Ambush 1857 pt 2

[nevermore]

Ambush 1857 pt 2

Under the Victorian Steel rules, soldiers march in companies and hidden movement is involved as the mutineers await in a ditch

The Mutineers and tribes decide to attack the long British trail column from the ditch, this with the Victorian Steel rules is classed as hidden movement


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The British line are well trained and try to form some sort of defence


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The flank attack into the column


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At the rear of the British column, artillery is pushed hard, but the orders from the Mutineer command just never got them into play.


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The battle, the flank attack and the British advance guard form a defence, weapon fire is close and casualties mount on both sides.


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The advance guard push all the artillery they have to break through and escape off the table.


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Lots more photos of the battle in the gallery at V.S., the outcome was a Mutineer win, the British suffered heavy because of the ambush but they still managed to hold the ground for a while.


Scenario historical battles vols will be coming out soon "The Rise and Fall of the Zulu" being the first.

http://www.victorian-steel.com/

[smirnoff]

Top stuff
Big game that

[Traveler Man]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

[dhtandco]

Four of us played it in an evening to a definite conclusion.

[Conquistador]

Workable ambush rules?  Now I am interested...

How long is "an evening" please?

Gracias,

Glenn

[nevermore]

Workable ambush rules?  Now I am interested...

How long is "an evening" please?

Gracias,

Glenn

If i can remember it started around 7pm and finished roughly 10.30pm to 11pm, you got to remember with rules you could add endless charts and go into great details and sometimes go to deep that you could never finish a game in a evening.

We kept it as simple and workable as we could, so rather than chat after a evening and talk what could have happened, we decided to get the outcome and not get bogged down revisting the rule book to often.

I think we all played games for endless hours with not much happening on the tabletop and maybe some gamers want that, but if so these rules are not for you, these are fast and at times bloody and you have to have a plan.

[Conquistador]

If i can remember it started around 7pm and finished roughly 10.30pm to 11pm, you got to remember with rules you could add endless charts and go into great details and sometimes go to deep that you could never finish a game in a evening.

We kept it as simple and workable as we could, so rather than chat after a evening and talk what could have happened, we decided to get the outcome and not get bogged down revisting the rule book to often.

I think we all played games for endless hours with not much happening on the tabletop and maybe some gamers want that, but if so these rules are not for you, these are fast and at times bloody and you have to have a plan.

As a fan of Two Hour Wargames I find long games with no result a total turnoff.  Also, I play a fair number of convention games that fill the 4 hour block and require two or more sessions to reach a conclusion (not good  IMO)  so this is definitely sounding like "Maybe" game rules.

The biggest "problem" for me with colonial rules are the complete lack of ambushes possible in a game which unbalances (i.e.,  ruins) the game in favor of the colonial powers.

Gracias,

Glenn

[nevermore]

I know where you are coming from on that one, i have gamed very detail rules before with endless charts of movements ect ... i lose interest after say 4 hours of gaming with constantly looking up on rules from the book, i think it can be done too much with rules.

End of the day its suppose to be enjoyable and fun with some sort of tactic and plan and a good feel to the period you are gaming on the tabletop.I also seem to get headaches after gaming for long periods and like you pointed out it can become a turnoff.

Hidden movement in games is good, it gives the opposite player a chance to win, if you are gaming dervish or any other mob that is so often used as cannon fodder, it great for the gamer who is firing upon them but not so much fun if its repeated in every battle on the tabletop, it can be a case of i'm fed up because i know what the outcome is before we start.

Get the balance right, create abit of scenery such as long grass ect..then the game turns on its head because hidden movement becomes a advantage to the cannon fodder, and the colonial force has a game to think about, thats its written in the rules.

I am painting up miniatures at the moment for the French Canadian wars, got a number of mohawks to paint, be interesting to see how these play to the rules.

[dhtandco]

 the hidden movement works on the basis of rolling for orders and when you get them obtaining a multiple move bonus in one order phase so if you are lucky your troops can move between 16" and 54" in one turn! as long as its all in cover. It seems mad but rather than being about time and space it is more about the accounts we have all read of natives erupting out of the ground where the Europeans or US forces thought they were safe Watch Zulu dawn and Simon Ward at the waterhole for an example!
The ambush consists of receiving a random number( or predetermined number depending on the scenario) of ambush markers which can be real or hoax at the native players discretion and then having the native forces carry out a test based on their hit value whenever enemy forces arrive within 2 moves of them or nearer. So if you put levy troops in ambush hit rate of 1 they are VERY unlikely to stay hidden whereas elite have a very good chance of not being discovered. The troops can be activated in a players turn once orders have been rolled and again can erupt from cover and scare the bejabers out of the poor regulars!
I hope that helps explain the mechanism to you. Its simple but so are we!

[Conquistador]

Hmm, okay, has possibilities...

Gracias,

Glenn

typing around sleeping dog...

[dhtandco]

just back from the club where we started at 7-00pm and played a Zulu civil war battle approx. 60  company stands of troops on the table. fought to a conclusion by 8-30 it was very much a get stuck in type of scenario! followed by a Zulu v Boer game with 60 Company stands of Zulu v 24 stands of Boers in which the Boers used their mounted prowess and ability to move ,dismount and fire on one order to goad the Zulu on; to the point where they became worn down without destroying more than one company of Boers. Brilliant evening finished by 10-30

[TheMarquis]

Great looking game! Thanks for posting it. My rules arrived the other day and look really good. I'd like to ask

1) if, when firing, the facing of the firing base matters at all? Can bases fire in any direction?

2) As the firer do you choose enemy bases as targets or an enemy brigade?

Thanks

[dhtandco]

Glad they arrived okay
We usually allow a firing arc of 45 degrees and your target is the brigade or whole unit you are firing at not a company otherwise there is no random allocation of casualties which defeats the object of that rule. Obviously if there is only a single company facing your unit it can get the whole lot allocated to it

Also all firing on a brigade needs to be completed before testing morale. This is important as there is no limit on the area a brigade can be spread over, although you are encouraged to have your companies close by as they need an order for each action that is different to its fellows
I hope that helps?

[TheMarquis]

Thanks very much, that all makes good sense!

Would it be possible to publish a FAQ online? I think some of the answers you have made to the various queries about the rules have really helped to make them clearer.

[dhtandco]

There are a few questions on the Victorian Steel site forum which you are welcome to peruse. We only launched these in August so once I get feedback on the areas that are causing concern I will do that as its a great suggestion. One of our members has done a lot of work on the playsheet and produced a much nicer version than ours so thanks John . We will be putting that on the site as a download and probably having some new ones printed or simply pointing future users /purchasers to that resource. He has done a 15mm scale and 28 mm scale version (using scale in its wider sense) so many thanks for that and the questions being asked, they are a great test of our ideas!