My New Skirmish Game Table

 

Farmer Ansell's farmstead near the town of Miller's Crossing, somewhere in Pennsylvania.

I recently set up a dedicated skirmish level game table in my basement that I can use for rules testing and small war games with my family or for solo play.

The table measures 5ft by 4 ft and is topped by a Cigar Box Battle Mat. The mat has some nice cornfields, wheat fields, forest areas and roads printed on it. The mat provides some useful variety in terrain. The table currently has a setup for an AWI skirmish game between the local militia and a couple of companies of British Light Company soldiers.

A view of my game room. The skirmish game table is located back in the corner of the room.

The village of Miller's Crossing.

The above picture depicts the little village of Miller's Crossing. Miller's Tavern is located in the center of the table and the Ansell farmstead is shown near the upper corner. Two companies of American militia are deployed on the road perpendicular to Miller's Tavern. A small company (8 figures) of riflemen have advanced up the road on the right to to discomfit the advancing company of British light infantry, who are advancing through Miller's Cornfield. . A second Light Company is advancing through Ansell's Cornfield. Unbeknownst to the American rebels, there is a company of the 71st Highland Regiment hiding in the woods on the far left. They are biding their time to either spring an ambush or advance on the flank of the militia. Another company of American militia are advancing up the road to Miller's Tavern.

American riflemen move up the road to harass the British light infantry.

Aerial view of the table reveals the location of the British light company attackers.

Rebel militia reinforcements double quick to the crossroads.

I will be playing the game using the AWI variant of my Kleine Krieg skirmish rules. If anyone wants to be a play tester of the rules then send me an email at altefritz1740@yahoo.com and I will send you a PDF copy of the rules. The rules have been changed to remove the card draw initiative and phasing system, replacing it with a dice-based game system. I would like to get these rules published in the near future and only need some independent rules testers to give them a try and seek out any bugs or inconsistencies in the rules.

Croat Terror Skirmish Rules Play Test Game

Master of His Domain surveying His realm.

On Saturday December 28th the Terrible Trio of der Alte Fritz, Major General Pettygree, and the White Menace held our annual post-Christmas game at Schloss Seewald (also known as my house). This year I decided to break out my Croat Terror skirmish rules for the SYW and give them a thorough play test. Messers Pettygree and White Menace are particularly adept at finding the loopholes in any set of rules, so I set them loose on Croat Terror rules.

Ostensibly, we played a skirmish game with some second rate Prussian Freikorps, hussars and jagers escorting a supply convoy to a nearby Prussian encampment. One should not be surprised to hear that an Austrian raiding party of grenadiers, musketeers and Croats attempted to intercept the convoy.

I only took a few pictures during the game because I was busy jotting down notes about rules errata, loopholes and other legerdomain from the action on the tabletop.

Keith L (The White Menace) attacks with his Austrians.

Bill P's (Major General Pettygree) Prussian Jagers proved to be a deadly force to deal with.

I hadn't hosted a game with my Croat Terror rules for quite awhile, and it soon showed as I had to consult the rule book quite a few times to render judgement on the interpretation of the rules. There were a number of those "ah yes, I remember it well" moments as memories of how the rules worked were dredged from my deepest memories.

However, after several turns, Major General Pettygree and the White Menace picked up on the mechanics of the game system and the flow of the game proceeded smoothly. For the record, it looks like the Prussians staved off the Austrian attack and would have steered the convoy to the safety of the Prussian encampment had the game not been called at 4:00 PM as is our custom.

Austrian Grenadiers (left) chase some Prussian Freikorps out of the woods.

What Did We Learn

One of the first things pointed out by the White Menace was the need for a one or two page quick reference chart of the rules. I had given the players the 10-page rules set and we found ourselves frequently thumbing through the pages for movement and firing tables. There were very few melees in the game, other than to test the melee system in Croat Terror. So later that evening, I typed out a QRC and fit it onto two sides of one 8-1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper.

Next, we discovered that the Prussian Jagers were a powerhouse when they took advantage of the 30-inch range of their rifles compared to the 18-inch range of muskets. The players suggested either (1) shorten the rifle range to 24-inches, or (2) use only one company of 12 figures in any game, rather than the 24 figures that I have painted. I subsequently reduced the rifle range to 24-inches. I will probably limit jagers to 12 figures in any game.

It's kind of funny, but in many of my large battles and skirmish battles, the Prussian players fail to take advantage of the jager rifle's range. Basically, they can stand outside of musket range and shoot down the Austrians while the Austrians can not fire back at them. So it was great to see Major General Pettygree employ his jagers to his best advantage.

