My New Historicon Video

 

"The Furies" gang come storming down one of the narrow streets of the City.
You had best get out of their way.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE

I have just posted a copy on YouTube of my movie trailer for one of my games at this year's Historicon wargame convention. The game time is Saturday July 25, 2025 at 1PM (EST). The Event Number is 707. Click on the link below to watch the trailer (1 minute 30 seconds).

My Historicon Movie Trailer

Of course I am using this video to stir up interest in my game and get people to register and sign up to play in my game at Historicon. My game will allow up to 10 players and the game is designed to last approximately 2 hours.

Here is the link to this specific game on the HMGS Historicon game registration site. Just click the link and sign up for the game. Easy peasy. (or "facile peasy" in Latin)

Sign up link

The game is a skirmish level game that is inspired by the movie "The Warriors". A group of Roman warriors are trapped behind enemy lines and must reach the safety of their military encampment. There are numerous "Bad Guy" (and Gals) who are dead set on preventing the Warriors get away. After all, Hannibal himself has placed an attractive bounty of 100 gold ducats for whoever captures the Warriors.

A view of the City as it looks today. I have made 16 scratch-built buildings
and 6 feet of aqueduct for the game, so far...

A ground level view of daily life in the City.

Overhead view of a part of the City. I added a new Bakery this past week.
It is the building with the three windows with awnings in the upper left corner.

Life is hard in the City and living ain't an easy thing to do when you have seven or more urban gangs out to get you.

The Good Guys

The Warriors:

The Warriors, themselves

The Civilian Mob:

One of the Citizen Mobs. They might be Good Guys or they might be Bad Guys.
Money speaks volumes with the Mob.

The Vigiles:

The Urban Vigiles are the police force of ancient Rome. They don't like any
group that is creating trouble and we do not know if they will help the
Warriors or try to stop them.

The Bad Guys

These are some of the gangs that are hell-bent on capturing (or worse) the Warriors.

The Furies:

The Furies are the insane bad-ass gang in the City. They dye their hair white with
lime and wear no clothing or shoes. Ask them if they care, if you dare.

The Wolf Men:

The Wolf Men are a band of renegade deserters from the Roman army.
They harbor nothing but ill will towards the Warriors. They want loot and lots of it.

The Wings:

The Wings are a collective of disgraced Gallic chieftains who need to curry the 
favor of Hannibal to regain their honor and positions. Capturing the Warriors
would help them resurrect their careers.

The Celtic Riffs:

Grizzled Vets of Gaul who have an extreme dislike for Romans. In fact, they really
don't like anyone so they would just as soon see the other gangs fail instead of capturing the Warriors.

The Spanish Flies:

Spanish light infantry warriors who are very quick and agile, almost as if they could fly.
Get it?

The Black Shield Gang:

No, the Black Shields are not from Falworth, but rather, they are a fierce 
group of Iberians who work for whomever pays the most. Nah, they don't
like the Warriors either so they would kill them for nothing.

The Lizzies:

I just found some 54mm Amazon warriors that I can use in the game as The Lizzies, a notorious all-female gang in the City. I will be painting these figures this week and I will post pictures soon.

Summary of Forces:

So that is up to seven urban gangs that are out to nab The Warriors, two groups of "maybe" friendlies and then The Warriors themselves. I am really looking forward to hosting this game and with ten different groups having their own, and sometimes conflicting, agendas there is no telling of how this game will end.

ccc

What Is A Skirmish Game ? (and All That)

 

Upcoming Projects In The Queue

There is nothing like a new project to dust the cobwebs out of your mind and to leave the unpleasant baggage behind you. That leads to the question: what is next on Fritz's wargaming plans? I'm not exactly doing something entirely new, but rather, embellishing some existing projects that were on the back burner while I got ready for Historicon 2022.

1)  War In The Sudan - 54mm toy soldier figures, plastic and metal

2)  The Great Prussian Raid Into Poland - 1/56 scale Minden Miniatures SYW figures

3)  Hannibal Versus Rome - 54mm plastic toy soldier figures

The Sudan Project:  My recent purchase of the Cigar Box "Rattlesnake Ranch" or desert cloth mats is what is driving my renewed interest in war games set in The Sudan. During the pandemic lock down, I probably painted around 350 to 400 Armies In Plastic Beja, Dervish and Egyptian figures of 54mm size. I built my version of the town of Khartoum to give my figures something to fight over and my storming the walls of Khartoum game was a lot of fun. The Cigar Box mats improve the visual appearance of my Sudan games and so I'm eager to take this game to a higher level and perhaps stage it at Historicon in 2023. To that end I have ordered more plastic Beja warriors so that I can increase my Beja contingent from 100 figures to 200 figures of foot soldiers. I also want to increase the size of my Egyptian infantry so that I could possibly field a full army of nothing but Egyptians (and no supporting British troops). 

