Neil Thomas "Wargaming: An Introduction" Skirmish rules

"Hey Beau, you think there's any Arabs out here...?"

Nope, none, nothing to worry about...no wargame here!

Well, it was about time I returned to and used the "Wargaming: An Introduction" [WAI] Skirmish rules as NT intended - Rules As Written - so played them RAW in this batrep. This provided an opportunity for me to use my half-forgotten 15mm French Foreign Legion and Arabs. For the force list, I used the British v. Dervish 1885 lists which are perfect.

There is only one scenario in the book, a fight to the death with the only guide being that there should be lots of cover. This is a bit dull, so instead I used #6 Flank Attack from "One-Hour Wargames", which features a 1/3 Red blocking force on the road and a 2/3 ambushing Red foRce from the flank. All of the Blue force is on the road, up to 2/3 the way up the board in zone 1. In this case the French Foreign Legion is Blue and the Arabs are Red. 

This was the second time I played the scenario. I find that I am rarely able to get a set of rules right on the first try! I still forgot something and had to play them a third time...

The game board in the book above, and my take on it below [it's a mirror-image] with the flanking force and its hill to left, and the blocking force behind a hill at the top. All the little bushes give cover if a figure touches them [doesn't need to be between firer and target, its abstracted!]. The distances are around the same, given the switch to metric measurements.


Captain Escargot v. Mullah Mansef [All are Stone Mountain figs still in production].


Mansefs ambushers: 4 Rifles and two camels-riders w'spears, all Average. Blocking the road itself are 6 spearmen and the Mullah himself w'sword.


Escargot's supply train, Elite: 2 Cavalry, 4 rifles, 1 Hero w'pistol [Himself!], supply camels.


Turn 1. French go first and move to get distance from the ambushers; also advance the cavalry to threaten the blocking force at the top with a charge from out of their reach. Note that everyone is touching a bush and now has the cover benefit. Red Arabs advance everyone - rifles to the crest camels and spears close in, all keeping to cover. 


Turn 2. French shift cavalry and supply train out of range of Arab shooting. French rifles shoot at threatening camel-riders getting 3 Hits [3+], 1 is saved [4+] and then they roll on wound table for 1 wound each [a 3-4]. [you can get 0-2 wounds on the rifle wound table, and an Average figure has 3 Wounds]. You can see shooting as blue/red dice, then green dice are cover, red dice wound. Arabs on hill fire getting 2 hits [4+] which are saved by French cover [4+]. Arab blocking force continues to close in using cover. 


Turn 3. The French shoot at Camels getting 3 Hits, 2 are saved and one gets one more wound. Rest of French force positions itself against advancing spearmen; the Hero Escargot with his pistol, backed by two cavalry. Arabs keep closing in. Shooting gets three hits, one stopped by cover, then both miss on the wound table [frustrating...]. 


Turn 4 [forgot to turn dice over, obviously, so now all the turns are off!!]. 
French shooting gives 3 Hits on camels, two are not saved, and the 5 gives two wounds, putting them at 3 and 4 respectively, killing them. A French cavalryman melees a spearman: He rolls four dice [3 for being Elite, one for being mounted, Yellow dice] and the spearman rolls two Black dice. The single highest dice wins - French high of '6' beats out Arab high of '4' and the French cavalryman wins. Note that French next highest dice is also a '6' v. Arab '4', so would have won if Arab high roll was a '6', also. Frenchy rolls a 4 on the wound table and inflicts 2 wounds on the Arab leaving him w'one. Arab shooting [black dice] gets only 1 Hit which is saved. Arab spears and Mullah close in for the kill. 


Turn 4 continued. Arabs attack a cavalryman and win with their second highest dice, 5-4. They inflict 5 wounds and take him down [melee wound table is more severe than rifles].


Turn 5. French Riflemen get two misses and one Hit [light blue dice behind them], needing a 3+, and it isn't saved by cover but he misses on the wound table. The Hero gets two hits with his pistol, inflicting 3 wounds and taking down a spearman - that's a HERO, not just some strange sort of sandwich! The surviving cavalrymen attacks a spearmen and takes him down with 4 hits. 


Turn 5 Arabs. Their shooting results in two hits, one saved, but no wound. They close on Hero Escargot, Mad Mullah Mansef leads the charge himself with four spearmen helping him - cowards! In the ensuing melee, both sides roll well, but the Arabs drop 8 dice to Escargot's four, and beat him on the second-highest dice 6-5. They roll poorly on the wound table but still manage 6 wounds and kill him [he has 5 wounds as a Hero].