Movement seemed a bit too slow in the game, so I added an extra D6 to all of the movement rates for different formations and troop types. Typically, a musketeer regiment formed in line will move the number of inches from two D6 dice (i.e. a roll of six and three on two D6 equals nine inches of movement). Now they will have three D6 and so on.

There were several other minor changes such as clarifying some of the definitions and working out the mechanics of cavalry pursuit and passage of lines, but other than that, I think that the revised Croat Terror rules will work very well in a convention setting.

Next Steps

The QRC needs to be proof-read and then I will have some laminated copies made for my games. The rules book and text will need to be revised to incorporate the changes. After a couple more play test games, I shall start laying out the pages of the rules book with the aim of publishing them in the future.

The mechanics of the rules (movement, firing, melee and morale procedures) are fairly well-tested over time, so additional play testing will focus on seeing how the tweaks and changes affect the game.

Finally, I can see that I need to paint another unit or two of 24 Croats to use in the games. I envision two regiments of 24 figures, each on a 12-figure movement tray. These would actually be companies and so a player will command two companies in the game. I might reduce the forces to one company of 12-figures per player anticipating that fewer figures will tease out the role playing element of wargamers.

Croat Terror Skirmish Game Today

Dismounted Prussian Hussars spring the ambush trap!

This morning Bill P. and Kieth L. are visiting Schloss Seewald to play in a little skirmish game, set during the SYW, to play the Charles Grant "Ambush" scenario. The game will also allow me to play test my Croat Terro skirmish rules again. I haven't hosted a game with my rules for quite a number of years and Kieth L. in particular has a nose for sniffing out the loop holes in almost any rules set.

A band of Croats sets the ambush of a Prussian supply convoy.

The game will feature a Prussian supply convoy trying to reach the safety of a Prussian encampment somewhere down the road. Prussian hussars, jagers and freikorps troops escort the wagon train.

A task force of Croats and Austrian Grenadiers aim to stop the convoy from reaching its destination.

Austrian Grenadiers

I will post a game report later this evening. Stay tuned, you never know what is hiding out in the woods.

My Prussian Skirmish Game Units

Croats ambush a Prussian supply wagon and its escort of dismounted hussars.
(Minden Miniatures, Perry supply wagon, Cigar Box Battles game mat)

Click/Double Click all pictures to see them in their full awesomeness.

Well, we seem to have come down with a case of skirmish game fever here at Schloss Seewald, and the only prescription for the fever is either more cowbell or paint more figures. I have opted for the latter seeing that I do not own any cowbells.

I have pretty much decided that my convention games for 2020 will all be skirmish level games set in either the SYW or the AWI, or even both! I have observed that convention gamers seem to have more fun playing in the smaller skirmish games, where they might command anything from one to, say, 24 figures, than they do in large battalion/regiment styles of games.

Possible skirmish scenarios include the ever popular ambush of the wagon train convoy, or a raid on the field bakery of the enemy (an army can't fight without bread), or the capture of a certain king who likes to ride out in the country on reconnaisance. You get the idea.

Croat Terror Strikes Again!

A Prussian field bakery seems like a ripe target for a Croat raid.
( A mix of RSM and Minden figures. Field bakery ovens scratch-built by Ed Phillips;
the other buildings were made by Herb Gundt).

An added benefit, I think, is that it should be easier to transport all of the components of a skirmish game set up than it is for a larger game of 12-16 regiments per side. At least I think that to be the case, but if you have been a reader of this blog since its inception in 2010, you know that Der Alte Fritz doesn't like to do anything nice and easy, so there is a risk that the size of my skirmish game set up could grow like kudzu.

I digress though...

Prussian Black Hussars - one of my favorite cavalry uniforms of all time.
(Minden Miniatures dismounted Prussian hussars in mirliton hats)

The Genesis of this Particular Butterfly

The attraction of the skirmish game began to germinate at the recent Seven Years War Association convention in April 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. I was talking with Paul Petri and Herb Gundt about the dearth of game on Saturday evening of the convention and we were trying to gin up a solution to get more games for that time slot. It used to be that Saturday evening was THE Prime Time slot at the convention, but somewhere along the line, the attraction seemed to fade away. I noticed that people were taking off earlier on Saturday and traveling home, whereas they used to stay at the hotel on Saturday night and go home on Sunday.

What to do? Schedule games that are more fun and less serious on Saturday night. Now I know of one curmudgeon who bristles at the idea of wargames being fun, but let's cross him off our list as an outlier on the extreme and focus on the large majority of gamers who go to a convention to have some fun. ("No Fritz, I want to travel several hundred miles to a convention and have a miserable time in each game that I play in.").

