OHW Scenario 12 - An Unfortunate Oversight

Coming down with a cold recently put pay to my planned painting, but at least I did manage to get in another OHW scenario in, which was good. As the front cover of the book states: "Practical Tabletop Battles For Those With Limited Time Or Space." Well that statement might have been written just for me at present!

For this scenario I decided to go with the 6 units a side as per the book, as I thought this would make for a better game given the table layout and the fact I would once again be playing on my 2' x 2' board. Random die rolls produced the following:

Red OOB (Defender)

4 x Infantry

1 x Artillery

1 x Cavalry

Blue OOB (Attacker)

1 x Light Infantry

3 x Infantry

2 x Cavalry

Scenario Details

• The Hill is the objective.
• The Blue force cannot fire in the first Turn.

The Game

As with all these scenarios, this one was pretty easy to set up as I didn't have to worry too much about terrain placement. I went with BPII & the GH! supplement tweaks as before, feeling that they would be better suited to this scenario than HoW, which I've used before. So without further ado onto the action.

An overview of the table, with Red already deployed and Blue arriving from the Southern table edge.

Red Line Infantry hold the town, with other units stationed outside, with the Artillery positioned so at to cover the approaches to the bridge.

The Blue left flank force, which will arrive and pin the troops and artillery in and by the town.

The Blue right flank force, led by the cavalry, which will cross the ford and try to quickly overwhelm the enemy.

The end of Turn 1. The Blue Cavalry and Line Infantry make short work of crossing the ford, surprising the enemy by their sudden appearance. Ditto the Left flank force that deployed by the river. The Red force quickly moved to face the threat but failed to hit anything whilst they had the upper hand on the shooting front.

The Blue left flank somehow survives a whiff of grapeshot from the otherside of the river.

The Blue Line Infantry can't quite form into line ready to shoot at the enemy.

The Red troops in the town redeploy to meet the threat from across the river.

The end of Turn 2. The Blue Cavalry failed to move, but the Line Infantry on both sides of the river managed to KO the Red Artillery and disrupt the Red Cavalry. The loss of the Red Artillery was serious so early on, but the Cavalry made a disorderly retreat to try and recover whilst the Line Infantry deployed with their left flank on the hill. The shooting was not as effective as hoped due to some very good morale saves by Blue.

The Red Artillery is promptly knocked out of the battle.

A view of the Red position, which shows that their left flank is hanging in the air, as the Cavalry is reforming and so is unable to offer support there.

The end of Turn 3. The Blue Cavalry moved past the Red Line Infantry to pressure their flank and avoided the worst effects of crossing fire. As they did this the Blue Line Infantry advanced forward and their shooting managed to cause some disruption with one unit shaken. It could have been worse but again there were some good morale saves. The Red Line Infantry moved partially out of the town to improve their shooting prospects and at least caused some more disruption on the Blue troops.

The Blue Light Infantry come under fire.

Both sides trade blows, but the Red Line Infantry failed a Rally roll, which might cost them dear.

Turn 4 sees the Blue Cavalry charge the Red Line Infantry in the flank, who somehow survive the combat (ie shocking Blue dice rolls!).

The Red Line Infantry change facing in the continuing combat as the Red Cavalry join the fray.

In the ensuing melee one Blue Cavalry unit and one Red Line Infantry unit are destroyed. 

In the aftermath the Red Cavalry pass their break test, as do the Blue Cavalry, but the latter are forced to retreat.

The end of Turn 4. After the epic Cavalry clash, both sides trade shots at each other, with neither side quite getting the upper hand. However a Red Line Infantry unit crucially pass their break test which keeps their line intact.

The end of Turn 5. The Blue Cavalry charge their opposite number who in a desperate move meet them half way, only to be destroyed in the ensuing melee. The Blue Line Infantry move onto the hill to enfilade the Red Line Infantry. Both side take hits and both have units that pass their break tests, but the Red Line Infantry are shaken and are beginning to gain the upper hand.

The thin Red line.

The Blue Cavalry are victorious, but are disrupted and shaken.

The end of Turn 6. In a last gamble, the Red Line Infantry get off a good volley, but the Blue Line Infantry pass their morale saves. With no supporting Cavalry the Red Line Infantry withdraw into the safety of the town.

The Blue left flank has done a good job in pinning the Red troops in and around the town.

The Red troops begin withdrawing into the town.

They still hold the bridge.

The Blue troops in control of the objective.

Another view of the table.

End of Game

With the loss of their Cavalry, the Red troops had little option but to withdraw, as they would be unable to effectively contest control of the hill, without exposing their flanks. Still they held the town, but could not prevent Blue forces from crossing at the ford.

Post Game Thoughts

Another fun game using an OHW scenario and BPII rules. Quite a quick game that probably lasted about an hour or so, but a challenge nonetheless. So as always a few thoughts:

• Not all of the OHW scenarios work well, but this one did and I can see it becoming a good 'go to' one when inspiration or time are lacking. The only slight quibble is the fact that the Red force gains nothing from actually maintaining control of the town. As the scenario is written, all of the Red force is outside of the town, but it made sense to me to have at least some troops in there guarding the bridge. Probably one unit would have sufficed at the start, but something to consider for the future.
• The 6 units a side worked a treat as I think more would have felt too cramped for this scenario.
• The loss of the Red Artillery so early on really hampered their efforts for sure. Often it takes a few Turns to KO an artillery unit under these rules, but this time the shooting was excellent and the morale save poor.
• The extra unit of Cavalry for the Blue force did give them the upper hand from the off, as they could always 'sacrifice' one unit and still, subject to break test for supporting units of course, keep this advantage. In the end this did make a telling contribution to the game, forcing the Red force back into the town.
• With Red in the town and Blue on the hill, I was tempted to call it a draw, or at least give the Red force the Honours of War as they vacated their positions. This felt right to me and didn't affect the outcome in anyway, but just added to the 'narrative'.
• Playing this with Honours of War would have taken longer and might have actually made it a hard job for the Blue force, due to the time it would have taken to get their troops across the ford. In BPII the generous movement rates do lead to speedy play and the Blue force did benefit from this from the first turn. It would be interesting to replay this using HoW in the future though, just to see how it would play out.
• Both sides had their fair share of good shooting and good morale saves, which frankly helped keep the game going. If one side or the other had had a few poor morale saves or break test, then the game could have been over very quickly or a victory for Red instead.

So two games in two weeks which is pretty good going for me and as mentioned before, the OHW scenarios do make it very easy to get a game onto the table with limites space and time issues. I've never tried these scenarios using BKCII, but might do so if one feels right for giving them a run out. I will be interested to see how it works out though.

With the cold gone I hope to get some painting in next week, but one thing I've learnt is that it is often not as easy to do as I might wish. Oh for a dedicated paintg space where I could elave everything set up!