Turn 6. French are outraged by the death of their Hero and shoot for revenge. As neither of the Spearmen have cover at this time, all four Hits go straight to the wound table [Yellow dice] causing 3 wounds on each, killing them both. 


Turn 6 French, continued. Cavalryman attacks the Mullah, but Mansef sees him off winning 6-5 on the second highest dice, and inflicting 3 wounds.


Turn 6, Arab. Shooting gets two Hits saved by cover. Spearman and Mullah try to finish off the Cavalryman, but he easily beats them on the second-highest dice, 6-1, killing the spearmen outright with 3 wounds. The Mullah backs off...


Turn 7 French. They fire away at the Mullah getting three hits, one saved by cover, the other two go straight to the wound table inflicting two. The Cavalryman closes in for HIS revenge, barely winning the melee on the THIRD highest dice 2-1. He inflicts one more hit on the Elite Mullah, who can take three wounds, killing him.

At this point, the entire Arab blocking force was dead, and with just a few riflemen surviving, they've no way to close in and damage the French without themselves being at risk, so they fade back into the desert, like a mirage. 

Victory for the Legion, but at what cost!!? Well, a hero and a cavalryman, to be exact.

The use of the OHW scenario was fine. Movement rates are slow, 8cm [3"] in WAI-Skirmish to 6" for infantry in OHW, so about half. That would necessitate extending the scenario length if it was a movement dependent victory condition, perhaps. Victory for this scenario is that 1/3 the French have to exit the board, which is quite doable in the 8 remaining turns. Only tricky thing is that they are supposed to exit via the road, which could put them back in range of the Arab rifles if the rifles are aggressive. 

However, it seems unlikely that 3 of 13 Arabs would stick around at all while the enemy moves on. Net Casualties are 10/13 Arabs including their leader, and 2/8 French. The points were equal and the spear-wielding Arabs were effective in this scenario as they get a bonus for melee. The main issue is that after melee, attacking figs are often not in cover and can be shot.  So one's melee figs may win and wound or kill someone, but they are then standing in the open when the enemy shoots. The only way around this is to move into the cover the enemy is defending and attack him there, then retreat within the cover. All sound tactics to me!

Had the Arabs remained in place, the French would have been forced to attack the spearmen over the hill while being chased by the Arab riflemen. Uncertain if that would work better for the Arabs. Their shooting didn't achieve much, overall, which was probably mostly just bad luck as they had about 20 shots, which should be 10 Hits, halved for cover for 4-5 wounds, but they got none.

This game involves lots of dice, overall, but it goes along pretty quick when you know the mechanics. The use of charts / tables I'm not that keen on, but it is pretty hard to escape when you've the individuality of a skirmish game, and this individual story-telling is what makes skirmish gaming so much fun for so many of us. You can name your Soldiers and follow their path to fame [or infamy as the case may be]. Also, most stories / movies focus on a few individuals so it is easier to have that story line in skirmish gaming. So in those regards the work is worth it; it is still a pretty fast system, taking about an hour or so.

So, what did I forget...the Ambush Action! If a figure doesn't act on their turn, they can interrupt the opponent on his turn at any time to take a shot or charge action [if in weapon or move range]. I did play again using this rule, and it is a pretty big game changer. I overall found it a bit cumbersome as you have to mark who is in Ambush status. Tactically, it rewards a defender as they will always get a first shot against a fig advancing into range.  I don't think it matters much to be able to charge unless you get some sort of charge bonus. This mechanic is a classic old-school wargaming mechanic, so I think it deserves its own follow-up post!

All this does have me enjoying my old figs, glad I didn't get rid of them. As Wargaming Miniatures still makes them, I'm actually tempted to flesh out each force a bit more, and I'm missing a swordsmen unit somehow. Obviously, I don't need more for a skirmish game, but 15mm...it just seems like they should all be on bases and the game should be more of a multi-fig Unit game than a 1 fig = 1 Unit game. Both OHW and the WAI WWII rules would work well for this period, and the 15mm figs are a bit fragile to handle individually. 

I think WAI Skirmish has the right "feel" to substitute for one Fig [rules as written] a base of 3 figs since each fig always has multiple wounds in WAI Skirmish. 15mm Figs work better on a multi-fig base for handling, and there would be more figs on the table for a "mass" effect, which suits 15mm.  Something to think about going forward.  But first, more figures....