First, the Rules

I decided that I needed to have a set of skirmish rules that are easy to learn and yes, fun to play, and ones that could introduce a certain level of role playing. Sharp Practice seemed like a good set, at least until I played them at the Little Wars convention this year. I liked the rules, but they seemed too complicated for a person to pick up right away (that would be ME). Skirmish game rules need to be easy, easy and more easy to learn so that the players can step into their roles and start stabbing their fellow gamers in the back, as needed, during the game.

I looked at a number of skirmish level rules, but then deep in the cobwebs of my brains, I remembered that I used to use my own set of rules, called "Croat Terror", for skirmish games and they met my requirements of (1) easy to learn, and (2) fun to play. The title of the rules has its genesis in a FIW game that Tod Kershner used to run at conventions, called "Iroquois Terror." I thought that Tod's title instantly conveyed the concept of fun, so when I sought to have a game set in Europe, the idea of roving bands of Croat light infantry wreeking terror on Prussian supply convoys led to the name "Croat Terror for my rules. In this day and age of global terrorism, perhaps the title has too much of a raw edge to it and might have to be renamed. What was acceptable in the 1990s may be less so in 2019. Your thoughts on this would be appriciated.

So I decided to go with the "Croat Terror " rules for my skirmish games.

Organizing the Forces

I think that once skirmish units get to be more than about 20-30 figures, then we are no longer talking about playing a skirmish game. I can't pinpoint the precise size, but it is one of those "I'll know it when I see it" types of things. I have elected to go with a company of 12 figures as the basic building block of the combatants. Each group of 12 figures has one NCO in it - this is what I am calling a "company" of figures. Two such companies are commanded by an officer, probably at the captain or major rank.

Some examples of the figure organization are shown below - Prussian freikorps troops and Prussian jagers. The individual stands (25mm diameter discs) and movement trays will be finished off with my usual static grass and tufts or flower. My apologies for showing them in their unfinished state.

Prussian frei-battalion or regiment. Two companies of twelve figures plus a commanding officer.
The forces include a mix of Fife & Drum AWI Continentals painted as Prussians
and some Fife & Drum AWI Hessians painted as Prussians.

Prussian jagers - two companies of 12 figures plus a commanding officer.
(Minden Miniatures, all)

I am using 25mm diameter wood discs for the individual figures, which fit into a movement tray that holds the 12 figures in the company. The NCO is one of the figures on the movement tray plus 11 rank and file soldiers. I decided on using Litko movement trays for my skirmish companies. They are reasonably priced, the unit looks nice and tidy in the tray, and Litko provides really great customer service.

Portable Terrain

I mentioned that portability of the terrain was an important consideration for me. I use a 6ft by 12ft canvas matt that rolls  up onto a cylinder. The problem is that the cylinder is six feet long, so it can be a problem finding a place for it when I load up my car with "game stuff". I have seen a number of game judges using the Cigar Box Battles game mats, as mentioned in an earlier blog post, and so I purchased two 6ft by 5ft mats that are designed to match up (roads to roads, etc.) for my skirmish games. I can fold the mats up into a smaller, rectangular size that takes up way less room than the six foot cylinder. That is a big plus as far as I'm concerned.

I should add that I really like the Cigar Box game mats.

Once the mat is set up on the table, then it is a simple matter of placing trees and buildings and whatever else strikes your fancy onto the game mat. I carry all of my buildings and trees in plastic stackable bins that have a pull-out drawer. When I am packing up, it is easy to put the few buildings into a plastic bin and then do the same for the trees. That's pretty much it as far as the terrain goes. Easy peasy and everything is all tickety-boo.

Figures to use in the Game

Naturally, I am largely using Minden SYW and Fife and Drum AWI miniatures. I add in the occasional RSM and/or Perry figure here and there. Perry has some nice civilian figures in their AWI figure range that are worth having a look. I like to have a lot of civilians roaming around the perifery of the game table. But you had best beware, if you decide to attack a civilian with one of your soldiers, be advised that the civilians can fight back. Oftentimes the civilians are noncombatants, but once one of them are attacked, then they band together and go crazy on the offending side. 

The Tale of Bucket Woman

I recall one game in which a Croat player decided to kill a woman carrying one of those water bucket yokes. We called her Bucket Woman and she was a deadly fighter. To begin, one Croat attacked Bucket Woman and didn't realize that she could and would fight back. The Croat got clocked by one swing of her water bucket yoke.

Bucket Woman - the Biggest Badass in Silesia
(Minden Croats, Foundry Bucket Woman, and Perry Ma and Pa figures)

Two Croats warily approach the dreaded Bucket Woman.
Ma and Pa are in the background observing  the things to come.

OK, then the Croat player decided that he would attack again, only this time with two Croats.  Bad idea, because a water yoke has two wooden buckets and with one swing to the left and one swing to the right Bucket Woman dispatched two more naer-do-well Croats. 

