At HISTORICON, I didn't get to wander around the gaming area as much as I've done in the past, sampling the newer and/or homebrew rules. I did note that there seemed to be a rebirth in Napoleonics, which had dropped from first place some time ago. I actually took a hand in five games -- two of which were the games I hosted -- leaving three. And, of these three, one was Fred Haub's GREAT WAR (WWI) scenario. All of which comes down to the fact that I looked at only two new sets. Concrete Jungle One was a modern day man-on-man skirmish, using a rules book called CONCRETE JUNGLE. This appears to be a parallel of the TRAVELER series, in which everything -- and I mean everything -- you'd want to know about the combat is discussed and listed and tabulated and charted and indexed. We used 25mm figures and Fred and I each ran a figure. My "man" turned out to be a woman... Emma Peel, dressed in a pink, skin- tight pants suit and armed with some sort of Beretta machine pistol holding 16 rounds. In truth, I ran two Emma Peels, for I was provided with two identical figures. One Emma Peel was the real McCoy, while the other was marked "D" for dummy. The scenario is played on a gridded map of one inch squares. We used the ground floor plan of a house - each room was about 6 inches by 6 inches. Fred's man... I'll call him Killer... and Emma were in the house, and it was to be assaulted by two terrorists. I put Emma in the bathroom, while Killer waited his turn outside in the hallway. After all , terrorist attack or not, life must go on. The dummy figures were also placed inside the house. Since Real Emma and Dummy Emma were identical, the opposition had no idea of the one on which he had to concentrate. The ploy, therefore, forces the attacker to split his force; until he discovers which is the dummy, he can ignore neither. Dummies can run around all they wish; they last until someone actually gets them in their line-of-sight. Once they're "spotted", they're removed from the game. One must, therefore, keep running after a figure, trying to "see" it, to determine if one is pursuing a shadow. Each man is allotted 6 movement points ... 1 to move one square, 4 to open a door, etc. Incidentally, dummies cannot open doors, hence all little people who dash straightway through rooms and hallways are regarded with great suspicion. To make a long story short, the terrorists took Killer by surprise ... he suffered hits in the left am, right arm, torso and left leg before he expired. Emma lasted only a little longer. She washed her hands, left the bathroom, and vanished as a grenade exploded in the square she was occupying. Great War Compared to the 30 minute man-on-man game above, Fred Haub's GREAT WAR scenario lasted over 4 hours. The start lines are shown on the sketch. As Russian commander, my objective was to collect as many Victory Points (VP) as possible, where the VP were predicated solely on how much territory you overran: Pennski 4 VP Harrisburgrad 3 VP All other townskis 1 VP We Russians had 5 Regiments, a total of 11 battalions. Warplan A405Z, derived by the Lion of Ostlandt, AKA the Tactical Terror, called for massing forces in Sector C on the eastern front and smashed ahead to Harrisburgrad. The thought was to leave the 4 VP town, Pennski, to the Germans; if we could grab Harrisburgrad for 3 VP, then our total, when all the little towns were added in, would exceed that of the Germans. The Eastern Division of 7 battalions, therefore, took off in Sector C. Four battalions and some cavalry remained in Sectors A and B to fight a holding action. Running the 1st Regiment of 3 battalions in the Eastern Division was Joe Phadt, the Penn-Harris Inn Convention Sales Director. Joe had been on duty for some 3 days in a row, catering to the wims of HMGS, and this was the first game he played. GREAT WAR uses a Command Point (CP) system in which 1 CP is used for each company that moves. Put another way, a 5 company battalion requires 5 CP to do anything. Each time a company routs, or a melee is lost, CP are deducted from the total available. For example, the entire Russian Corps had 54 CP to start out... this was enough to move everyone all the time. However, by the time the 6th turn rolled around, primarily die to routing, we were down to around 40 CP, and the 14 CP loss meant that almost 3 full battalions had to stand immobile each turn. The battalions I ordered to stand