Grid-based SciFi OHW house rules

Most of this week's free time has been spent messing around and tinkering with the SciFi one-hour wargaming house rules. The aim was to see if they could be modified to be suitable for a 12" square grid. Apart for the obvious change to the movement mechanisms, I ended up reducing unit sizes, allowing a move and attack option for fast units, and changed combat mechanisms to roll multiple dice rather that just one dice with the one-hour wargaming approach of D6+2, D6 or D6-2 depending the weapon and unit type.

Because of the large 12" square grid I use with my SciFi terrain (and with no desire to rework my terrain). I chose to have all movement of one square and differentiate between fast and slow units by allowing fast units to move and make an attack as part of one action. Slow and normal units can only move or attack, but not both in the same action.

Unit stacking has been introduced. Enemy and friendly units are allowed to occupy the same square. Each side can have up to 3 friendly units in the same square at the completion of an action (excluding Flyer units which do not count towards stacking limits). This way it is possible to have 6 units in a square, 3 from each side. Units may not leave a square occupied by enemy units unless they are flyer units or all enemy units are pinned.

A gridded table set out - the 12" squares can just be made out

Having up to 6 units in a square drove the reduction is troop unit sizes to a maximum of 10 models. Even this can be a bit of a squeeze on occasion, but all my units have a leader model which must be clearly placed in a square, the other models can be allowed then to spill over a bit into other squares without too much of an issue.

3 Guard and 2 Ork units in close combat within one square

The reduced troop unit sizes allowed for a change in combat mechanism from the rolling of 1 x D6 with a plus or minus 2 as used on OHW rules. To the rolling of multiple dice. So instead of D6-2 now 4 x D6 are rolled to beat a defensive score based on the units defence factor. Likewise for a D6+2 now roll 6 x D6 and 4 x D6 for D6.

After a couple a test battles, I'm finding the rules seem to be working and providing an easy flow. Link to rules in top right of page if interested in the gridded ruleset. I can now start planning that mini-campaign I mention in a previous blog.

AWI One Hour Wargaming - A replay

As I had some free time I took the opportunity to replay the previous AWI game I had played. This time around I wanted to see how the battle would go with a more concentrated America line and ensuring there were some reserves available to bolster the defensive line. I kept the British lines and attack plan pretty much the same.

American Defence Lines

The objective of the game was to hold on to both the town and high ground. In the prior game I'd insufficient reserves and my defensive line was too long, resulting in an American defeat.

A view of the British advance (with smoke effects)

The British advanced as before with their artillery in support.  In this game the British artillery had their eye in and getting hits, particularly on the town defenders.

The British assault in full swing

With a more concentrated defensive line the British cavalry took the opportunity to swing around the town flank drawing away some of the reserves. While in the centre casualties on both sides were starting to mount.

The battle in full swing and British cavalry treating the town flank

The British artillery proved to be very successful in supporting the assault which finally took the town. While on the flanks the British cavalry treat was countered and on the opposite flank frontiersman start to worry the British flank.

Both British and American lines are staring to falter

The British eliminate town defensives and occupy the town. The assault on the high ground fails and the British left flank is under treat.

Almost the end of the battle

The game ended with the British occupying the town and the American holding the high ground. I gave the British a marginal victory on this occasion (thanks to their accurate artillery which tipped the balance). They took the town and had 7 units to the American 5 units. Having a second defence line made a big difference allowing the Americans to counter the British Cavalry treat and bolster the first line when units were eliminated.

Planning a mini campaign and AWI battle

While I’m reasonably happy with my SciFi house rules (based on One Hour Wargame format) they are not on a gridded table. So I will be continuing to play with the non-gridded rules while thinking about how to convert them to a 12” grid to fit in with my existing SciFi terrain and table.

A couple of posts back I mentioned I had read “The Solo Wargaming Guide” and now want to set up a mini-campaign. I tried a solo campaign back in May 2015 (see featured post) which was a simple ladder campaign which worked out well. I now want to plan something similar between Space Marines and Imperial Guard vs. Necrons, but I want to add I little bit more variety with the types of battles. The campaign ideas in "Operation B WW2 rules" by Old Trousers (link to blog here) look pretty nifty in the way it uses the one-hour war-game scenarios and will provide the variety I'm looking for. I just need to do a little bit of work creating a campaign narrative to a galaxy in the grim dark future.

