Minatures Figure Review: 25mm Trojans

From Mahdist to Martian

Or There and Back Again (Part III)

by Paul Grace

In concluding the previous part of this article (Part II in Lone Warrior 115, Part I is in LW114), I optimistically claimed that in order to convert the Sci Fi rules to Colonial era it was just a matter of altering the terms - Okay, I lied, or at least exaggerated. Since writing the earlier parts, I have done a great deal of play testing and discovered the need to make quite a few amendments.

Cutting the cards. One of the most significant modifications is in the use of the playing cards. I soon discovered that when a lot of waves were generated, I ran the risk of running out of packs. The system seemed rather cumbersome and the layout of the cards took up a great deal of space. The solution was quite simple.

Instead of one pack per wave, use one stack of thirteen cards per wave (i.e four waves per pack). By this method (detailed more clearly in the main rules), one only needs two packs of playing cards which can be dealt at the start of the game and laid out on a breakfast tray, placed on a chair near the table. The other advantage is that warrior units do not require to be unique or numbered - as long as they can be identified as belonging to a particular wave (e.g similar shield patterns).

Cutting the bases. Originally, I intended using my 20mm Esci figures, based according to TTG Zulu rules. Since expenmenting with basing 20mm figures as 15mm elements in DBA (see article in LW 110), I have re-based my Colonials in the same way. For my next trick, I shall probably re-base my old Airfix ACW troops in a similar fashion and save up for a copy of 'Fire & Fury'!

Cutting the c**p. Where the new rules are identical to Tomorrow Lies In Ambush I have tried to avoid duplication by leaving out lengthy explanations and detail already given in the earlier rules. Early play testing was done by marching half a battalion of infantry (eight infantry units and one command) across a five foot long table against foot warriors. Once the basics felt right, I gradually added more complexities, terrain and troop types. This is probably the best way for new players to approach the game as well. Thus far, I have only played one game where no warriors were generated. Play balance can also be altered by increasing the number of warriors in a wave.

Try to work out the most economic order of battle for your columns of much (i.e. deploying as few troops as possible and avoiding 30% casualties). Scenarios can include relief columns (try marching your French Legionnaires to Fort Zinderneuf) and punitive raids - march to a village or Kraal, burn it and march back. One event that cries out to be gamed is the British retreat from Kabul.

'Gentlemen Rankers.'

Colonial Conflict During the Reign of Queen Victoria

by Paul Grace.

Figures. Scale and Basing (using 20mm Figures)

Infantry: 4 figs per 40mm x 20mm base.

Warriors: 3 figs per 40mm x 20mm base.

Native Auxiliaries 2 figs per 40mm x 20mm base.

Cavalry: 2 figs per 40mm x 40mm base.

Artillery: 1 gun per 40mm x 40mm base.

Limbers: 1 team on 40mm x 60mm base.

Artillery units can be either manhandled or pulled by a limber team. If employing the latter, one base has the gun, the other, the limber, but both bases act as one unit (40mm x 100mm). Each base (or double for artillery) will be referred to as a unit. Two infantry units are the equivalent of a company, ten warriors (two waves) can represent a small Zulu Impi or Sudanese Rub. Casualties are removed as units.

Troop TYPE

Infantry: Foot soldiers, both regular army and native auxiliary.
Cavalry: Includes mounted infantry.
Command: Senior officers either infantry or cavalry and based as such.
Artillery: Includes gun, crew and limber.
Warriors: Native troops fighting en masse.
Leaders: Native commanders (Optional Rule).

Gun Limbers: Although mounted on a separate base to the gun, it is an integral pan of the artillery unit and must always be in base contact with it. In effect the limber is a marker denoting whether the artillery is limbered or unlimbered: When the rear of the limber is placed facing the rear of the gun then the artillery unit is 'limbered up' and the front of the unit is the front of the limber. When the front of the limber is placed facing the rear of the gun, then the artillery is unlimbered (and the unit faces in the direction of the gun) Limbers must always be in contact with the rear edge of their artillery unit. They are part of the artillery unit.

Officers & Gentlemen: Command units, either infantry or mounted, have the following effects:

Troops within 4" of a command unit add I to fire modifier during the shooting phase (To reflect increased firing discipline)
Any one (and only one) unit in base contact with a command may add 1 to its melee factor.

Command units cannot themselves shoot at warriors in the shooting phase but may fire at close quarters. They are treated as normal infantry or cavalry if engaged in melee. As a rough guide, provide one command unit for up to every 16 units. Make commanders identifiable - E.g. base the unit as one officer with sword, plus bugler and/or standard bearer.