Finally, the Croat player's blood was up and he wanted revenge, however, he was now wise to the ways of Bucket Woman and decided to shoot her rather than get in another melee with her.  And not with just one Croat, but with five Croats, just to make sure. As you might guess, the Croats fired and all of them missed.

But wait, there's more... Bucket Woman had a pistol concealed in her robes and as the black powder smoke from the Croat muskets wafted up into the air, she pulled out her pistol, aimed it at one of the Croats, and despatched him with one shot.

Finally, the Croat player decided that he had had enough and retreated away from Bucket Woman. No one else dared to engage her thereafter.

This is the type of story that makes skirmish games so much fun. They can be very unpredictable and the players can't help but get involved with the role playing aspect of the game.

My Proposed Austrian and Prussian Forces

I will have to do a number of play tests to determine whether a player should have only one company of 12 figures, or will two companies work too, or will two companies clog up the table. Let me know what your thoughts are: 12 figures per player or 24 figures per player.

Thus far I have painted 2 x 12 Prussian Freikorps infantry, 2 x 12 Prussian jagers, 1 x 12 dismounted Black Hussars, and I'm in the process of finishing up 1 x 12 dismounted Zieten Hussars.

My Austrian army currently has 2 x 12 Croats and 2 x 12 Austrian grenadiers with some more units to follow to even up the sides.

I am making good progress in my painting of the skirmish figures so I hope to be able to run some play test games over the summer.

I think that we are going to have a lot of FUN with the Skirmish Game Project

Croat Samples Painted

A hoard of Croats from Minden Miniatures.

I've been painting samples of Minden product codes so that every item in the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store has a picture of the product. This project has been ongoing and it will keep going for quite awhile as there are hundreds of different figures to paint.

I finished all of the Prussian Jagers last week and so now it is on to the Croats, of which three of the four codes have been painted during the holiday weekend.

Croat command pack

Croats standing pack of firing and loading poses.

Croats advancing pack.

I have the Croats kneeling pack on the painting table right now and expect to finish them today. The four Croat figure packs give me 21 figures already painted, so 3 more rankers and one officer will complete my first Team Austria unit. Later, I will paint a second Croat unit in blue coats, followed by 2 x 12 dismounted Austrian Hussars.

I have been basing the figures singlely on round bases with the idea that I can photograph them and then re-employ them in small skirmish game scenarios. Units will have two companies of 12 figures plus one overall officer. Thus each player will control no more than 25 figures in the game. A game will likely have three players per side, so that works out to about 75 figures per side.

I've been searching for a good set of period skirmish rules and after playing several published rules sets, they not being to my liking, I remembered that I had my own Croat Terror skirmish rules. I haven't used the CT rules in quite awhile, but after thumbing through them, I decided that these would work just fine and that I could easily make a few modifications for the game that I have in mind for next year's Seven Years War Association convention in March 2020.

Prussian Jagers - Painted Pix

Prussian Jagers - both the command and jager packs shown.

I am working my way through the Minden Miniatures web store catalog and picking out the product codes (or "SKUs" - Stock Keeping Units) that do not have pictures of the figures associated with the SKU. Afterall, if you want to buy something, you want to have an idea of what it looks like, so having pictures is a must.

The Prussian dismounted hussars were finished a few days ago and so now it is time to get the Prussian jagers painted.

MP-015 Prussian Jager Command (3 figures: officer, trumpeter, and NCO)

MP-015 Prussian Jager Command.

MP-015 rear view.

MP-016 Prussian Jagers (2 each of 5 different poses = 10 figures)

MP-016 Prussian Jagers.
There are two each of five different poses in the pack.

The five different jager rank and file poses.

Same as above, only the rear view.

I really am having a lot of fun painting these light troop figures (jagers and dismounted hussars), painting one of each, and really like the action and movement in the figures.

As stated in my previous post, this has inspired me to start planning some small forces for a skirmish style of wargame that I can take to conventions. While I enjoy the big battles, I think that convention goers largely prefer to play in a skirmish level game. These are generally very fun to play because there is a little bit of role-playing involved, there are fewer figures to move around, and the games are finished in a shorter amount of time. 

When I look around at the games at a convention, it seems like the gamers playing in a small skirmish game are having more fun than those who are engaged in a larger battalion/regiment type of game.

With that in mind, I have dusted off my copy of my own "Croat Terror" rules for skirmish wargames and have taken a look at the play sheets to make sure that all of the rules are up to date. The rules are basically ready to publish, so this is a project that I might work on this year so as to have the rules and figures ready for the SYW Association convention in March 2020.