When Osprey Books released Honours of War by Keith Flint in 2015 I will admit I was very excited. The rules were inexpensive and specifically covered the War of Austrian Succession and the subsequent Seven Years War. The rules were pretty straight forward to use and I particularly liked the command system for the brigadiers and commanders. Overall I thought they were exactly what I was looking for.
Sadly over a number of battles I began to realise that there were some issues with them as regards the need to constantly withdraw units in order to rally causalities and also what appeared to me the overwhelming power of the artillery. The final straw was during a weekend refight where the Prussian commander created a grand battery of 'Brumbars' [thats 32pdr's which was an historical fact as regards their calibre] and proceeded to dominate the centre of the battlefield literally wiping out any opposing troops who were unable to manouvre out of their long reach. I couldnt blame the Prussian commander although he was using anachronistic tactics but I just felt the balance of the rules were wrong. I simply stopped using my SYW armies and went onto other projects.
A couple of year on and we went back to Blackpowder which was fine but somehow I felt just didn't capture the uniqueness of the period. I never said anything but John began secretly working on tweaking HOW. Yesterday he appeared with a set of ideas incorporating Honours of War and Blackpowder. He had asked me to set up a battle using my SYW collection and basically we set to, using the 'new rules.'
John had kept with the command system from Honours of War and also the national characteristics. So being French my commanders could never be classed as 'dashing' and also had a stronger chance of being classed as 'dithering,' which is not advised. For John I had selected an allied army made up of Hessians and Hanoverians. So his commanders potentially could be better. We used the move and firing ranges and game sequence from How which were fine. The actual firing system was Black Powder with their saving system and a couple of other tweaks. I hope to type up John's work and post it at a later date if anyone is interested because there were other little things that were incorporated into the rules.
Anyway on to the battle which involved three brigades of infantry each and two brigades of cavalry plus light troops.Again some of my figures had never been used since they had been painted several years ago. I expected these would rout immediately but was surprised when they didn't.
I even got my French guard out, plus some of the household cavalry. I selected a brigade of Wild Geese but gave them no special characteristics. John had the Hanoverian guard plus two battalions of grenadiers. The idea was just to make a balanced game to test the rules.
When we tested for our generals we ended up with Dependable generals and only one dithering general each. Mine officially commanded the French guard! In the preliminary moves John couldn't get his dithering brigade to move even when he attached his C in C who was dependable.He had deployed all his cavalry on his right wing facing my guard which didn't help me to be honest.
What I liked about HOW was the feeling that one was gaming in the Age of Reason period where units maneuvered before they closed in for the kill. John did however allow infantry to actually melee if they wanted. a la Blackpowder. It made the battle even more bloody.
Marshal Saxe was clearly off his game and was only classed as Dependable. I blame his fondness for loose women and port. Still he was better than the Guard commander who was no use for anything and stood around looking confused.
My French guard blazed away at the combined Hanoverian grenadiers but couldnt make an impression until in the end I withdrew them intending to use my cavalry to finish the job. It never happened. John simply withdrew the grenadiers and my cavalry failed to move..
This regiment of Dragoons hit first one disordered unit which routed and then pursued into the Guard Lorraine who had become disordered by the routers.It didnt end well Im afraid. These Lorrainers are Black Hussar figures and had never been used before.
Here a regiment of Hanoverian dragoons hit my poor Irish who failed to stop them with musket fire and were swept away, one regiment at a time.You will notice that I have managed to send a regiment of French cuirassiers to their aid.
With the demise of the two Irish regiments the Hanoverian just kept on coming and piled into my cuirassiers. Result! Notice how my regiment are supported by the French Gendarmerie. What could go wrong?
Everything actually. My cuirassiers fought abysmally and routed, they did however mange to stop the Hanoverian cavalry's uncontrolled advance.
The Gendarmes of the guard seemed to spend the entire game moving from one crisis to another and never actually came to blows with the enemy. So really very accurate I think.
Nothing like a bit of overkill. The Hanoverian right wing.
My Scots somehow had to face the onslaught from some cuirassiers who again weren't stopped by musket fire. They did manage to hold on in the melee and turn them back, but it was very close.
My cavalry looked impressive as they moved to support my guard. Sadly they were disappointing and couldnt get to grips with the Hanoverians until it was too late.
Instead of using French hussars I deployed Saxe's bodyguard. They did okay but eventually were forced back due to causalities. They did add some colour to the battle though.
After four hours of battle my French were on the brink of collapse with two out of three infantry brigades shaken and retreating off the table. I was surprised how John also was on the brink of collapse but through judicious dice rolling had somehow managed to rally some of his foot regiments and hang on. The amended HOW rules worked very well and seemed to redress what I thought used to give an imbalanced game.We soon remembered the original rules and the only anomaly regarding evading light troops was quickly sorted to our satisfaction.All in all a really enjoyable game even though I lost.It looks like I will be returning to HOW albeit the amended version.
Some Black Hussar figures hiding near the battlefield.
Thanks Robbie, seems your views on HOW was the same as mine.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in seeing the amendments
Will Ive asked John to put them into a legible copy which I will transcribe onto my blog.The game moved well and there were no glaring issues remarkably.We did decide that if light troops evaded they would automatically become disordered and take a move to rally it off. Other than that it was a great game.
DeleteLooks like a splendid game!
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
It was a lovely way to spend a day Stokes.I seem to have a lot of regiments that have never seen combat. Its good to actually use them in action.
DeleteSuper looking game! As or HoW, I have come to terms with the issues you cite. For artillery fire, a careful readying of Target Priorities provides s reasonable answer to artillery dominating the battlefield. When more than one unit is in the Firing Zone and close to one another, Fire must be split. I often add an additional modifier for Difficult Target when firing artillery at Long Range. If the ground is lumpy, I carry that modifier to Effective Range too. With these in place, even a massed battery has difficulty destroying a unit in one turn.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Jonathan. I must go back and look at HoW again.
