Comfortable Christmas Wargaming

I played a comfortable game this morning using these rules at the end of this article by Stuart Asquith:

https://lonewarriorswa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Comfortable-War-Gaming.pdf

The figures I used were some Italeri Celts and Celt Cavalry representing the Crumpet Barbarians and some Italeri 95th Rilfes and French Dragoons representing the forces of Roulade.

The Roulade Army had to make it from the hedged off area in the top right to the bottom left corner and the Crumpet Barbarians began with their Cavalry on the hill in the top left, some swordsmen in the hedged area on the left and some spearmen on the bottom right. I decided that for each figure the barbarians were able to kill they would gain a point, and each figure the Roulade could get to the bottom left area they would get a point. I had no idea when beginning this scenario if it would be balanced or fair, but then again war normally isn’t.

Turn 1 saw both units of cavalry clashing on the hill, and the units of foot barbarians advancing. The Roulade infantry also advanced. At this point I was convinced that the cavalry battle would decide the outcome of the entire game, with the surviving cavalry mopping up the other force. I may have overestimated the effectiveness of cavalry in Stuart Asquith’s rules.

The clash was quick and decisive with the Roulade Dragoons breaking and fleeing back to their infantry.

The Crumpet Cavalry gave chase and ran into the Roulade firing line.

At this range the Infantry were rolling 1 die per 5 figures with a -1 modifier to each die. Giving them a total of 9 hits. I decided it should take 2 hits to down a cavalry figure and so the barbarians lost 4 men.

The final barbarian made it in and since I hadn’t realised that Stuart’s rules did not cover this kind of eventuality on purpose as the single rider should have tried to find some allies to join. I allowed him to attack after which he would be automatically killed. He failed to do anything and so was just removed.

With the Cavalry dealt with the foot barbarians were next and were closing in rapidly. The remainders of the Dragoons charged the swordsmen, feeling that charging spears was a bad idea and the infantry formed up and opened fire on the spears.

At this point I got too excited which is always a good sign and forgot to take pictures. Needless to say the Dragoons broke the swordsmen and looped back round charging the rear of the spears as the infantry moved into their front.

In the end the only remaining Crumpet Barbarian was the Chieftain. Maybe a rescue mounted by more Barbarians is in order? Although I think they’ll need reinforcing considering how quickly they were dealt with this time around.

You’ll probably have noticed nothing untowards regarding the figures I’ve been using. But what I will say is that this isn’t just a comfortable game I also employed some very comfortable painting, getting both forces together in a days work. For the barbarians I primed them grey, primed white from above, picked their shields out in red, their helmets out in gold, hilts and spear shafts in black and blades with silver. They then got two consecutive black washes and a bone dry brush:

The Roulade were primed black, had grey sprayed from above. I then picked out their skin with bone, added some yellow spot details, picked out the rifle with brown and any bayonets or swords with silver. They also then got two black washes and a bone dry brush.

All in all I’m quite excited by the results and am looking forward to adding more figures and growing these forces pretty considerably. I can only imagine Asquith’s rules working even better with bigger battles.