were, of course, those in Sectors A and B... the 1st Regiment of General Josef Phadtkovitch's Sector C Eastern Division was given the "full steam ahead, all ahead full!" order. The 1st Regiment did well; assisted by artillery support and by the fact that the Germans in Harrisburgrad concentrated on the 2nd and 3rd Regiments of the Eastern Division, the 1st Regiment actually got to within 3 inches, one move short, of Harrisburgrad on Turn 8. GREAT WAR calls for a 'Regimental Morale Check' after Turn 8. The regimental base is 100% and 10% is deducted for every company lost. Due to the fact that the Germans had inflicted massive losses on the 2nd and 3rd Regiments, these failed their tests and fell back. The 1st Regiment, in contrast, had suffered little. During its advance, it had been relatively unscathed, it had always "outshot" the enemy, it now actually outnumbered the Germans in Harrisburgrad, and it had lost only one company. Its morale, therefore, was 100 - 90, or 90%. General Phadtkovitch took the dice, threw 'em... a 91!! Back went the 1st Regiment, back went the 2nd Regiment, back went the 3rd Regiment. The battle was over. We simply didn't have enough CP left to renew the attack. General Phadtkovitch was quite downcast... but then, so was the Lion. Viking Skirmish My Viking skirmish game ended rather abruptly. Here, 25 Vikings attempted to capture slaves, cattle, and prisoners, and get them aboard their ship and out to sea before 25 Roman defenders could gather 'em up and transport them to the safety of their garrison. Our playtests had indicated a balanced game... both sides split up into little groups running around the board to gather, or fight for, booty. At HISTORICON, however, the Roman commander chose to form two large contingents, one of 15 men, the other of 10 men, and clomp his way around the board. Of course, with the Romans in two big clomps, the Vikings could do no different. When two groups meet, every man is paired off, each throws a 10- sided die, and high roll wins. If your die roll is double your opponent's, he's dead... otherwise he falls back 12 inches. statistically speaking, one should double one's opponent's die throw only 25% of the time; the opponent is merely pushed back on the remainder. By employing a relatively low kill rate (25%), the game lasts longer... in essence, one can obtain the same result by ruling that each man requires, say, two or three hits to do him in, but here, I've done away with the need for hit markers. On our playtests, therefore, groups of men would come together, would melee, and would be pushed back to fight again another day... our games lasted approximately two hours. With the above as preamble, the Vikings at HISTORICON charged the Romans. Twice they charged. In command of the Roman die throwing contingent was a young 8 (?) year old whippersnapper. This child, this wee hafling, had some sort of telekinetic power over the die, for after two melees, only six Vikings were left alive! Statistics be damned! ... all the other Vikings had been sent, quite improbably, to Valhalla. End of skirmish, as the remaining six ran for their lives. Time: 45 minutes. Ancients Game SOLDIERS AND WARRIORS (SAW) featured big, galumphy 4 inch stands. My kind of game. This was a presentation of Anvil Games and consisted, as shown in the sketch, of an army of ancients... cavalry, pikemen, and archers ... holding off a larger force of the same. The game is played on a gridded table of 4 inch squares, and units galumph from square to square. Our side held the hill, backs to the river, while a huge opposing force advanced south on us. We beat off several waves, since attacking stands each had to pass a severe morale test to close and, despite their number, their morale grades were quite low. Each stand had a morale factor... my units, for example, ranged from 2 to 7. A 10-sided die throw plus the morale factor had to total 10 to pass the morale test. The enemy had lots of '2' and '3' stands and, consequently, many of them failed to close. After some time, our host, who was getting bleary-eyed and hoarse, declared a victory for the other side. Too many of them. I found out that the enemy cavalry commander had been given the option to turn traitor, join us, and attack his former friends in the rear, a move which would have balanced the game. The cavalry leader, unfortunately, had been brought up in accordance