Being an occasional reflection on the Hobby Horse of My Uncle Toby from the quill of The Prior of St. Gregory's Abbey This years' Peninsula Campaigns was not as wonderful for me as last years, but how could it have been? For one thing I only stayed through the afternoon session (I had been up since before 4:00 AM that day and had to officiate at a service in the abbey church at 5:00 AM the next day) so I only had a chance to run my Zulu game in the morning session (of which more anon) and be successful as General Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) in reconquering Spain and restoring the Bourbon monarchy in Chris Engle's Peninsular Campaign in the afternoon session. As last year there were lots of good games and unbelievably beautiful paint jobs and scenic terrain set ups. Once again the organizers were (in alphabetical order) Steve Dake, Winston Johnson, Ted Kerschner and Dale Wood. Like last year they all hosted games as well as taking turns at the desk and collecting the entry fee which remained a measly $3.00. Once again there were various dealers on hand vending their wares and providing an opportunity for us to spend some more cash. I can't say with any certainty that there were no quarrels about rule interpretations or the like, but I saw nothing of the sort. People seemed to conform to their types and pleasures at the convention with the serious garners gaming seriously and the garners who play for fun having fun and laughing, but all the participants seemed extremely courteous and well behaved. It was a group of people that one would be happy to be associated with. It seemed that I ought to participate in Chris Engle's Peninsula Campaign since I about a year ago I urged it on him as having excellent potential for a matrix campaign. Chris's matrix games are something that many "traditional" wargamers have avoided, having come to play with little toy soldiers and assuming that they won't get, an opportunity to do so in a matrix game. I can concur with such an intention and it is true that many matrix games do not use figures, but, in this one at least, Chris does use a small number of figures and fun, simple rules to resolve battles that result from contacts made in the movement of the strategic part of the game. The matrix is used for the strategic portion and is something that is hard to describe but, quite easy to do. Basically each player presents an action that will occur during the month (this particular campaign used months), the result of the action and three arguments in favor of this result occurring. One thing that is difficult for newcomers to grasp is that you can make arguments for farces other than your own. I seldom tried this myself and when I did I was unsuccessful, but, it made the first couple of months rather frustrating for me when Napoleon used this method (I always said he was worth a corps). For example, on the first. turn I was "At Sea" Sir John Moore was in England, Junot in Lisbon, Murat in Madrid, "El Incognito" in Saragossa, "The Castillian "Aristocratic Cavalry" in Andalusia and Napoleon was in France. I argued that I would land in Portugal, Moore and Junot stayed put, Murat ordered all of his forces into Portugal, El Incognito ordered all of his forces into Castile, The Castillian Aristocratic Cavalry was ordered to Madrid and Napoleon made the argument that bad weather forced the English fleet back to England. Basically your arguments succeed on a 1, 2 or 3 and fail on a 4, 5 or 6, but you add 1 to the toss for a "weak argument" and subtract 1 for a "strong argument" (players ran make a case for any argument being strong or weak and the Game Master decides lefore the dice are tossed). Note that more than one result can occur, though come are mutually exclusive. The first turn illustrates both points. My argument and Napoleon's were mutually exclusive. I failed on my toss while Napoleon succeeded and all of my forces returned to England (where bad dice were to keep them for a further two turns). Murat succeeded on his toss so his entire force marched into Portugal. El Incognito failed so stayed in Saragossa but the Aristocratic Castillian Cavalry succeeded and were able to occupy Madrid since it had been abandoned by the French. Eventually I did manage to land (Chris decided that I had a strong argument in favor of landing since I had been preparing so long) and fought the battle of Vimeiro against Junot the same month that El Incognito set up an ambush against some French reinforcements marching ,)it Madrid. The tactical actions were played simultaneously and were both decisive French defeats (I routed the French and managed to destroy one infantry unit: completely while the guerilla's ambush wiped out the French force opposed ,them). Napoleon came into the Peninsula with everything he had (our arguments that Austria was attacking along the Rhine had bad dice) and we ended the game kith a huge French army starving while trying to besiege Madrid. The victory conditions were such that I was the big winner and Napoleon the big loser in points for coming to the Peninsula personally and for every unit, sent as reinforcements--there were also points gained for