When selecting the forces for a campaign battle I be using the following steps.

1. Both sides select 12 units (troops, non-troops and characters)
2. Roll an average dice (2,3,3,4,4,5) and add 5 to determine the number of units to be involved in the battle
3. Based upon the commanders capability (poor, average, good) a number of units can be guaranteed to be part of the battle (poor selects 1, average 2 and good 3). Set the selected units aside.
4. Use a deck of playing cards to determine which of the remaining units are to be used up to the number determined in step 2 (including those units set aside by the commander). If 5 units are to be selected from 8 units, select 5 red and 3 black cards from the deck, shuffle and assign to the 8 units. Those with red get to the battle in time.

Of the remaining units the commander can select 1 to be emergency reserves which can be called upon should to swing the battle in their favour. The use of emergency reserves can only be called upon once during the campaign.

I'll be writing more on this in the coming weeks as I progress.

American War of Independence Game

Yesterday I managed to squeeze in an AWI game. No real planning behind the game, other than the American commander was asked to defend both the town and hill. Two sets of entrenchments were available on the hill to help with the defence.

The British Arrive

The American line was spread too thin with no reserves to support the centre. Not that I spotted this when setting them up. The British attacked the centre of the line and after a few turns and losses on each side, the American forces were split in two, those defending the town and the rest static on the hill. (The rules require units in entrenchments to remain static.) 

British advance on centre of American line

The small wood on the British left flank defended by some light infantry was enough to hold off an attempted flanking attack by American skirmish units supported by cavalry.

British troops breakthrough the centre - splitting the American line

With taking hold of the centre British forces were able to assault the hill from the flank, while bombarding the town with their artillery. The American commander chose to retire at this point to avoid further losses.

Grenadiers supported by light infantry assault the hill defences

The restricted movement of line infantry and command ranges make it essential to give more thought to the initial set up of forces. Something I didn't do when setting up the game. Having had a break from AWI gaming I was able to re-read the rules with a fresh pair of eyes. I noted down a number of typo and grammar errors, but no real rule changes. I have updated the rules with the corrections I spotted and reloaded them (link at top right of blog page).

One-Hour Wargaming W40K adventure continues

As I continue to play some games using One-Hour Wargames (OHW) house rules with a W40K theme. There are areas of the rules I have changed for dealing with flyers. I find flyers (aircraft) are always awkward to represent on a wargaming table, especially when both sides have flyers in their armies. I'm not sure if they are quite right yet, but are an improvement on what I had before. (Link here or top right of page.)

For movement a Flyer's move is unlimited, but must move a minimum of 24" and they can move and shoot as one action. This helps differentiate them from skimmer/hovering type units. Their shooting range is 6" so you have to move the model next to the unit being attacked. This mechanism forces them to fly around the table and not stay in one spot.

The point in a game which prompted a rule change for flyer units

To stop the issue of having the issue of an opposing flyer just following around the other flyer and shooting at them each turn. A flyer can leave the table as an action (breaking off the dog-fight) and can return the following turn when they win an initiative roll with a 6. This does mean when all all a players units on the table have moved, they still continue to roll for initiative until the opposing player has moved all their available unit. Rather than just having them automatically move all their remaining units, as a winning 6 will bring on a flyer from reserves.

A game in play using OHW scenario 3 - Control the river (in this case lava river)

On painting side I am slowly getting the odd WW2 painting unit completed. With visiting kids being the focus painting is on the back-burner. Assessing the progress I think I am at the halfway point with for getting the initial units I require for a OHW game.

One-Hour Wargames for a W40K universe

While my interest is turning to historical wargaming for WW1 and AWI using house rule variations of One-Hour Wargaming (OHW). I do still like gaming with my W40K armies, but not using existing GW rule sets. I had one game of AWI with my visiting Son (which he won) and he suggested a W40K battle. So we adapted the OHW rules to a W40K universe (click here for link to the one-page rules). We found our challenge was to decide upon a unit's primary weapon and single ability which help define the use of the unit in a game. Here are some sample units defined using the rules for our Tau vs. Space Marine games...