Mounted Warriors Treat mounted warriors exactly the same as foot warriors except: Movement as for cavalry, but include Warrior movement modifier), base as cavalry, may not use firearms.

Rifle-armed Warriors: Depending on date and location, some warriors will be equipped with firearms. Decide before setting up, how your waves of foot will be composed (e.g. post Isandlwana I employ I rifle unit per wave of Zulu's), or use the troop composition die roll, substituting 'rifle-armed' for mounted'.

Gatling Guns / Manual Operated Machine-Guns: Are treated as Artillery, with the following exceptions:

Cannot fire at long range.
May fire three times at same target.

Before first firing, roll D6: 5 or 6 results in a jam - cannot fire this turn. (This is a higher probability than in reality, but it 'factors in' time spent unjamming the gun - which is automatically allowed to fire next turn.)

Game Setup

Before the start of the game, the Imperial side nominates one edge of the table as 'friendly' (usually the side from which it enters or is trying to exit). Find a suitable area near to the table and deal four stacks of thirteen playing cards and one stack of two, face down - use all the pack, including the jokers. The stacks of thirteen each represent a wave of warriors, the fiRh stack is for discarded cards. To save time one could deal out another pack of cards, so that there are eight waves available. Keep a supply of notelets or index cards with a brief description of each wave of warriors (e.g. shield or head-dress colour, type of clothing or pose of figures) to enable the wave to be easily identified. When a wave is generated place the card on or near the relevant stack.

Turn Sequence:

Warrior Generation and Placement Phase.
Movement Phase
Shooting Phase
Melee Phase

Warrior Generation: At the start of each turn, roll 2 D6 any doubles result in the appearance of a new wave of warriors. Warriors attack in waves of five units.

Each single wave has thirteen playing, cards face down in a single stack. Warriors will always belong to the same wave in which they are generated. They do not need to remain in base contact with each other.

'Make mine a double': The first generated wave is a double wave i e ten warriors Any double 1's rolled in subsequent generation phases will also generate a double wave. Double waves are treated in all respects as single ones, but have a stack of twenty six playing cards (take two stacks from the same pack and place one on top of the other)

Troop Composition: If you are including mounted warriors:

When a wave is generated, roll D6 to determine its composition:

Warrior Placement: Newly generated waves are placed on the table as follows Roll D6:

Wave appears at the centre of the 'friendly' table edge.
Wave appears at centre of table edge to right of 'friendly edge'.
Wave appears at centre of table edge to left of 'friendly edge'.
Wave appears at right corner oftable opposite 'friendly edge'.
Wave appears at left corner of table opposite 'friendly edge'.
Wave appears from place of concealment at the centre of table!

New waves are placed on the table as a group, in edge contact Double waves can be placed in two ranks. If there is a unit located where a wave should be placed or if a unit would immediately be in base contact with that wave, then place the wave 4" away from the nearest unit.

Whenever a new wave is generated, remove any 'crouching' (i.e. club) cards from any other waves.

Movement:

Movement Initiative: Roll D6: 1 - 3: Warriors move first; 4 - 6: Imperial forces move first.

Movement Allowances

Unit Forward left/right Fall back

Infantry 4" 3" 2"

Cavalry 8" 5" 4"

Warriors 5" 4" 3"

Artillery * 3" 2" 1"

* Limbered artillery and wagons move at double this rate.

Warrior Movement Modifier:

For each warrior unit, including mounted, being moved roll D6: 1: Deduct 2" from its movement. 6: Add 2" to its movement.

Facing After Movement On completing its move, a unit may be turned to face in any direction.Unit 'falling back', ends up more than one base width to the left or right of its original position, it must be faced in the direct to which it moved. A unit that changes its facing without making any other movement still counts as having moved.

Movement Restrictions: Units in base contact with the enemy may not move. Warriors generated and placed this turn may not move. Warriors with 'crouch' orders may not move. Units coming into base contact with the enemy must stop moving. Limbering and unlimberings takes half a move.

Movement and shooting: Artillery cannot move and fire. Artillery cannot fire whilst limbered, limbering or unlimbering. Mounted troops cannot move and fire rifles. Mounted troops firing carbines can move up to half their allowance. Infantry wishing to fire this turn, deduct 1" from movement. Warriors can shoot and make full move.

Movement and Terrain:

Water : Fording shallow rivers and streams costs an additional D6 inches per turn. Units attempting to swim across other rivers roll d6: a score of 5 or 6 is successful and unit is treated as if fording the river, any other score, the unit is lost.

