
2. Move half a matchstick length, or
3. Move a full matchstick length.  

To move, place a matchstick touching the bow of the ship and facing straight ahead. Then slide the model forward so the stern aligns with the other end of the matchstick.

At the start of the move.

At the end of the move.

Turning - Ships moving half or a full matchstick length may turn up to 45 degrees at both the start and the end of their movement, pivoting at their centre. Stationary ships cannot turn.

Effects of Damage -  A ship with a damaged boiler can only move half a matchstick. A ship with a damaged rudder can only turn once, either at the start or the end of its movement.

Riverbanks and Sunken Ships - Any ships that make contact with a riverbank or sunken ship becomes stranded and immobile for the rest of the game.

Ramming - To ram, a ship can only turn at the start of its movement. If the ship makes contact with an enemy vessel, roll a die, consult the damage table, applying damage immediately. 

Shooting

Shooting is simultaneous and all ships get to shoot (even those engaged in ramming). The procedure is as follows:  

1. Select Target - A ship may target only one enemy ship with a clear line of sight.  
2. Range Calculation - Roll a die and subtract 1 to determine the shooting range in matchstick lengths. Apply the following modifiers to the score: -1 if shooting forward of the bow or rearward of the stern, and -1 if the ship has sustained gun damage.  
3. Damage Resolution - If the target ship is within range place a hit marker next to the ship as a reminder they have taken a hit and need to resolve damage in the next phase.

Damage Resolution

When a ship is struck by shooting or ramming, roll a die and consult the damage table below:  

1 = Glancing Blow - No damage.  

2 = Crew Casualties - The ship cannot make repairs.  

3 = Hull Damage - Permanent; cannot be repaired.  

4 = Damaged Guns - Reduce all shooting rolls by 1.  

5 = Boiler Damage - Movement is reduced to half a matchstick.  

6 = Rudder Damage - The ship can only make one turn during movement.  

Record all damage on the ship's status card using the hit markers.

If a ship has already sustained damage to a specific area, no additional damage is applied to that area. For instance, if a ship with existing hull damage is struck again in the hull, the result is ignored. 

A ship with four hits begins to sink and can take no further actions for the remainder of the game. It remains in place as an obstacle to other ships.

Repairs

After all damage has been applied ships that are not sunk and have not taken crew casualties can attempt a repair. Roll the die and compare the score to the repair list:

1-3 = Repairs fail.

4 = Remove gun damage

5 = Remove boiler damage

6 = Remove rudder damage

A game setup and ready to play.

Wargame Matchbox Challenge - Adding Contents (Part 2)

I am continuing the challenge to develop my wargame in a matchbox. The idea behind this fascinating challenge stems from a discussion between Mark and Alan on their blogs Man of Tin and Duchy of Tradgardland.

This week, I have added some new components to the game, riverbanks and a river flow indicator. The riverbanks are represented by pieces of string which can be easily laid out to define the course of the river. The flow indicator is made a card and is important for the game’s movement rules, where ships are activated one by one, starting upstream and progressing downstream until all ships have had the opportunity to move.

Adding some more contents to the matchbox.

A game in progress with the string representing the river banks.

A simple blue arrow is used to show the river flow.

Having opted for an American Civil War (ACW) ironclad game (see previous post) and having scant knowledge of the naval aspects of the ACW. I thought I had better do some reading so I purchased an ebook “Mississippi River Gunboats of the American Civil War 1861-65”.

Some reading to help with the game and provide ideas for the rules.

The current combat rules involve tracking hits to specific areas of the ships. To simplify the tracking of damage, I made a card for each ship where the damage can be marked with a pencil. These cards are designed to fit neatly into the bottom of a matchbox. However, I realised I will need to revise the cards in a way to make the game entirely self-contained in a matchbox, and not rely on the players having a pencil readily available.

Ship cards sized to fit into the bottom of the matchbox.

The next steps are to write up the rules to make sure they fit into the matchbox. The to hit and damage tables will be glued onto the outside of the matchbox to save space. The other idea I want to try out is making the draw of the matchbox into a fort for the game as they played important roles in the ACW naval campaigns.

Joining the Matchbox Challenge (Part 1)

Two wargaming blogs I enjoy following, Man of Tin and The Duchy of Tradgardland, have been discussing a design challenge to create a wargame that fits inside a standard matchbox. This concept interested their readers and they have opened the challenge to anyone, with more details available here. The concept of making a wargame compact enough to fit into a standard matchbox intrigues me, so I have decided to give it a try. Over the past week, I’ve been pondering ideas for the challenge while also making progress on painting my house (and I am happy to report it's now halfway done! The house that is, not my pondering.)

A 30mm long ironclad model steaming along.

Not having any of my wargaming and modelling equipment available means I cannot reuse any models, for example, a handful of 15mm figures for a skirmish game. So I decided I would have to create some models for the challenge, while not fully ruling out land games, this has pushed me in the direction of naval and air wargame ideas. Both have the advantage of not really having to include any terrain features into the game, any features required would take up valuable space in the matchbox. The matchbox’s dimensions (34mm x 55mm x 14mm) set the size constraints for the project. 

In the end I decided on a naval-themed game. The American Civil War riverine battles with ironclads seemed like a good choice because their blocky designs should be easier to make using materials like card, toothpicks, and Milliput epoxy putty. 