Space Marine Tactical Squad

Unit type - Troop
Movement - Normal ground unit
Combat - Tactical weapons
Defence - Armoured troops
Ability - Veteran Leader

Dreadnought

Unit type - Medium Non-Troop
Movement - Walker ground unit
Combat - High Force (anti-tank)
Defence - 3 armour point
Ability - Veteran Leader

Jetbike

Unit type - Light Non-Troop
Movement - Fast Skimmer
Combat - High Force (anti-tank)
Defence - 2 armour points
Ability - Deep-strike

Tau Pathfinders

Unit type - Troop
Movement - Normal ground unit
Combat - High Force (anti-tank)
Defence - Lightly Armoured
Ability - Stealth

Scouts

Unit type - Troop
Movement - Normal ground unit
Combat - Tactical weapons
Defence - Lightly Armoured
Ability - Sniper

Tau Battlesuits

Unit type - Troop
Movement - Walker ground unit
Combat - Support weapons
Defence - Heavily Armoured
Ability - Droids

Whirlwind

Unit type - Non-Troop
Movement - Fast Ground Unit
Combat - Ordinance
Defence - 4 armour points
Ability - None

Kroot

Unit type - Troop
Movement - Normal ground unit
Combat - Combat weapons (hand-to-hand)
Defence - Lightly Armoured
Ability - Stealth

I found I quite enjoyed the game and we soon added some Psychics, Characters and Warlords. Treating them as non-troop units so they didn't get killed off too quickly and could influence the game, but forced to be attached to a unit of troops (followers/bodyguards) for their movement.

I'm now thinking about a mini sci-fi campaign after reading "The Solo Wargaming Guide".

AWI One-Hour Wargame Rules

Over Christmas I found time to write up some AWI house rules based on the Horse and Musket Age Wargaming rules from the book “One-Hour Wargames” by Neil Thomas. There are other ideas included, such as: command ideas from Volley and Bayonet, and combat mechanics from the blogs The Stronghold Rebuilt (GNW rules) and John's Wargames Page (combat mechanic options). 

The game is played on a 6" square gridded war-game table. I tend to use a 6' x 4' table with 8 to 15 units depending on the size of game wanted. With fewer units I reduce the table to a 4' x 4' area.

I have added the draft rule write up (5 pages) to my rules page (Rules Page - click here or  the link at top right of page). Based on previous experience I will be modifying these over the next couple of months with clarifications and removing typos. I am a solo wargamer and it can take a while knock rules into shape. I lack that independent view and input of different ideas. Anyway, here are a couple of ideas introduced to the OHW AWI rule format.

Command Ideas

Units can only move if they are within 2 squares of their commander at the start of their move, or are moving as part of a line which has units within the 2 square command range of their commander.

Command range for movement

The dotted line shows the 2 squares from the commanding officer (CO). Unit C is outside of the command range and cannot move. Units A and B are able to move as they are part of a line and are performing the same move as units within command range.

The use of command ranges places the reliance on linear formations to move units and reflects some of the difficulty in coordinating movement often in difficult terrain.

The command range does not restrict combat as those decisions left more to the units commander.

Moral

Moral checks occur whenever a 6 is rolled when shooting or for cavalry charges. Only one moral check is taken for any attack regardless of the number of 6’s rolled.

Roll 1D6 with the following modifiers:

+1 if in cover

-1 if skirmishers

-1 if militia

A score of 2+ and the unit stands. Otherwise, the unit retreats directly away 1 square and takes 1 hit. If the unit’s retreat is blocked by a friendly unit, then retire behind them and the blocking unit also takes 1 hit.

If a units retreat is blocked by an enemy unit it is eliminated.

Other stuff....

At Christmas one wargaming present was the book "The Solo Wargaming Guide". I have quickly read this and really enjoyed it. It is geared towards solo campaigning and has many good ideas in its 120 pages. I am now enthused in the new year to do some small campaigns to add some context to my games.

One Hour Wargames WW2 and AWI

I am still working on an AWI one-hour wargame rule variant for a 6" gridded table. I have had a couple of test games (one with my son who has returned for Christmas) and all seems to be falling in to place. I'm hoping to type up my notes over the holidays and put them in my next blog.

WW2 project - not a good picture

On the painting side I have made a good start with my WW2 20mm project for some more one-hour wargaming. Although progress will slow down with all the Christmas activities.