The Perils of Downsizing

As a slight break from the incessant wargames of the War of Stuart Succession, I have been pondering a little. Although you would never believe it if you saw us in the flesh, the Estimable Mrs P and I are approaching that certain age when we start to wonder what we are going to do with ourselves when retirement has done more than loom. We are not there yet, but there is a certain question on the horizon.

As we live in what is essentially a tied cottage (which looks like a suburban house), the question of where we go when the inevitable happens is present. And the inevitable seems to include that terrible word: downsizing.

Now, many of you are probably aware that the both of us collect books in profusion, and also that I have an extensive collection of 6 mm figures, terrain and buildings. We can both find books that we would trim from our collections, although we both have non-negotiables. But the figures are a bit more of a problem.

The biggest problem, which I cannot at present see a way of solving, is my collection of 20 mm card buildings to go with the 25+ mm figures. I need a better solution than the large plastic boxes they currently reside in. But that is a bit of a side order. Another problem, which I suppose I shall have to find a way of solving, is my ancient collection of 15 mm, mostly Peter Laing ECW, medieval, and a few ancients. I am aware of a few collectors of these who might possibly be interested. If that is you, drop me a comment with your email address (I won’t publish it) and we can talk about them.

The real issue is the quantity of 6 mm figures. I offered, as an opening gambit, to replace them with 2 mm figures, but the Estimable Mrs P rejected that. Then we went and looked at the size of the problem. I thought I had a fairly modest collection, but a more objective examination revealed that the size of the problem was larger than expected, but not massive. It also revealed that there are some actions that could be taken to ameliorate the situation.

Firstly, and most obviously, the bulk of the armies are stored in A4 box files. These are cheap, convenient (because they are recycled from other uses within the household), and fairly robust. However, they are about 3 inches in height, which for even the largest 6 mm figures means that there is around 2.5 inches of wasted space. So the initial plan is to get more of those A4 plastic boxes, which are half the height, and transfer the collections to them. I already have a fair quantity of them, but obviously need more.

A second, partial solution to the problem is to rebase the Aztecs. Again. I like the Aztecs and their campaigns – the Mexica campaign I wrote ages ago is one of the few I have actually re-run. But I have always had a bit of a problem with basing the soldiers. When I rebased onto plastic card, I based one strip to a 20 by 40 mm base. This, for the militia, makes them look a but underwhelming, particularly as I found I have vast quantities of them.

This will be, by my calculations the fourth rebasing of the Aztecs. They started off on flimsy card stands, one Irregular strip to a base. Then I rebased them to two strips per base for the militia, and one for the skirmishers and ‘knights’. Then, as I switched to plastic stands, as I said, I recall thinking briefly as to how many strips to put on a stand, and decided on one. This, as now seems apparent, was a mistake. Humbug.

Mind you, I am still not really sure how the Aztecs and their ilk fought. The ‘knights’ were, of course, the protagonists of the Flower Wars, the professional soldiers. The militia were, it seems to me, largely untrained, a mass levy. Thus, it is possible, at least in my mind, that the ‘knights’ were the officers and did not fight independently of the masses. After all, quite a lot of the Aztec fighting (before the Conquistadors came and spoiled the fun) was to do with capturing victims for sacrifice. During a battle, this would surely be done by the ‘knights’, presumably leader against leader, before the more massed brawl started.

I do wonder if this is a way forward for specific rules for Aztecs. A unit has a base of troops, plus an officer, if it expects to move. The officer, before the units come into combat, may elect to have one-to-one combat with an officer on the opposition side. If he wins, he gets both kudos and an attack at an officer-less, and hence demoralised, enemy unit. Otherwise, the Aztecs have simply ‘knights’, militia, and skirmishers, which can be a little dull, I suppose.

I suppose before going much further down this route, I should reread Hassig’s Aztec Warfare again. The thing is, I am not sure it is really known how the Aztecs fought other Mexica, so it is all a bit speculative. Mind you, I suspect that the same might be true of the Samurai – were, say, the archers of a specific lord brigaded into a mass of bowmen, or did they fight with the rest of the lord’s men? Opinions, so far as I have seen, vary. Plus the Samurai themselves were very interested in single combat, just like the Aztec ‘knights’. Room for some comparative history here, perhaps.

Still, this does not really matter for the rebasing project. The militia needs rebasing, the ‘footprint’ of my toys needs reducing, and this could just be the start of it. With a project like this, of course, you cannot really tell where you are going to end up. But sometime I might write my own rules for Aztec warfare. Just don’t hold your breath for them.

The Rolling English Countryside

 ‘I like the set-up for that battle,’ the Estimable Mrs P. remarked. ‘Rolling English countryside. Who is it between?’

‘Arbella Stuart and the Bedfordshire trained bands. Arbella is marching on London.’

