Devon Wargames February Gathering

Saturday was the monthly meet of simple like-minded folks at the Devon Wargames Group.  Two games were played, a 15mm ACW using Peter Pigs Civil War Battles and a 1/1200(I think) Napoleonic Naval Game using Kiss Me Hardy/Eight Bells.  Much laughter was heard on both tables and everybody seemed to be having a good day.  Well, almost everybody anyway.

The Union Commanders watch the Rebs advance

 The ACW game went wrong for the Union before they had even got onto the table. The Union commander allocated 18 dice to be the attacker while the Rebs only put 10 into it.  The Union roll gave them 2 hits (2 rolls of 5+ out of 18)!  The Rebs then rolled 8 hits, completely screwing up both sides plans.  The Union commander then left the field, taking lots of his batteries with him.

The game was played with the Union forces on the back foot and they never really got a chance to gather themselves.  The Reb generals advanced and pushed the boys in blue back and back and back.  As you can see in the 2nd picture, the Union were almost surrounded.  Still, they all seemed to enjoy it.  At least those who stayed to play did. 

Union troops having a bad day

Peter Pig rules have a certain element of chaos included, which some people dislike.  I personally prefer it as too many wargames give you absolute control, which generals never have.

The naval game was set up by JJ, using his ships, dice and iPad.  It was based on the Battle of Sadras, which happened long ago between the French and British.  As you may have guessed, Napoleonics are not my favoured period.  I don't mind playing them, but I prefer either earlier (Seven Years War, AWI etc) or later (WW2 etc).

French sail towards the British line

Anyway, the battle involved an able French admiral with a larger but less skilled fleet against a less-able British admiral with a smaller but better fleet.

 As you can see from the pictures, things rapidly went to pot and the nice neat lines of battle devolved into a free-for-all scrap.  The British were slightly ahead, but they went against British doctrine by firing at the rigging instead of the hull.  Thats just not the way its done!

Boom boom boom and all that

Jack and Ian had the British while Gus, Ollie and myself had the French.  The 8 Bells app worked well, saving any form of log keeping and, because of this, the commanders had little idea of how well they hit or how badly they were hit.  The only obvious things were results such as masts falling or fires starting.

The only criticism I have for the system was that it was much too easy to get a raking shot.  The angles that were used seemed to me to be too wide, but that may have just been the rules and did not detract from the game at all.

Chaos!

Thanks go out to JJ and Steve for putting on the games and to all the others for playing.