Mayhem At McDanalds

I planned to try and get a game in last week as part of my attempt at regular 'Wargames Wednesdays'. Needless to say the best laid plans of men and all that put pay to this, but this week I was more successful, sort of. The game took place today as on Wednesday I went into town for some much needed 'me time', met up with friends, browsed a book shop etc and then promptly went down with Covid, which is really doing the rounds in this part of Bristol.

Still feeling rough but up for a game, I kept things simple as I knew my brain would not be up to anything too taxing, so plumped for good old 'Honours of War' and my 18thC India forces. Scenario wise nothing too fancy, which initially was going to be a simple meeting engagement, but once I'd set the terrain up, I went for one loosely based upon 'Scenario 25: Chance Encounters' from 'Scenarios For All Ages' by Grant and Asquith.

Both sides had similar forces and all the commanders were rated as 'Dependable', again to keep things simple for me. I did use the tweaks we had made for 18thC India, but only a few, again to make life easy for me. So with the table set up, troops deployed, it was onto the action. 

An overview of the table, with both sides either side of a stream, with morning mist obscuring the enemy.

The nominal objective of the caravanserai on one Ranald McDanald.

The Anglo-British troops South of the stream.

The Anglo-French troops to the North.

An oasis.

Both sides and their lines of march.

The end of Turn 1. The mist still lingered and neither side was yet aware of each other.

"Do you want to super-size your haggis burgers?".

The end of Turn 2. The mist lifts and both sides quickly deploy into line and the action begins.

The British cavalry moves towards the stream and comes under very accurate fire from the French elephants.

The British light infantry push forward towards McDanalds.

On the other side the French cavalry do likewise.

A gratuitous shot of an elephant!

Turn 3 and the British cavalry charge in and come off second best against the elephants and their supporting troops. At least they force the elephant back to reform.

The end of Turn 3. Both sides advance to close the distance between them.

The British are forced to refuse their right flank as the French cavalry hove into view.

Both sides light infantry enter the oasis.

The end of Turn 4. The British left flank comes under effective fire from the French, but elsewhere little happens.

The British left flank suddenly comes under pressure due to accurate French fire.

The end of Turn 5. Disaster on the British left flank as two infantry units are routed. On the right the British hold position as the French advance.

The British right flank holds as the cavalry manouevre to try and provide support on the open flank.

The British line breaks...

... but at least they force two french units back to reform, which is small consolation.

The end of Turn 6. With both sides unable to prosecute attacks on the British left, the French advance against the British right flank and comes under murderous fire from artillery and musketry.

A French unit is routed as it tries to cross the stream.

The French cavalry in front of McDanald's. Maybe they are ordering food on the go?

The end of Turn 7. The French push against the British right is devasatingly repulsed, but elsewhere there is no action.

The remains of the British left flank await as the reformed French troops once more move forward.

The French left flank is destroyed as it crosses the stream.

The French light infantry as marginally worse off than the British.

A Mexican standoff.

End of the Game

With only one more Turn to play, it was obvious that neither side would be able to reach McDanald's and the oasis, so I called the game a draw, with both sides having suffered similar losses. If anything the British were in a slightly better position, but did have the French cavalry lurking on their flank.

Post Game Thoughts

It was nice to finally get the game in that had sat on the table all set up for a couple of days or more. Luckily for me SWMBO doesn't mind if it's not too often (which its not) and that is doesn't get in the way of its use as a dining table (which it doesn't). So a few quick thoughts on the game etc.

• Sticking to games that you know and enjoy really paid dividends here, as it so often has these past few years. I only had recourse to look at the rules a few times, as otherwise the QRS and my understanding of the rules more than sufficed. This allowed me to concentrate on the game which made things flow and all the more enoyable for it, rather than having my head stuck in a rulebook for half the game!
• The 8-12 units per side once again delivered a good game and was perfect for this situation. If I was slightly more with it, I might have upped to say 15, to allow for a reserve, but this would have really extended the playing time. Short and sweet ticked all the boxes and didn't tax my brain nor my body too much.
• The British certainly had the advantage on the movement and the firing initiative rolls, whilst the French had the better shooting dice at the start. Making a game of it the French pushed forward to try and win quickly and suffered as a result, as the dice turned in favour of the British, who couldn't hit a barn door early on!
• The mat looked really good to my eyes with my 'jungle terrain' on it, which pleased me as I wanted to see how it looked for use with my long term plan for some Burma and Pacific theatre WWII games. I need quite a bit more 'jungle' type terrain, but this is pretty easy to sort out and will be a long term project too.

What Next?

Playing this game made me realise the value of my ImagiNations forces just for the 18thC, as I knew at a glance what was what etc. Having lots of armies, whilst nice, would to my mind complicate things, whereas this simple approach a la Nigel Stillman, just works for me. I did realise however that I still have lots of units still to paint!

Work on my WWII Normandy campaign has paused due to real life and rather than rush it, I've been focusing on some simple other projects that I can fit in in the meantime, but more on that in another post.

TTFN.