with true Judeo-Christian ethics ... he refused to become a turncoat. Other Last month or so, I reported on the Harrisburg group's presentation of d'Erlon's attack at Waterloo, in which the team of Simon, Sossi, and Coggins -- as the French -- were beaten off by the British. The scenario was presented twice at HISTORICON and Dave Rolka, the host, stated that, in the first replay, the French attack literally walked through the British defensive lines. In the second, which I watched, the French were having their usual hard time. Microarmor games attracted their share, while scenarios with 6mm figures in other eras were not rare. The fascinating thing about these presentations was that in all that I observed, y the figures were mounted in a single line per stand, in exactly the same wa their larger 25mm and 30mm counterparts are mounted. To me this does away completely with the reason for using 6mm figures. The raison d'etre for the 6mm scale is to obtain the "big picture"... a bird's eye view of the entire battlefield, showing masses of men in motion. In my considered opinion, six dinky 1/8 inch men standing in line on a 1 1/2 inch stand is ridiculous. In these pages, I have rambled on about Stumpy, a poor, foreshortened, misshapen unfortunate, created as a 25mm British colonial figure, doomed to be the constant target of jeers from his more anatomically proportioned compadres. Well, gentlemen, I have found a figure that actually out- stumpies Stumpy. Billed as a 30mm figure, this dwarven, stunted fellow is made by Akhenaten (I think that's the way it's spelled) and looks like a Mexican soldier, circa the Alamo. He, too, is all torso and no legs. I picked up several choice specimens at LITTLE WARS in Chicago in April. As I did with Stumpy, I severed the little tykes at the waist, and, a la Dr. Frankenstein, joined their top halves to someone else's bottom, so that I have a figure that at least is recognizeable as a normal human being. I have popped all my converted and soldered and modified Stumpys and Mexicans in a mold, and I have toyed with the idea of releasing them under the trade name of Distorted Toy Soldiers. The wargaming world is, however, not yet ready for a mass distribution of my efforts. I mention this because my Mexicans made their debut in my ACW scenario at HISTORICON. Two 5-man units, a small 'batallion deformada', defended a border outpost. Mexicans vs. Americans A couple of weeks before the convention, I started to paint the Mexicans as Mexicans, but while leafing through the uniform book, it seemed that Chilean troops were more colorful, so I veered towards Chile. Unfortunately, I didn't have all the proper Chileano colot-S to finish them and my "Mexicans" took on a fiesta-like array of what I believe to be Central and South American uniform dress codes. Needless to say, the 10 or so "historical" gamers at tableside neither knew, nor noticed, nor cared about the uniforms. I told 'em that the troops were Mexicans, and bigawd!.. Mexicans they were! I've reproduced the map and the initial information sheets received by the Union and Confederate commanders. You'll note that in this scenario, I threw in a little bit of everything; not only do we have Union and Confederate infantry, but we have cavalry and artillery and mounted Mexican banditos and Apaches and, of course, the Mexican Border Guard... in essence, my entire line of Distorted Toy Soldiers...beautiful to behold. UNION ORDERS a. Your initial force of 50 men has crossed the Rio Grande in pursuit of a unit of Confederate troops. b. You have surrounded 15 Confederate soldiers. Your orders are to bring them north across the border. c. Your scouts have indicated that there are signs of other hostiles nearby. If trouble breaks out, a troop of 10 cavalry, encamped across the Rio Grande just north of Villamatado, may be called upon. d. You will avoid a confrontation with the Mexican Border Guard unless they fire first. e. You have a reserve force of 15 men plus one cannon which can be called into action if the Mexicans dispute your passage. The chance that your courier reaches the reserve unit is: first turn ... 10% second turn ... 20% third turn ... 40% fourth turn ... 80% fifth turn ... 100% f. The reserve force will enter at Villanatado. CONFEDERATE ORDERS a. Your 15 man force has been pursued south of the Rio Grande. It is surrounded by 50 Union troops. Each time the unit takes a casualty, there is a chance they will surrender: 1 casualty... 