1 Hour Skirmish Wargames

 

I've played a couple of games of James Lambshead's skirmish rules recently... one set in the Russian Civil War, and the other using the Ancients/Medieval version.  They're a card based system with no dice at all.  Each player has a deck including a Joker. Cards are drawn to determine initiative, to activate figures with a number of points (from 1 for an Ace to 13 for a King) and to resolve shooting, melee and morale.  Drawing a Joker ends the turn and players go through their card decks pretty quickly.  But this does mean turn length is unpredictable and figures may activate multiple times or not at all in each turn

 I failed to take any photos of the RCW game (always a sign of a good game!) but remembered when we played a 2nd game last night.  The original book goes from the 17thC onwards, including rules for Pulp and SciFi games.  The 2nd book takes it back to Ancients through to Medieval times.

In the 1st game my Bolsheviks attempted to overrun some dug-in British Interventionist troops.  The turn limit meant I really needed to press home the attack.  Hand to Hand combat gives an advantage to the attacker, but instead I got drawn into a long range firefight which got me nowhere and gave the British the victory.

The Ancients/Medieval version is very similar but with enough differences to cause us some initial confusion.  In this version there's an extra step where your opponents  armour makes it easier to hit them but they're more likely to shrug off the attack.  Cavalry also have some advantages in combat and can also break off freely from a melee with infantry, ready to charge again.

As you'd expect from Skirmish rules the scenarios are quite themed and detailed... no simple encounters here.  They range from battles among rocks to a Robin Hood tax collector raid.

In the original Napoleonic scenario the French and British are squabbling over an abandoned cannon.  We shifted the action slightly... a Saxon raiding party have stolen Arthur's  cows and Aelswine the prize pig.  These have stubbornly ground to a halt  in the middle of the table, allowing Arthur and his troops to catch up.  We stuck with the victory conditions from the original scenario in which the Saxons have to end the game with at least 1 figure within 6" of the animals, while the Britons have to drive them off.  In hindsight this was never going to work... it really needed the firepower the Napoleonic setting would have brought, or for us to start much closer (games are usually 3'x3' or 4'x4').  My fault for not thinking the scenario through.

The Saxons sensibly drew back, maximising the distance and, although Arthur and his knights charged home they weren't able to make much headway.  The scenarios have a tight turn limit (5 turns in this case) and it didn't help that my 1st card was a Joker, meaning turn #1 was over before we'd moved!  Despite this I enjoyed the game.  

The rules work well.  The armour rules mean that light troops are still effective... often in games like this they are spear-fodder but their nimbleness means they are actually very effective, although if they fail to dodge then it's game over.  Cavalry feel right... charging, pulling back and charging home again.  So with a better chosen scenario these are definitely on the regular gaming list.  Next might be something a bit more modern....