Dervish Country

I have a lot of ideas about terrain which will allow me to place mountains and hills atop the game mat, or underneath the cloth for gentle elevations. I made such terrain for my Historicon game using a hot wire knife and I was starting to get adept in its use. I bought several more carving tools at Historicon and I'm looking forward to cutting up chunks of two-inch thick pink foam board to make the mountains in 54mm size.

I have a couple other sneaky ideas in the terrain and accessories category, but I plan to keep these secret until  I can develop it further.

The Great Prussian Raid Into Poland During the SYW: The Prussians launched several sizable raids into Poland during the Seven Years War designed to disrupt the Russian Army's supplies and logistics systems. It seems that this problem continues to vex the Russians to this very day. The object of the raids was the Polish city of Posen, where the Russians had substantial food , forage and gunpowder magazines.

General Wobersnow led an incursion into Poland during the Winter of 1758-59 with 7 battalions, 25 squadrons, and 12 heavy artillery pieces. This seems like a reasonable number of figures to put on my game table, hence my interest in doing something completely different.

Ziethen led a larger raid of 20,000 troops into Poland in June/July of 1761. His corps consisted of 24 battalions of infantry, and 47 squadrons of cavalry. This is a much larger army than the one of 1759, but it provides me with a number of scenarios that allow me to use my Minden Russians without having to play the standard battles (Zorndorf, Kunersdorf, Paltzig and Gross Jagersdorf).

My Prussian forces already exist and so my painting focus will be on adding more Russian light cavalry and Cossacks.

Hannibal Versus Rome  - This project will likely go onto the back burner as I focus my attention on the other two projects. Primary needs are some more Roman cavalry, a brace of war elephants, more Roman Triarii, and a few other pieces. There are also plans for 54mm naval wargaming.

Some Thoughts About Games At War Game Conventions

I know that some of my blog readers will be a bit disappointed that I am not going whole hog into a massive Seven Years War project. But quite frankly, my convention experience at both Little Wars in April and Historicon in July make me think that SYW games are not well received at American wargaming conventions. In both instances, I had a superb looking game that was second to none, however, I couldn't get people to sign up for the games in the numbers needed to move around all of the available figures in the game. Perhaps it would be best to host SYW games at the Seven Years War Association Convention and then go in different directions for shows that do not have the narrow focus of the SYWA

I think that the large big games are a no go at today's war game conventions and have become something of a dinosaur in this era. Or maybe we should narrow it down and say that large Horse and Musket/Black Powder Era games are not as popular as they used to be. Based on my observations at Little Wars and Historicon, WW2 large games still seem to attract players. I dare say that WW2 is probably the most popular period of wargaming today.

Smaller games, more specifically skirmish games seem to be very popular. I think that this is because an element of role playing is injected into the game and by their nature, skirmish games are shorter than the large games. A person can expect to finish a skirmish game in about two or three hours. For this reason, I chose to present a SYW skirmish game at both conventions. I figured that catering to the skirmish gamer set would generate more interest in my game (not withstanding that it didn't at both conventions, I still hold that I made the best choice in doing skirmish games this year).

Finally, Science Fiction and anything with zombies is a sure bet for attracting an overflow of participants to your game; however, I refuse to host a game that has zombies, vampires or space marines in it.

Sharpe Practice - Is It Really A Skirmish Set of Rules?

There has been a lot of buzz about the Sharpe Practice (SP)  set of rules from Too Fat Lardies (TFL) in the UK. Whenever someone on TMP asks for recommendations for a good set of skirmish rules, it seems that fifteen thousand people come TFL has done an exceptional job of promoting its rules, so kudos to them.

Given all of the buzz and excitement over these rules, I gave them a try at several conventions and really questioned whether these were actually skirmish games. I played in a Jacobite Rebellion scenario and it seemed that there were way too many figures on the table, all in established units of 18 to 24 figures. I think that I had at least three units of this type under my command. My memory is a bit foggy on this. There was a distinct absence of "role playing in the game" and was disappointed by that missing feature. There was really nothing in this particular SP game that said "skirmish game".

Is this a case of "The Emperors' New Clothes Syndrome"? In other words, have we been told so many times that SP is a skirmish game that we all feel compelled to believe it because gosh darn it, everyone else calls it a skirmish game. We become too embarrassed or lack the self confidence to go against the flow and be the only person who says "wait a minute, this doesn't seem like a skirmish game".

I ask these questions because I am looking for something that will "grab" people and make them want to sign  up for my games. SP seems to be popular and there are people who want to give the rules a test drive in live game conditions; and there are a lot of proponents of SP that will seek out games that feature these rules.

What Is A Skirmish War Game?