5% 2 casualties ... 10% 3 casualties ... 20% 4 casualties ... 40% 5 casualties ... 100% b. The Mexican Border Guard is incensed about the Union crossing of the border. They are sympathetic to the Confederate cause, and the 10 troopers in the outpost will open fire at the Yankees, but not until the Union troops head north. c. There are 10 Apache mounted warriors in the Arboles de la Vida. The Apaches will come to the aid of the Mexicans; the Indians are "activated" if the Federal troops fire on the Border Guards. d. There are 15 mounted Mexican bandits in the Arbolado del Oueste. They will come to the Apaches' aid when the Indians incur 50% casualties. e. A Confederate force of 15 men is marching south and will cross the Rio Grande at the eastern end of Arbolado del Oueste. f. Another Confederate force of 15 men is marching south and will enter the field via the Arboles de la Vida. The scenario commences with 50 Union troops surrounding 15 Confederate soldiers just south of the border. The Confederates are supposed to surrender, and the remainder of the game consists of the Union force fighting all sorts of adversaries as it makes its way back to U.S. soil. A dice throw decided that the Union was to go first. The poor, surrounded Confederates never even had a chance to fire defensively ... the Union blasted away and the Rebs lost no time in throwing down their arms on Turn 1. As the Union force started north, the Mexican Border Patrol dutifully opened fire. Mike Pierce, in command of the Mexican troops, made a small tactical error; there was not enough room along the parapet of the outpost for all 10 Mexicans to line up and fire, so he ordered one unit to form outside the walls. Bad idea. The Union force made an end run to the east of the woods called the Arboles de la Vida and, despite the Confederates and the banditos and the Mexicans and the Apaches, managed to conduct their prisoners safely north. The basic reason for their success stemmed from the reluctance of one or two bandito units and several Confederate units to exit the woods on the western side, the Arbolado del Oueste. The rules state that in the woods, or in rough terrain, a unit has 30% chance of not moving at all that turn. Statistically, this equates to a 1/3 redduction in movement over many turns. occasionally, however, several consecutive throws of the dice result in a unit getting completely hung up in rough terrain... the men simply refuse to budge. Such was the case with the Southern forces. There were, I think, at least 4 units which, for several turns, just mulled around in the Arbolado del Oueste. When they finally broke loose and set out towards the eastern half of the field, it was too late... the Union couldn't be stopped from exiting. As usual, the flea market proved my undoing. I picked up a fairly good sized army of 15mm American Civil War figures... lots of infantry and guns, but little cavalry... over 600 figures in all. Bob Hurst and I purchased, for no good reason, a 20mm Napoleonics army - British, French, etc. - of just under 3000 figures. These were the old, old scrawny Scruby figures... all mounted, all painted, and we have enough to set up a good, old fashioned set of rules wherein we can generate huge casualty rates and remove handfuls of figures at the throw of a die. Passing by Dan Beattie's table - Dan runs the Standard Bearer in Charlottesville, Virginia, and has displayed great perspicacity by advertising in the REVIEW - I noted a bunch of figures on the counter which can only be termed "Munkies"... my kind of figure. The Klunkies are, essentially, caricature poses of the ACW. They're larger, than 25mm but smaller than my 40mm Distorted Toy Soldiers. I instantly fell in love with the Klunkies, and they with me. I bought Dan's entire Klunky stock (probably the entire supply available on this planet... I heard him snicker as I carried them off) and proudly showed them to Fred Haub. "But they have no faces!" was Fred's comment. Obviously, I showed them to the wrong fellow. But no matter. Klunkies do not need faces... they have Personality. The pudgy little fellas remind me of the Ewoks, but then so do a lot of my wargaming friends. Back to PW Review September 1987 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1987 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com