"What should we do now?" cried Simon. "How about fighting one of those battles in Peter Young's old book, The Wargame, 1974," sez I. And that's what we did. I chose the chapter on the battle of Blenheim, because the battle would fit on the ping pong table and I always thought it was a cool series of photos, full of good looking painted figures marching about. I've done this kind of thing before, but with another book called, The Golden Book of the Civil War. This book contains a series of 3-D, map like paintings with little men, horses, guns, individual buildings, woods, etc. Perfect for converting into a wargame scenario. After we laid out the battle exactly as shown in the photos, almost figure for figure, we started making up the rules. That's one nice thing about having wargamed for so many years, you remember such a large number of rules, that you can literally make up the game as you go along. Wally Simon commanded Marlborough's forces, trying to attack across the Nebel River. I was acting for Tallard and the Elector of Bavaria (see map). We used Wally's 30mm Seven Years War troops, each side getting 7 infantry, 6 cavalry, and 4 gun units. The way my troops were initially laid out (according to the photos), my command was lopsided. There was a big pack of troops on my right flank, not enough on my left, and nothing in the center. So I decided to be cautious and defend the left, be bold and attack on the right, and pray for the center. Sequences Wally and I picked the ultimate in simple sequences, side A moves and fires each unit, then side B does the same. Each unit had two actions, with a 70% for a third action for the entire side. Movement was 8 inches for infantry and 16 for cavalry, per action. Therefore, it was a very fluid game, with a cavalry unit moving up to 48 inches. So I attacked with cavalry. The famous Stuart Asquith Hussars (painted by Stuart himself) charged across the Nebel River, and attacked Simon's Grande battery. The guns opened fire, each model firing with a 2d1O per gunner per action. A 1 through 3 on the die was a hit. KABOOM went Simon's guns, and they all missed. In went the Asquith Hussars, who quickly disposed of the gunners. Thus began the Haub lucky streak, the Simon unlucky streak, and the legend of the Stuart Asquith Hussars. The melee procedure consisted of first moving the lead units into contact, defining where the center point of the fight was, and then rolling percentage dice for the combat radius (which is an area around the combat where support units can be drawn into the fight to participate), which was; 0-33 no radius, just the lead units, 34-66 six inches, and 67-100 twelve inches. After that, 1 d 10 was rolled f or each stand of infantry participating and 2d 10 for each stand of cavalry like artillery fire, a 1 through 3 on the die was a hit. To find the winner, we just added up the figures left in the lead unit, added to that the number of causalities inflicted on the enemy, and multiplied the product by a die roll. The highest total was the victor. The loser had to fall back one, full, 2 action move. Now, the old PW hands reading this article will recognize all of these procedures, because they've been described and redescribed in the Review for the last 10 years. But, I have to tell you, they work beautifully. Each process is simple, fast and clean, and makes for a very entertaining game. They're also easy to tailor for just about any period. Back to the Action But back to the action. Wally, seeing a big glob of his forces (Wally's troops are always in globs) stacked up on his right flank, decided to launch and infantry assault across the Nebel River at Oberglau. I had loaded Oberglau, almost to bursting, with most of my troops on that flank. Nobody was going to take "Festung Oberglau"! Crossing the Nebel, Wally's infantry took fire from the town. Musketry fire effect was calculated like artillery and melee. Each stand rolled 1d1O per action, and a 1 through 3 on the die was a hit. Every hit you removed a stand. My infantry's fire stopped one enemy unit, but two more were right behind it with a cavalry unit next door. It looked bad for Oberglau. While sending in his infantry attack, Wally counterattacked the famous Stuart Asquith Hussars with a heavy cavalry unit. The hussars were standing on top of the hill alone, their friends having failed to cross the river (each unit had to roll a 70 or less to cross the river). Wally also threw in an infantry unit, to increase his chance for victory even more. But did I need to worry? Not with the Asquith Hussars on my side. They easily defeated the on-rushing horde (though taking some causalities this time) and stood alone, king's of the hill. But I knew it couldn't last, I could see Wally standing there with knitted brow, studying the situation, telling himself that he was going to smash those damn hussars, even if it was the last thing he did. So on came the rest of Simon's cavalry, two big units to grind down the hussars. And grind they did, for after a sharp melee, the Asquithians were forced to retire (notice I said retire rather than run like hell; it's my story remember?) back across the Nebel. Even though they eventually lost, the hussars proved to be enough of a distraction to allow me to push the rest of my attacking force across the river, and "beat up on" and defeat the rest of Wally's troops on that side of the battlefield. So in the final analysis, the now famous Stuart Asquith Hussars more than fought their share of the battle. The Simon attack on the other side of the battlefield, in front of Oberglau, was failing apart piecemeal because of the terrain. Wally just couldn't roll enough consistent 70s (or less) to get his troops into action together. They wouldn't march up the hills. They wouldn't march down the hills. Worst of all, they wouldn't cross the river, which happened to be right in front of my troops, which rudely shot them to pieces a little at a time. The Simon bad luck streak wouldn't end, so we decided to call a halt to the battle and declare a victory for Tallard and the Elector of Bavaria (no big medal and Blenheim Palace for Marlborough this time). It was a quick game, about two hours plus for fighting and a half hour for setting up. I have to admit that of all of the types of games I've played since I started this hobby, back in 1976, a simple horse and musket era game is the most enjoyable. There are three, balanced arms (infantry, artillery, and cavalry), and each has its strengths and weaknesses. There is plenty of figure movement on the table, a very important and often overlooked aspect of a game, and a nice variety of choices for the player. Choices like, should I charge, shoot, maneuver, combine for an attack, stay in the town, etc.? These aspects keep the player awake, interested in the game, and challenged. They make the game fun. One final hail for the famous Stuart Asquith Hussars. Wally purchased these plastic, 30mm, slightly undersized, troopers several years ago during one of his trips to Great Britain (they supposedly were painted and owned by Stuart himself). Until this game, they had done very little that was noteable. I think both Wally and I were a little disappointed that they hadn't done more to live up to the famous name of their previous owner. But they finally had their moment of glory at Blenheim, and now they are a unit to fear. All Hail the Stuart Asquith Hussars! Brave Men and True. Back to PW Review February 1997 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com