Linear Obstacles: To cross a linear obstacle like a wall costs an additional 2". To cross a zariba: Roll 1d6, requiring a score of four or above to succeed (add one for each turn an attempt has been made) Unit must be in contact with the zariba at the start of the turn, units coming into contact during the movement phase cannot attempt to cross it until the next turn. Impassable to limbers and wagons.

Bad Going -Such as hilly or rocky ground, tall grass or marsh. Bad going takes twice as long as good to cross, but only one and a half times as long for warriors on their native soil. Impassable to limbers and wagons.

Warrior Movement: Warriors should always attempt to close with nearest enemy. Where this becomes unrealistic or dubious - e.g. one unit of cavalry enticing a whole warrior army away from the main body of Imperial troops - use common sense, or failing that roll D6: a score of three or more allowing the warriors to choose the 'best' direction.

Crouching: Warriors acting under 'crouch' orders (i.e a club card is face up) must test to see if they may resume the attack: For each club card, Roll 2 d6: if score is higher than the card value then remove he card. If all club cards for a wave have been removed then that wave may move as normal. Mounted warriors ignore crouch orders. All crouch order cards are removed if a new wave is generated. If the nearest unit in a wave is outside the medium range of any enemy weapons, then remove crouch cards for that wave. Crouching warriors will still move forward or back as the result of any spades or red cards being turned up. Warriors ignore crouch orders whilst they are in base contact with the enemy.

If a warrior wave is ordered to withdraw (turning up a Joker) then all units in the wave disengage and move directly to the nearesl table edge

SHOOTING

Shooting Initiative: Roll D6 I - 3 Warriors shoot first; 4 - 6 Imperial forces shoot first.

To shoot:

Target must he in range, in line of sight and not in base contact with friendly troops Shooter must not he in base edge contact with enemy troops, or have exceeded movement restrictions relating to weapons fire Any rifle-armed warriors can shoot and make full move This 'factors in' the presence of sniper fire coming from the direction of the warriors.

Weapon Short Range Medium Range Long Range

Rifle up to 4" up to 12" up to 20"

Carbine up to 4" up to 10" up to 12"

Artillery up to 6" up to 18" up to 30"

Where two opposing forces are using radically different firearms (in terms of performance), then employ one or more of the following modifications: The inferior weapon may not fire above medium range, The inferior weapon receives an additional -1 modifier.

Shooting: Shooter nominates target that is in line of sight, calculates range then rolls D6, requiring a 5 or 6 to hit. Artillery may fire twice at the same target, Gatlings and similar machine-guns roll for jamming once but may fire three times at the target.

Long range. -1

Short range +1

Infantry makes no movement this turn +1

Target mounted +1

lnfantry or cavalry within 4" of Command. +1

Boers or Marksmen. +1

Target in cover or crouching. -1

Warriors and non-regular troops. -1

Target on shooters flank. -2

Cover: A target is considered to be in cover if it is in, or if the shooter has to shoot through, any intervening bad going or linear obstacle. A unit in frontal contact with a linear defence (wall, wagon laager. mealie bags etc.) has the benefit of cover, but this does not count against the unit as intervening terrain when that unit shoots over it.

Line of Sight: Any terrain feature that is taller than the figures (e.g. walls, wagons or buildings) or any other troop units that lie directly between shooter and target, blocks the line of sight. This prevents the shooter from firing at that target unless they are on higher ground. An infantry unit directly behind and in base edge contact with another, may fire at the same target as the front rank without its line of sight being blocked. A target is not in line of sight if it is behind the rear edge of the shooter.

A target is on the shooters flank if it lies in a position ahead of the rear edge but behind an imaginary line extending outwards from lines drawn from the rear corners to the diagonally opposite front corners of the shooters base

Hits: Determine the effect of all hits against one target before resolving shooting against the next. If the target is destroyed before all shooting against it is resolved, no further cards need to be drawn, but other shooters cannot then change target.

Effect of hits: Warriors For each hit received: turn up one card from the stack of cards belonging to that wave. The result of each hit is implemented immediately and before the next card is turned up.

Joker: All warriors from this wave withdraw - leave table by nearest edge.

Ace: Whole wave begins to falter: Any mounted units in the wave flee the table. Foot units suffer a -1 melee modifier. Keep this card face up and next to the stack for that wave Any subsequent aces drawn for this wave result in the whole wave withdrawing.

King, Queen or Jack: Warrior unit destroyed.

Red (2 - 10): Value = number of inches unit falls back (facing the attacker).

Spades (2 - 10): Value = number of half inches unit advances upon nearest attacker - if already in contact with attacker then the attacker receives one hit (consider it a frenzied attack!). If the attacker is destroyed as a result - Consider the warrior unit destroyed with it.