Four prototype ships have been built to fit within the matchbox and still leave room for a single D6 die, each ship is 30mm long. Having four ships will allow for a variety of scenarios such as one-versus-three escapes, late arrival of reinforcements, or straightforward one-on-one duels.

The half finished models in the matchbox with a small die.

The models are complete and just need a bit of sanding before being painted in a mix of dark grey and brown.

The next steps in this challenge for me, aside from finishing the models, are:

1. Create some riverbanks and sandbanks using string, which can be coiled to fit inside the matchbox.
2. Write some simple rules that fit on a small sheet of paper to fit into the matchbox (around half the size of A4 or Letter paper) or that can be cut up and pasted onto the outside of the matchbox.
3. Design ship cards for each vessel, including their details and stats to support the rules.

The next post on this challenge will be about the rules where I plan to use the matchbox as a measuring tool for movement and ranges.

An ACW game to test a scenario

In my last post, I wrote a generic One-Hour Wargame (OHW) scenario which was based on an English Civil War Battle of Nantwich scenario. Now, it’s time to test the scenario out using an American Civil War game.

For the scenario I made the strategic town a rail junction.

The scenario setting has half of Blue Army (Federal) defending a strategic town which I decided was an important railway junction, while the other half is trying to rejoin them from the opposite side of the river. Intelligence reports indicate that the Red Army (Confederate) is concentrating its forces from the north and the east to attack the town.

A tabletop view of the deployed troops and entry points for the off-table reserves.

The tabletop is setup with town buildings around the railway junction and a river on the east edge that runs through some rocky and impassible terrain. There are two bridges across the river, one north and one south of the rocky terrain.

Both armies consist of 6 units and were generated using the army composition tables from OHW.

Federal:

• 4 Infantry units
• 1 Artillery unit
• 1 Cavalry unit

Confederate:

• 1 Zouave unit
• 3 Infantry units
• 2 Cavalry units

The Federal player must select 3 of their units to be in reserve which will be arriving on turn 2 from the north-eastern edge of the tabletop. The remaining 3 units must be deployed in zone 2.

The Confederate player must select 1 of their units to be in reserve arriving on turn 4 from the south-eastern edge of the tabletop. The remaining 5 units must be deployed in zone 1.

Original scenario drawing. The marshland has been replaced by impassible rocky terrain for this ACW game.

A view of the tabletop from the east.

The rules used for this game are the OHW American Civil War rules. However, there is a modification to have units retreating. The approach used for unit retreats was inspired from some rules found in Solo Wargaming by Donald Featherstone (page 71) which are extracts from a War Games Digest article. The rules have units retreating where on a 6 is rolled (see photograph).

Recently been flicking through the pages for ideas and found the following rule mechanism for retirements.

There a number of tables, but the idea of a 6 causes a retreat as the idea for the OHW modification below.

The Retreat Rule Modification

• When shooting at 12 inches or less and a natural 6 is rolled, then the target unit must retreat directly away to just beyond 12 inches from the shooting unit.
• With any enfilade fire, then a 5 or 6 will case the target unit to retreat.
• This retreat rule does not apply to units in cover, unless they have acquired more than 50 percent hits (apply the current shooting when determining this).
• Note, that artillery firing at a range greater than 12 inches do not cause retreats.
• Any retreating unit will push back any friendly units in the way. 
• If a unit is unable to retreat due to impassible terrain, rivers, or enemy units, then the unit is eliminated.
• Artillery units cannot retreat, they are eliminated.
• A unit that retreated can still move during its turn.

The game report…

Knowing reinforcements are on their way, the Confederate units are quickly pushed forward towards the town. The Zouave unit is positioned to block and delay any Federal reinforcements.

The Federal reinforcements can be seen arriving by the north-eastern bridge. Meanwhile, the main Confederate force has advanced within range of the town’s defenders.

The town defenders are putting up a good fight and have caused one infantry unit to retreat, but they are concerned with the recent arrival on their flank of a Confederate cavalry unit.

The Federal reinforcements after an initial set back, due to retreats, were able to finally force the Zouave blocking unit to retreat. This will allow them to better deploy their units.

The assault on the town was making progress despite losses. One infantry unit has been diverted from the assault to help contain the Federal reinforcement’s progress. 

With losses mounting the town defenders retire to the town itself and hope to hold out until support arrives.

The assault on the town continues. The town defenders hang on and can see their reinforcement in the distance.

A Federal cavalry unit has broken through the Confederate blocking line.

The Confederate units break off the attack on the town as Federal reinforcements approach. With no hope of renewing the attack this is a victory to Federal forces. 

Summary

The scenario seems well-balanced, with neither side making any obvious mistakes and the game remaining in the balance until turn eleven. I did think the Confederate army might have succeeded if it had had one more infantry or artillery unit instead of one of its cavalry units. I'll be re-rolling the army compositions and playing again soon. This is one area of the OHW scenario approach I like, you don’t necessarily get the army composition you want.

One change I may make to the scenario is to not have deployment zone 2. Instead, just state that Blue on-table forces must be within 12 inches of the town.

The retreat rules worked providing a bit of back and forth movement to the army lines of battle, and I will be keeping them for the next game.