I don't have definitive sense of what constitutes a "skirmish game", but I know one when I see it. In my mind it is a game with a small number of figures under your control. Maybe you have one or two character figures and a few minions under your command and you are given a mission for the game. Accomplish this mission, and keep other players from accomplishing their missions, and you win the game. A good example of this is the Wild West gunfighter rules, of which there are many, but Desperado comes quickly to mind. You have two gunfighters under your command so there is no margin for error in doing anything that brings peril to your figures.  You get shot and you are quickly out of the game. Reminds me of The Hunger Games. I always feared "the sucking chest wound" whenever I played in a Desperado game hosted by Tom Kelley. LOL.

I saw a number of these types of games at Little Wars and Historicon so I'm thinking that low number of figures and small game is very popular these days.

However,  I like to play with a few more figures than two or three, so I'm looking for a set of rules that has up to ten or twelve figures under each players command. As an aside, why is the number "12" so popular in war games? I could see maybe stretching the number of figures in your war band up to around 20 figures, but anything more gets us out of my percieved definition of a what a skirmish game entails.

I am sure that there are as many definitions of "skirmish game rules" as there are war gamers on the planet. There is no right or wrong answer here. I am just present my opinion on this matter.

I will continue to look for a set of skirmish rules that I can use for the Horse and Musket Era.

Kleine Krieg Rules Q & A

Der Alte Fritz answers questions from play testers of his new Kleine Krieg rules.
(click to enlarge the picture)

I have a number of play testers working on my Kleine Krieg skirmish rules for the Seven Years War and I am getting some good feedback that I thought that I would share with my readers. The questions and the answers are shown below:

Question 1 - Initiative: Do you dice to determine who goes first, as in your rules for larger battles, or is there a different method?

Answer: Initiative is determined by the draw of a card from a deck that you create prior to the start of the game. I make my own cards by cutting them out of cardboard. Each unit in the game will have two cards with its name on the card. All cards for all units are shuffled together and the draw of the card determines which unit gets to perform an Action first. Note that any unit can theoretically draw two consecutive cards and thus perform back to back Actions.

Question 2 - In the turn order: move, shoot, melee and morale (and when for morale). Should it be on the play sheet?

Answer: The turn order is determined by each player when one of his cards is drawn from the card deck. A player may decide that he wants to shoot on the first turn; or move first; or charge into melee, etc. There is a box on the back of the QRC sheet labeled "When to Check Morale" and such checks are taken when

1) Charging unit takes casualties during the charge

2) Defender decides to Stand to a charge

3) Melee loser tests morale

4) Officer or personality figure casualty that occurs on the current game turn

Note that units do not have to test morale when they take casualties from firing (except if taken during the charge - see event 1) above.

Question 3 - Two actions in one turn feels like a lot for a small skirmish game on a smaller 4ft by 6ft table, especially when units are within 18-inches (which is the musket range). 

Answer: the rules are flexible and feel free to make changes during your play testing. On a smaller 4x6 table I would recommend using smaller units of, say, 12 figures instead of the 12 to 24 figures that I use in my skirmish game. You could also experiment with reducing all ranges and movement by half.

Question 4: I do like the idea of a reload as an Action which stops people blazing away willy nilly twice in a bound. It makes it more of a tense game in timing a charge or movement when close to an enemy - are they going to reload in time?

Answer: a "reload" Action is an interesting idea that I will consider adding to the rules. I kind of like the idea of a dastardly Croat letting the Prussians have it in the face on consecutive actions. On the other hand, if there were a "reload" Action in the rules, a unit might want to only fire half of its unit (e.g. fire 6 of 12 figures in a unit) while the other half of the unit holds its fire. Thus the other six figures can fire at an opponent and cover the other half who are reloading.

Question 5: When a unit takes a casualty how do you decide who is hit? I did a dice roll to count along the unit's line, in the manner of the Featherstone and Grant rules.

Answer: My perusal of the rules sheet indicates that the officer casualty procedure is not listed on the rules sheet. Originally, I was using a deck of regular playing cards to determine fire effects and if an Ace card was drawn, then the fire effect applied to the officer in the unit or the Personality figure if he was attached.

I think that your solution is a good idea. So roll a D6 and start counting from left to right along the line of the unit's figures. Thus a roll of "5" indicates that the fifth figure from the left would be the casualty. Or maybe roll two D6 if it is a 12-figure unit.

Question 6: It felt odd with both the winning and losing sides in a melee taking prisoners. Should the winners (sic - "losers" perhaps) just retire?

