Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Solo *sigh* Seige


It looks to me as though I may have a little time to myself over the Xmas/New Year period, and naturally enough, a young mans’ fancy turns to war-gaming.

I’ve just taken delivery of a half dozen Eureka Pirate ship guns which I intend to press into use with my fortress (they really are a much quicker and more sturdy build than the Hinchcliffe garrison Artillery I own already); I painted the first pair last night and they look pretty good to me.

I have some simple siege rules I want to try out, but as I’ll be playing this one out as a solo game, I am wanting to make things a little less predictable by:

a) assigning the general of the “attacking” side a personality* that I have to keep in mind whilst making my decisions. I think I can use the rules in the Tony Bath book on campaigns to do this. Then again, I could go cheap and easy by doing a “Seinfeld” and no matter my instinctive inclination might be in a situation, do the opposite! And;

b) that old favourite of mine, using chance cards.

I’ll probably use the Charge! Basic rules for fighting our any table-top actions that arise, or perhaps even Featherstone’s “Close Wars” if there is anything I need to play out as a skirmish.

I’ll need to fake up a map, keeping in mind that the terrain had better be suitable for a fortification and I’ll need to decide on Orders of Battle. I think the attacker will need to outnumber the defender on the tabletop by about 2:1, keeping in mind that the rest of his forces are maintaining the circumvallation and contravallation lines “off the table” as it were.

UPDATE: Ahem, a little experimantation leads me to the conclusion that my fortress may be a little small...

I am thinking seriously of increasing the size of the bastions and ravelin qite considerably; perhaps by 50%.

Megalomania? Take a look at how much room the two guns take in the picture of my Ravelin.

*What is your wargaming personality? I think I'm best suited as an infantryman fighting on the defensive.

6 comments:

old-tidders said...

I'm sure the sige game will be interesting.

As a wargame personality - I a cautious commander with a propensity for ordering rash cavalry charges.

-- Allan

abdul666 said...

Extremely promising!

I'll stay tuned to learn about the developments of your project.

Compliments,

Jean-Louis

SteveI said...

My heart says an attacking cavalry commander, my head a defensive commander - steady rather than extreme.

Der Alte Fritz said...

Wellington learned everything he knew about generalship from Der Alte Fritz (me). I'm a rear-slope-defense-and-counterattack kind of guy.

old-tidders said...

This Eureka pirate cannons look good, I'm thinking of building a fortress of sorts so some of those will be useful

-- Allan

Bloggerator said...

Allan,

While you are at it, take a look at the mortars in the same range. They look excellent and I'm thinking of buying a few.

Regards,

Greg