DeleteNormally we would use target priority in other games but perhaps it was the way we were interpreting the rules. Anyway it was great to be using my SYW and an amended HOW ruleset. In HOW of course if one is facing quality artillery and quality infantry you know you are in for a bloody battle.Given how I use French and Austrians one can only expect a bit of a duffing against the British and Prussians And yet the war went on for seven years so the French must have been doing something right.
DeleteRobbie,
ReplyDeleteI will be very interested in the amendments - I use Charles' rules at home but at the club HOW has a small following although all agree re the issues with them.
Leave it with me Graham Im certain John will produce the notes so I can write them up.
DeleteYou kept this wonderful collection banished to the under the bed boxes for too long. I too would be interested in the amendments. Of course, when you, John and I we’re playing HoW we were doing quite a few things wrong I’ve since found out, especially around rallying troops’ strength back. Artillery as written is powerful if used en masse. The game you refer to was I believe Leuthen refight . Fred and many of his Austrian and Russian contemporaries really use massed batteries of 20/30/40/50 cannon, so there was nothing at all anachronistic about what you described, especially for Leuthen when he had a massive artillery superiority. Anyway, I prefer BP for 18thC over HoW. PS I thought you already had an RSM battalion of Gardes Lorraine? Lovely figures anyway. :-)
ReplyDeleteLeuthen? I couldnt remember the name of the battle. I never questioned the presence of the 32pdrs just their murderous effectiveness Colin.In that game however I remember sadly that it was impossible to get anywhere near the guns to the extent that the Prussian commander felt confident enough to strip his centre of all troops. Leuthen was an anomaly for the Prussians surely, as Frederick had literally run out of quality infantry and artillery and was forced into cobbling an army together to face the Austrians. I always thought massed artillery wasnt really used until the revolutionary/ Napoleonic period, but no doubt I will be proved wrong. Ive always thought that the SYW generals tended to look down on the artillery identifying them as artizans and not proper gentlemen so gave them a secondary role. Yes your correct I do have two Lorraine regiments in yellow.The RSM are now merely a line regiment, luckily there was three such regiments on the go.
DeleteColorful, beautiful and impressive lines of battle, sounds great!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil,I do like colour. I think Im a bit of a magpie really, I have always been attracted by shiny toys.
DeleteWhat a wonderful sight, though I sympathize with the sad outcome for the French. A question: where did you find the yellow faced black references for that unit of infantry. Living in W'ton they'd be very appropriate amongst all the red and white? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteIf one was a uniform pedant David one would rubbish them. However in David Wilson's The French Army of the War of Austrian Succession he lists all the Lorraine regiments as wearing yellow coats so that was good enough for me. Black and yellow was the livery colour of the King of Poland whose father in law was the King of France. He does state that the Sabretache challenged the uniforms but Wilson still catalogues them as such.I also saw a nice image in one of the old Ospreys showing the regiment. They do look good in the coats so I wont be getting rid of them.By the way Wilson's book is very nice, yes it has some typos and poor editing but the illustrations are very good.
DeleteGreat looking table! I’ve been hemming and hawing between HoW and BP2 so would be curious to see their bastard child you’ve concocted.
ReplyDeletePeter, I hope to put something together soon.
DeleteWonderful looking table. I would have been happy just watching!
ReplyDeleteI dont mind watching, but playing is far better.
DeleteGreat looking game, lovely table, I'm glad you've found a compromise system that works!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Iain, There was a lot I liked about HOW, but there was more that didnt make for an enjoyable game. Im past looking for so called accuracy and more interested in enjoying a wargame.
DeleteRobie,Cracking game report,good looking game,
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that more gamers don't "adopt and adapt" rules to suit what they think the period should game like,good on you and John(especially John!!)
johnc
Its only John Im afraid. Ive never been that interested in rules of any sort, it is always the game and how it plays.Luckily we have made a decent partnership these 40+ years, he does the thinking, I do the moaning.
DeleteCracking looking game Robbie. I'd be interested in how you've combined HOW and Black Powder as I too have more or less given up on the former, at least for big battles, but can't persuade the guys at the club to use BP as they gate the command mechanics
ReplyDeleteBlack Powder is a marmite set of rules I think Gary.I like the frustration/friction of the command rules but some wargamers just cant handle it.The problem with HOW for me was the artillery ranges and effectiveness and the constant need to rally off causalities otherwise your troops just simply disappeared.John played around with what we didnt like and basically kept what we did like.I will hopefully get his notes and put them together on the blog.
Delete*hate. B****y autocorrect!
ReplyDeleteSorry I'm late reading this great report. Good to see your lovely SYW armies out on the table again. Yes I'd love to see your set of rules too as I'm very keen on HoW but aware of some of the "shortcomings" and made my own amendments. Loose women, port and wargaming what a super combination......:-)
ReplyDeleteWell done on taking 2 different sets of rules and coming up with something that suits you. Creative and very much in the spirit of the hobby. I hope 'HoW amended' continues to work for you. Of course, should you decide to call the rules 'Black Powder amended', I'll never forgive you.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, Keith.
By the way Robbie, those Prussian guns were 'Brummers' - 'Brumbars' were the WW2 AFVs. I often make the same slip. They are described by Duffy as 'thick barrelled fortress 12 pdrs'. Definitely heavy guns in HoW, but not 32pdrs!
ReplyDeleteVery interested in the amendments. Played our first game last night. The destruction power of artillery was a major draw back. Shame as the rest of HoW seemed to work well. We use Charge rules at the moment. Please let us know when you post amendments.
ReplyDelete