Category Archives: Skirmish

Skirmish Adjustments

Colonials, Miniatures, Sessions, Skirmish

Making adjustments in my search for appropriate solo randomness  for The Sword And The Flame (TSATF).

The most pressing problem was the reaction of Chinese forces placed on reverse slopes.  After playing through a couple of turns decided to go with dicing for passive, aggressive and fanatic designations for all Chinese units when placed on the table.

Passive will hold in place until enemy is  no more than six (6) inches away.  Aggressive units will move as the situation dictates, and Fanatics will move to contact towards the nearest enemy unit regardless of situation, distance, etc.  A percentage die roll of 10 or less (0 =0) results in a passive designation, with 20-70 creating an aggressive unit, and fanatics at a higher roll.

Given the high number of Boxer riflemen  (probably higher than historical), any lightly wounded Marine casualties are recorded, but the figure stays in the fight.

The Marines encountered resistance while approaching the ridge to the west.  The ridge to the east was unoccupied.

The passive Boxers emerged from the reverse slope, and engaged the Marines with firearms.  Their next move will be into melee.

The other two Marine squads continued to advance, occupying the east hill and advancing through the saddle between ridgelines.

Force composition die rolls were made as  both units were within twelve (12) inches of the next two ridges.  The results were not pretty, with two aggressive units, each equipped with a high number of firearms,  are now situated on each ridge crest.

Tomorrow’s  turns should prove interesting.

Skirmish Mission

Colonials, Miniatures, Sessions, Skirmish, Solitaire

Rhonda’s enjoying Palm Springs weather, so I’ve set up The Sword And The Flame (TSATF) on the dining room table.

The scenario calls for the Marines to clear a series of ridges.

I’m considering all ground to be rough ground for shooting, so there is a -1 DRM for all firing.  However, the ground will be considered clear for movement, so without penalty.

Visibility is twelve (12) inches from ground to crest, unlimited from crest to crest, and crest to base of next hill.

The challenge is coming up with some solo-friendly randomness.  Here’s a quick and sketchy overview.

My initial stab at this problem is to use the Action, Event and Terrain cards published by The Virtual Armchair General.

An Event will be triggered by a die roll of six (6), and confirmed by a Yes/Maybe die roll.

Whether or not a terrain feature is occupied will be determined by a 10 sided  die.  A roll of four (4) or less means the feature is unoccupied.  A roll of five (5) to eight (8) means a Boxer force is occupying the crest.  A roll higher means the Boxers are on the reverse slope.

Another percentage die roll determines force composition.  A roll of four (4) or less means Regulars.  Another outcome results in a Boxer force.  For the Boxers, another roll gives the number of figures with firearms.  All Regulars carry rifles.

Terrain cards will be drawn when Marines enter a “new” terrain feature – either a slope or the “new” ground beyond a ridge line.  These cards will indicate if movement is slowed.

Any casualties are considered to be out of this game.  Wounded figures will be diced for at the end of the game, anticipating a follow up contest.

And Another…..Another

Miniatures, Skirmish

Strange Symmetry.  Sounds like a Prog Rock album title.  But, in this case the title refers to my The Sword And The Flame (TSATF) Boxer Rebellion project.

Just one year ago (give or take a week or so) I posted this up.  Well, it’s never over until its over.

Was not happy with my unit and unit size composition for TSATF.  I ordered more figures this Summer to “complete” this decades-old endeavor.

I now have “full sized” twenty (20) figure Chinese units.  These include two (2) Regular units (well, one full and one nineteen (19) figure unit because Caliver Books – which markets MiniFigs – botched my order and shorted me one regular figure), and four (4) Boxer units.  One of the latter units includes seven (7) Chinese regulars (repainted “Christian” Chinese cited in my 2020 post).

The Caliver mistake bothered me for a bit, but I shrugged it off – proof that I am not all that compulsive.

My German unit is now ten (10) strong, and can be used to augment an Allied contingent.  Again, the core of the Allied force is  United States Marines.

In conjunction with the latest purchase, I ordered a copy of Osprey’s Imperial Chinese Armies 1840-1911.  According to this, “modern” units were outfitted in westernized uniforms and straw “boaters”.  Their appearance is shown to be similar to the Chinese Weihaiwei Regiment raised by the British.  I have some of these figures.  They might be “repurposed” to represent local Chinese troops resisting Western forces.  A possibility.

The dining room table will be pressed into service for a game this coming week.

Always The Last To Know?

Aircraft & Vehicles, Miniatures, Skirmish, World War II

The good news is that this isn’t another relationship situation.  The bad news is that it looks like the Tanks! franchise has been discontinued.    No posts in quite a while and no merchandise in the store.

While I use the less expensive Zvezda models, I did enjoy checking out the site for scenarios and information.  I guess I will go over to Flames of War for news updates.

Meanwhile, I continue to build up my late war Germans in anticipation of creating some urban combat scenarios.  Here’s the latest additions.  One more traunch of kits to finish up for a representative set of both German and Soviet AFVs.

 

 

And Another…..

Colonials, Miniatures, Skirmish

Finally got on it and finished up my four remaining The Sword and The Flame (TSATF) figures.

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The quality of today’s sculpting is so much better than these Minifigs from the early ’80s.  No comparison.  And, the newer figures are so much easier to paint acceptably.  With these old guys, it’s fairly grim work for a pedestrian painter like myself.

The problem now is whether or not I buy some more Boxers.  I have too many Europeans, and TSATF rules call for fairly large units.  If unit size is reduced, the CRT results distort, and I’d rather not make even a simply adjustment to it.  But, even though old and poorly sculpted, 25mm Minifigs are not cheap.

I’ll keep scouring E-Bay and The Miniatures Page for cheap recruits.

 

Skirmish Games

Skirmish,

Somehow became enamored with skirmish games while finishing up my TSATF miniatures.

What ensued can only be described as a “frenzy” of rules purchases.  Learned a lot.  First off, what the hell is a skirmish game.  Here is one thread that, I guess, covers the bases.

Played Fistful of Lead and enjoyed it.  But I wanted something different than Wild West gunfights.

I already had one other set of rules, and it is supposedly the first set of skirmish rules published…. OK, maybe the Wild West rules came first.   I bought the Featherstone rules a long time ago, but played only a couple of times.

After playing one session – more on that in another post – I decided to explore other options.  The next thing I knew, I was falling into the vortex of the Wargame Vault.

Just click, pay, and download……it’s painless.  With that, and some research, I accumulated a number of titles in a very short time.

As the BGG thread indicated, there is variety out there.  I’ve concluded the rules break down into either individual figure or small unit games, with the accompanying amount of character development varying by scale.  The individual figures have capabilities and special skills.  These attributes cost points to help create a balanced game.  Also, some rules are for the pre or early gunpowder periods, with others following the evolution of firearms.

A listing of early rule sets, but with an emphasis on board games, can be found here.

That being said, I’m to start working through my early period rules, using my Warhammer skirmish figures and “combat town”.  I’ll post up the sessions.