Clubs (2 - 10): Whole wave crouches down. Keep this card face up and next to the stack for that wave. Mounted warriors ignore crouch orders.

Any friendly unit that stands in the way of a compulsory advance or retreat is swept along with them being pushed forward or back by the unit as it makes contact. The pushed unit should be turned so that it faces the same direction as the unit pushing it. A unit falling back that meets an enemy is considered to have been contacted to the rear. A unit ordered to fall back that is already in rear contact with an enemy is destroyed Warriors falling back over a table edge roll d6, requiring a six in order to stop and turn around. All other scores result in the unit being removed.

Afler a card has been drawn and its result acted upon, place it face down on the discard stack (unless it is a Club or Ace). If all thirteen cards are turned up without a kill - allocate another stack of cards When a wave withdraws, discard all its cards. Once the whole pack has been discarded, shuffle and deal for another set of waves.

Effect of Hits: Imperial Troops (Sudden Death method):

Each time a unit receives a hit roll D6

Melee: Melees are fought between units in base contact with each other The unit(s) moving into contact are the attackers, the unit being contacted is the defender When an attacker makes contact with the enemy unit, its front edge is positioned so that it aligns with the closest edge of the enemy. Melee is resolved in two stages: Close Distance Combat followed by Hand to Hand Combat.

Close Distance Combat: Command units and regular infantry (with disciplined fire training) may fire their rifles at close quarters if they have not moved this turn Units cannot engage in close distance combat if they began the turn in contact with the target or if they were contacted to their rear Determine effects of hits in same manner as for shooting

Roll D6 (no modifiers): 1 - 4: No effect. 5 or 6: Target receives one hit.

Cavalry may now attempt to disengage from non mounted units: roll Db score 5 or 6: unit may move the length of two base depths away from enemy unit.

If there is an enemy unit still in base contact, turn the defender to face the front edge of the attacker. If the defender is in square then the attacker must line up with the defender's front edge

Multiple Attacks: Only one unit may engage in hand to hand combat with any other one unit If more than one unit comes into contact with the same enemv, the unit engages the one closest to its front edge and occupying the most frontage The other units in contact support the melee by modifying the hand to hand melee factors.

Hand to Hand Combat: Compare Melee factors.

Modifiers:

Unit defending behind linear defence and contacted to front. +1

Unit in flank contact with friendly unit facing same direction +1 per flank

Regular Imperial cavalry with lance +1

Any one unit adjacent to a command unit. +1

Unit initially contacted in the rear. -2

Unit in edge contact with front edge of other enemy units -1

Imperial troops in (or engaged against unit in) bad going. -1

Infantry in square: Units in a square are considered to have both flanks in contact with 'friendly units facing the same direction', even if they are at the corner ofthe square.

Add factors to a D6 and compare highest result wins the melee.

The loser receives 1 hit If the winning result is at least double the losers score then the looser receives one extra hit.

Hit effects are determined in the same way as for shooting.

Morale: On losing one third of its units, morale is broken, the Imperial arrny withdraws from the table, heading for its own base edge. However, in some scenarios morale can be ignored: troops will fight to the last man. Warriors don't worry about morale they just keep coming. Once all Warnors have been destroyed or are leaving the table: if no furthe; waves are generated after six turns then relax, the attack is over! Heave a sigh of relief and join in the chorus of 'Men of Harlech'.

Optional / Advanced Rules:

If you think the Imperial forces are having too easy a time of it, add the following:

Chieftains and Leaders

Leader Generation: In the warrior generation phase, if a double six is rolled then a 'Leader' (Induna, Chieflain, Khalifa etc.) has arrived on the scene As well as the five warriorsfl the wave will include the leader unit Deal the cards as for normal generation.

Only one leader can be on the table at any one time - treat subsequent double sixes as ordinary doubles until the leader dies or withdraws.

Placement and movement: The wave's location on the table is diced for in the usual way. The wave will attempt to stay together Any unit forced to move away from the wave (e.g. as a result of a playing card) will attempt to move back towards and rejoin the wave as its first movement priority in subsequent turns unless any Imperial troops are nearer, in which case it becomes impetuous and heads for the enemy.

Warriors in edge contact with a leader gain two melee factors.

Warriors within 6" of a leader (but not in edge contact) add one to their melee factor. The leader himself does not receive a bonus.

Death of a Leader

All warriors from that wave withdraw. If the leader draws a joker: all waves withdraw.

Leaders have the same movement and combat rates as other warriors (mounted or foot).

If you are feeling really masochistic: Whilst a leader is on the table, throw three dice (but still need a double) for warrior generation.

Other Parts:

Part II

Part I

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