The brave souls that faced down the cold arctic blast enjoyed a double header game of Neil Thomas’ “One Hour Wargame Rules” for Horse & Musket at Miniaturee Market Cave Springs today. Featuring the imaginative work of Dave Schaffner who presented his Christmas themed Winterloo! (or Napoleonics with a holiday twist……
It was the Kingdom of Crumpet (Red with Pete in command) vs the Province of Croissant (Blue Steve T and D.J.) in game one.
Blue forces advancing across the open field on their right (D.J.)while the Blue artillery supports skirmishers and infantry attacking on the left.
Red forces holding the town on the Red right prepare for the assault.
We see the Blue advance on the Left engaging Red skirmishers in the tree line. On the Blue Right the infantry heavy force has closed on the town flanking the position by sending skirmishers through the woods.
The Red forces put up a spirited defense despite be heavily outnumbered, delaying the Blue advance by several turns.
Blue has broken through on the Left, but not without taking some losses as the casualty markers indicate.
The Red Right flank anchored in the woods proved to be a tough nut for Steve T to engage even with two artillery batteries in support. Pete was not giving ground without a fight.
It was up close and personal between the two sides in the woods.
In the end the field belonged to Blue, but it was not by any means a walkover. Pete did some magnificent fighting giving ground grudgingly throughout the game making excellent use of terrain to extract a toll from the Blue forces.
Game Two moved us to another table and the skirmish at the frozen over Egg Nog River! A combined Blue/Red force (Dave S and Steve T) took on a Green Force (D.J. and Pete P)
In this game the forces were completely balanced and mirror images with each side having one skirmisher, three infantry, one artillery and two cavalry. The Egg Nog River was not an obstacle to movement as it had frozen in last night’s cold temperatures (despite rumors of some antifreeze being in the mix).
Deployment alternated units by each side until all were on the table. The objective was destruction of the opponents units.
We see both sides moving their cavalry on the opposite flanks. A good series of dice rolls by Red artillery quickly silenced the Green Battery giving an advantage to the Red forces.
Red’s repeated cavalry charges had an affect on the Green line units.
Green Cavalry moving out!
With the addition of Cavalry to this scenario we were able to explore the rules on forming square.
Green Cavalry took advantage of a Red unit forming square and moved past it to threaten some Green units across the Egg Nog River.
Near the end of the game as the repeated Red charges took their toll. Green’s unit formed square to prevent another charge.
A victory for Red as great straggly and some early dice rolls taking out Green Artillery combined to overwhelm the boys in Green.
Thanks to Dave Schaffner for his great idea of creating themed nutcracker armies and a creative scenario. Thanks to our players who got in some great gaming and our continued appreciation to the fine staff at Miniature Market Cave Springs for their continued support.
Kevin made a great suggestion a little over a month ago, that we could probably put together a fun, holiday-themed game using the One Hour Rules by Neil Thomas, and have it play-tested and ready to present for Reindeer Wars. …….if we put our minds to it.
Well, after some emails back and forth, we found some prospective and thematic “minis”, and with our orders in-coming, got right to work on making stands up, unit flags, casualty markers, bought gingerbread houses for the game board, and wrapped it all up in a bow in less than a month, from it just being an idea, to tabletop ready.
Proud to say I had a great partner to work with, and now we have something new and fun to roll out again, and can always explore using the O-H-Rules for other Horse & Musket-style periods too (the games are a hoot).