‘I thought the Spanish got there in the last battle.’

‘Yes, but this is going on at the same time. Roughly.’

So there you have it, in summary. The army of Arbella Start is still advancing south on London, this time facing the Bedfordshire trained bands, having failed her GOOS roll this move. I confess to approaching this action with some caution, because the armies are mirror images of each other, more or less, and the margins of success and failure are, consequently, it seems, fairly narrow. Not only this, but the terrain rolls gave a fairly narrow frontage for the armies with only limited outflanking opportunities, at least on the face of it.

After some thought and messing about, the armies were deployed. On the near side of the field, the woods in the centre end at a stream which runs along the entire edge. What you cannot see is that the blue coated Bedfordshire infantry on the near left are actually deployed on the lower slopes of a hill. Aside from that the Bedfordshire have thrown their light cavalry forward in the hope of disrupting Arbella’s infantry, while filling the gap between the rough going on this side and that on the far side.

As the attacker, I was a bit dubious about this setup. I had a slight cavalry advantage – 2 demi-lancers against a demi-lancer and a light horse, but there was not really the room to deploy them. The alternative seemed to be an infantry slog with roughly equal numbers in the middle. I was not too impressed by that idea, but it seemed to be the only alternative.

A few moves in, and a bit of command ineptitude has opened a slight possibility for the Bedfordshires. Arbella’s central infantry block is in danger of out-marching its supports and being flanked on the far side, where a company of trained bands are angling in to catch them in flank. On such things, and the timing of them, battles can be settled. However, Arbella’s general has already dashed to the front lines to try to exert some control. The lady herself, note, is presently leading her own lifeguard (the blue coats to the right). She has no command powers herself, however, but she does inspire any troops she is attached to with a +1 in close combat.

The general’s energetic ordering of people around paid off. On the far side, the potential flankers have been forced back in line by approaching infantry under his direct command. Meanwhile, Arbella’s left flank infantry are in combat, reasonably successfully so far, and the Queen’s Lifeguards have started to move up as well, to provide some back-up in what otherwise looks like a fairly even infantry fight.

It got predictably messy, as the shot above suggests. Some of the fights have been even, some have swayed from one side to the other. On the far side, however, you can see that the troops led by Arbella’s general have managed to rout the opposition musketeers (fleeing top centre left, with the yellow ochre marker) and then, under the general’s direct orders, turned in and flanked the pikemen who have just spectacularly failed their combat dice roll and have vaporised.

Remarkably, the Bedfordshire men shrugged off the sudden loss of their left flank and carried on. As Arbella’s men tried to reorganise on their right, the Bedfordshire trained bands surged forwards again, possibly inspired by the sight of their general leading the demi-lancers towards the fray. On the other hand, you can also see the Bedfordshire light horse being hammered by some of Arbella’s musketeers, and that all of the infantry formations are beginning to break up a bit.

The end, when it came, was quite sudden. The Bedfordshire central blue-coated pikemen attacked some of Arbella’s musketeers and routed them, but were then taken in flank by Arbella’s general and his red-coated pikemen, who routed the blue coats. Meanwhile, on the near side, the Bedfordshire general has used some valuable tempo to rescue his light horse (who have moved back into the bottom left of the picture). However, Arbella’s white coat pikemen have just taken some Bedfordshire white coat musketeers in flank and routed them – they are fleeing centre left – while in the centre some more Bedfordshire pike are in deep trouble.

The arriving Bedfordshire general might have stabilised the situation, but he did not get the chance. The morale rolls kicked in. Arbella’s men rolled poorly, but survived. The trained bands rolled even more poorly and got a rout result. Looking at the situation, I can hardly blame them. The centre is about to collapse, the left has already gone, and only the unengaged right is looking secure. The arrival of the infantry reserves and demi-lancers might stave off the inevitable, but Arbella’s lifeguard is arriving, and it probably will not be long before her demi-lancers (who have not moved all game, incidentally) arrive to administer coups de grace all round. Going home seems like an excellent idea.

As I have said elsewhere, that was nasty, brutish and short. When an infantry battle is in front of us, we can expect a bit of a slog. That was more or less the case. The Bedfordshire trained bands did try to take advantage of some early confusion in Arbella’s ranks, but that was quickly overcome by the intervention of the general, whose continued presence in the infantry ranks meant that they could respond more quickly and the Bedfordshires.

I think the general’s mixing it at the front led to the victory here. It gave Arbella’s infantry just that edge that they needed to work flanks and pick up on weaknesses in the opposition. If the demi-lancers had arrived a bit sooner, things might have been different, but the trained band’s position collapsed within a couple of moves, so it is hardly surprising they were caught flat hoofed.

Still, in campaign terms, Arbella’s GOOS score has increased again, and she is still on track for London. However, a glance at the diplomatic table suggests she is in alliance with Isabella’s Spanish, who are already there. This is going to take a bit of thinking about….