Answer: Melees are fought on a one to one basis, or up to a maximum of three figures picking on one unfortunate Joe if one of the sides has extra figures in its unit (e.g. one side has 6 figures and the other side has 9 figures - thus one side has three extra figures that it can match up with other melees in the fight. In this instance the extra figures can double up on one figure first, rather than adding two more figures , that is 3 to 1. If there are still extra figures after all figures have doubled up on the opponent, then the third figure can join the melee).

It might be a good rule change to have the losing side in the melee retreating and releasing its prisoners. Thus only melee winners retain captured prisoners.

Question 7: The melee system seems a bit fiddly. I do like the one on one combat ( as in The Sword and the Flame rules). Could the hit and casualty outcomes be shown from the difference in the initial opposed rolls rather than having to roll dice again?

Answer: There is only one dice roll in a melee. The one die roll applies to both the combat part of the melee and the melee outcome result.

The winner of a one on one melee is the figure that rolls the higher number on its combat dice roll. For example, if Player A rolls a "12" on a D20 and Player B rolls a "9" on a D20, then Player A wins the melee. Player A now consults the Melee Results Table and sees that the "12" that he rolled in the melee translates into a Kill outcome (a roll of 12 to 20 is a kill).

If we were to "net out" the opposing numbers, in this case a 12 less a 9 equals a 3 outcome which translates to "loser taken prisoner". The result can be substantially different if the die rolls are netted against each other. If you want to try netting the dice scores, the I would recommend reducing the Melee Effects by half (e.g. a 20 roll become a 10 roll and the 12 to 20 roll outcome of Kill is changed to 6 to 10 equalling a Kill outcome.

For those readers who do not have a copy of the rules in front of them, the melee results table:

On a D20, Melee Results are:

12 to 20    Kill

9 to 11      Wound inflicted on the loser

5 to 8        Flee, the loser retires 12-inches

1 to 4        Loser is taken prisoner

Halving the above table changes the outcome buckets to 6 to 10 = Kill; 4-5 = Wound; 2-3 = Flee, and a 1 = Loser taken prisoner.

I think that the play tester asked a lot of good questions and found a couple of logic holes in the rules. I appreciate all feedback from our play testers. The rules are not set in stone yet so I can still change mechanics that either don't work or produce odd results.

I welcome comments from readers who are not play testers. Just write your observations and opinions in the Comments section of this blog post.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Sand Worms from Acheson Designs

Uh oh, it looks like there is trouble on the horizon. Graboids have been sighted in Moravia. What implications can this have in the mid 18th Century?

The sand worms are made by Acheson Designs and come with five parts for assembly. The torso and head were attached with a metal pin, some green epoxy putty and Super Glue. The three tongue  or teeth thingys also need to be attached - these were a bit more difficult to attach. I will need to fill in the gaps with more epoxy putty.

The business end of some terrifying tentacles.

The obvious putty line should not be visible once a coat of black primer is applied.

Two Hour Wargames has a rules module called Big Ass Worms (or "BA" Worms) and I plan to use some of the ideas from this to append to my Croat Terror skirmish rules for the 18th Century. It should be a lot of fun to play. Perhaps Brotherhood of the Wolf and Predator could find its way into the 18th Century skirmish games on my table.

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.

AWI British Grenadiers Wearing Bearskin Hats

Fife and Drum Miniatures British Grenadiers

Rear view

Rear view of the British Grenadier Marching poses.

I have been working on some AWI British figures for a skirmish game at next year's SYWA Convention in South Bend, Indiana. I painted and based a 12-figure marching company and a 12-figure firing line company.

All of these figures are available for purchase from the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store

Fife and Drum Web Store


BLACK FRIDAY WEEK SALE
We are currently having a Black Friday Week Sale with a 20% discount on all eligible product codes (excluding the regimental packs which are already sold at a 12% to 17% discount).

At checkout, enter the coupon code LP1998 in the box provided to get your 20% discount.

The British Grenadiers in Bearskin Hats Product Codes Are:

BA-013  British Grenadier Command (2 x NCOs and 2 drummers)

BA-014  British Grenadiers Standing Firing (8 figures)

BA-015  British Grenadiers Advancing/At the Ready  (8 figures)

BA-016  British Grenadiers Marching, Light Kit (8 figures)

BA-017  British Grenadiers Marching, w/ Tumplines (8 figures)

British Grenadier Firing Line

British Grenadiers in the Advancing or At the Ready pose.

British Grenadier Firing Line

MY SKIRMISH GAME UNIT ORGANIZATION

The skirmish units have 12 figures to a company and each player will probably command two companies of figures, or 24 figures in total

The figures are mounted on 25mm diameter round bases from Litko and placed in the movement tray, also from Litko. Actually, when you purchase the movement tray the round bases are included.

I have currently 2 stands of British Light Infantry, 1 stand of Hessian Jagers, 1 stand of Highlander flank company figures, and 2 stands of British Grenadiers.


Ccc

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.