holding certain locations). I held Lisbon, Madrid, Gibraltar and had restored the Bourbon monarchy. If there had been friendly forces in Saragossa I would hays' had a bigger victory, but I was more than content. Zulu Wargame Now about that Zulu game: I had started with a set of solo rules by Terry Brooks that were intended for use in the Sudan & modified them for my ESCI British & Zulus and had play-tested them & modified them some more for convention use. I had not modified them enough for convention use (although the use of a calculator was no longer necessary and I apologize to the players for the difficulties involved in manipulating the mechanics. I completely revised them (the current scouting procedures still bear a vague resemblance to the original rules) and invited Tod Kerschner over to the monastery to try them out (the first time he has ever come here for a game). We both were British commanders and both moved Zulus as necessary and both had fun (at least, Tod said he did). We made a mistake in sending in too much cavalry in beginning (we were both learning how the rules would actually work). Since the probability of finding Zulus increases in proportion to the number of British troops who have moved onto the table, it is best to put in only enough cavalry to scout and screen. The Zulu killers are the regular infantry, the Gatling guns and the artillery. They need to be protected until they call deploy. Mounted troops are handy for perusing routing units, but there aren't too many Zulus in rout early in the game, and to have more mounted troops than are needed for scouting arid screening simply means that they are likely to get in each others' way. We seemed to be finding Zulus at an alarming rate and they seemed to be big units as well (the average size for a unit ought to be 63 figures & I am sure we were well over that) but Tod found the effect of British firepower most gratifying (as is typical in British-Zulu games). The turns moved along fairly quickly (we took to moving the Zulus in handfuls--there are advantages in using plastic figures) and it looked like we were well on the way to another Ulundi when I managed to toss morale checks for the two Zulu units; closest to the British that had them rush forward into melee (a 6) rather than go prone (3, 4 or 5) or fall back (2) or rout (1). Then the British failed to get their defensive volley (a 1). The melee resulted in a lot of Zulus not getting home but essentially cut down most of the British infantry. In one turn the situation had changed from Ulundi to Isandhlwana. In retrospect the resemblance to the earlier battle seems apt. The amount of infantry deployed was comparable, though the British had more mounted figures and heavy weapon,. Early on the British infantry was practically gloating about the amount of damage they were doing and then it was over in one gallant rush. The scales (for those interested) are 1 figure = 20 men (so 5 figures is a company and the typical Zulu regiment is 1260), 1 turn = 10 minute, and 1" = 50 yards. Since the Zulus never appear more than 24" away, the burden of moving individual Zulu figures is reduced (though not eliminated). There is no reason why the Zulus could not be mounted on multiple bases (with enough single figures to remove losses), but I like the look and flexibility of individual figures. My NNC figures are the Zulus from the ESCI box who are wearing red coats (having looted the camp at Isandhlwana). Cutting off their plumes and painting a red cloth around their heads serves to distinguish them clearly from the "hostile" Zulus. There is no reason why the tactical rules can't be used for re-fighting historical actions. I don't have enough NNC figures for that, so I use the rifle armed NNC as a front rank and place regular Zulus in the rear to indicate the actual strength of the unit. Since these rules don't allow irregular cavalry to operate independently, when situations call for such operations (e.g., Hlobane), T add regular cavalry figure, in a proportion of 1 to every 5 irregulars. These represent the officers or NCOs of the unit. For each hit the unit takes I toss 1d6 & a 6 results in the regular bearing the loss (regardless of the number of figures remaining in the unit). When doing one of the big battles one can represent the Zulu regiments with 3 x 5 cards that have the name of the unit written on the top and the actual number of figures represented written on the bottom. Put some riflemen on top. and allow the British to fire at the unit when it is visible (even though they don't know the actual strength of the unit or how great a threat it is until it is "spotted" by a toss of 4d6 being equal to or greater than the number of inches that the unit is distant.). Losses taken by the unit before the figures are placed on the table can he noted on the top of the card. It is best to say that the cards cannot be closer than 12" from one another to allow space, for deployment) and to set some maximum and minimum number of figures that each card can represent. Back to MWAN # 54 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1991 Legio X This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com