The Battle of London 1603

The War of the Stuart Succession continues. Arbella Stuart has moved into Bedfordshire, but the trained bands have rallied against her. Meanwhile, the victorious Spanish have moved into Middlesex from Kent, where the trained bands have rallied in the defence of London. So, this game week, there are two wargames to be had. I decided to start with the Spanish.

The photograph shows the setup. The Spanish are to the left, with their mounted arm fully restored. You cannot see the hills in the picture. On the extreme left of the rearmost Spanish foot, there is a ridge running to behind the Spanish cavalry. Out of shot to the right, in the near corner, is another hill, which will become important.

The Spanish plan was to hold their centre and left with the infantry, and outflank the English on the right with their much larger heavy cavalry force, supported, as necessary, by the skirmishers (deployed in the march initially). The English plan was to use their infantry superiority to crush the Spanish before the flank attack materialised.

The wargame had no sooner started than it was interrupted by an intruder. She did not, admittedly, leap onto the table (she is getting a bit old and stiff for that) or proffer any tactical advice, but she came to sit in the sun she knew would be in the room and, I would like to think, for some company. She snoozed under the general’s chair for a few minutes before retiring to her igloo (also in the sun) next door. The cat does not much like being photographed, so I took the opportunity for a snapshot.

So, back to the wargame. The plans developed, as you would expect. The English have been forced to divert some infantry and their demi-lancers (under the general) to block the flanking activities of the Spanish heavy cavalry. Those gentlemen have arrived on the hill on the left front corner of the table and deployed. Meanwhile, on the other flank, the light horse are exchanging pleasantries, and the English have started to advance their infantry.

The Spanish general carefully husbanded his infantry resources, attempting to maximise the musketry period. Both sides played a careful game on the English left as well, with the Spanish cavalry attempting to find flanks to work, while the English were trying to block them and get the infantry close enough to give their opponents some hot lead. It turned into a game of cat and mouse, mostly to the English advantage, because they had the general there to control things.

Above, you can see the shooting breaking out to the left of the picture. The light horse have both been withdrawn damaged, but the Spanish skirmishers are now shooting at English foot from the rear flank, from the town. To the right of the shot, the Spanish gendarmes have set off again, trying to outflank the English demi-lancers. It is a matter of tempo points at the moment on this flank. The English general can always respond, while the Spanish have to rely on a supply of points from their general, who is with the foot.

There was furious fighting on the Spanish left and centre, and, as you can see, in what should have been a fairly even chances action, the English have come off far worse. Three of their bases are fleeing, and another one, of pike, has simply been surrounded and destroyed. The English rolls were not bad; they just got worn down. The final, humiliating coup de grace on some musketeers (the blue coats with the ochre counter to the left) was delivered by the Spanish skirmishers.

On the right of the shot the English foot are pressing the Spanish demi-lancers very hard. Unfortunately for them, the latest English morale throw was ‘fall back’, which means that their flank cover – the English demi-lancers – have uncovered their flank.

The English flank open to the Spanish gendarmes was predictably disastrous, as shown. The gendarmes hit the flank of the shot, who did not even stick around to fight but fled immediately, and swept the pike and general away with them. This did not do English morale any good at all, as you might suspect. In the centre, the Spanish foot is reorganising after defeating the initial English onrush and will, doubtless, shortly be assaulting the remaining English foot.

The English morale roll was actually quite a good one, so they did not rout, but they did get to a withdraw status, and so they did. However, with Spanish cavalry across their line of retreat, I suspect that the trained bands would probably simply decide that going home is probably a good idea. London, it would seem, is now under Spanish control.

That was an interesting battle, I felt. Both sides made extensive use of their generals to get troops where they were needed, as they operated on different parts of the battlefield, both interventions were significant. The English flank guard infantry played a major role in delaying the Spanish flank attack, but paid the price for going onto the offensive while their flank was being uncovered by their supports. In the centre, the Spanish general’s extra tempo enabled him to organise the surrounding of a successful English pike stand, and also to keep the Spanish foot moving back and forward to engage the advancing English.

The role of the Spanish skirmishers was interesting and quite amusing. Eventually, they hit a base of arquebusiers, which was already on -2 on the combat dice, and managed to rout them. I think this might be a first in my wargaming – foot skirmishers are quite weak in these rules. They have their uses, however and can flank the enemy or keep them under fire and unable to rally.

So, now Isabella of Austria has London and, if she manages to roll favourably, her forces will be augmented by the English navy in the Thames and the army in Dublin. On the other hand, Arbella Stuart is in Bedfordshire, and if she overcomes the trained bands, London will be open to her. On a third hand, Isabella and Arbella are on very friendly terms with each other, so perhaps they will come to a ladies' agreement over the throne….