Huzzah 2024

I attended the Huzzah convention in South Portland Maine for the first time since the plague. The computer-moderated game (by Carnage & Glory) of the battle of Freeman’s Farm was a lot of fun, but the high point was meeting fellow bloggers and kindred spirits Ed M and Mark Nichipor. We’ve been reading each other’s posts for years but finally got to meet in person. Check the right margin for links to their blogs. Mark's is My Brave Fusiliers.

                   Photo of the Bloggers Three By Ed M. Mark is in the middle, me on the right. 

Sitting in the middle seat on the American side of the table got me command of Morgan’s Rifles and Dearborn’s Light Infantry along with Morgan, Arnold and Gates. Gates was along in case Arnold got killed, since C&G has serious morale penalties if the C-in-C is hit. And one of the American goals was to get Arnold killed, preferably late in the game so he would go down in history as a hero, rather than a scoundrel. Nice idea, worth nicking. I kept Gates far from the flying lead. He’d been shot once at the Monongahela and didn’t relish a repeat.

 

Game Master Rich Wallace had a gorgeous table and lovely 28mm figures as seen below. I stopped taking pictures after the second turn. Riedesel’s Brunswick troops would arrive on the third turn from the east table edge, at the arrow on the last photo.

 

Casualties are by actual troops, rather than figures. The game started like the actual battle. Morgan and Dearborn moved to within medium range of the Piquets, who were some 90 strong. The 800 Americans caused over 50 hits between them and the British fled the field after causing a few hits back. The American lights traded some fire with Hamilton’s regulars as they deployed and then lit out for the rear. Morgan’s boys kept rallying but then refusing to advance for most of the game. The Loyalists on the other side had a similar problem. We joked that both units would convene at a tavern after the battle and trade tales of evading the fight over tankards of ale.

Much of the game saw fairly long range firefights across the creek in the  middle of the table. 15 hits from a battalion were pretty good, sometimes hits were in the single digits. The British artillery was causing a lot of damage. Then Hamilton’s guns became exhausted. They limbered up and fell back, to our relief.

Learned’s Brigade on my right was holding their fire, refusing to shoot at long range. His right flank battalion finally gave way under fire and quit the field. The Brunswick  troops arrived but didn’t have much space to deploy in. Most of them deployed behind Hamilton. The Jaegers crossed the creek and threatened our right flank, occupying Freeman’s Farm house and barn. Rich informed us that the British were winning a major victory by that time since American losses were substantially higher than British, and the Farm had been seized. A large Brunswick battalion passed through Hamilton’s line and crossed the creek, into point blank range in our center. Poor’s right flank battalion fired into them, causing 19 hits or so. Learned’s left flank battalion hadn’t fired yet. Their first volley fired at 50 paces scored 57 hits, a staggering blow. I guessed that the British major victory had just been demoted to a minor one. We played to the end of the turn and my guess was right.

 

The table was beautiful, as were the figures. I enjoyed some aspects of C&G while others had me wondering. There are two morale phases at the end of each turn. Morgan’s Rifles would rally in the first phase and then refuse to advance in the second. Why not do it all in one phase? Late in the game the British declared a series of charges along their line. All units refused to charge. But most of them then advanced within 50 paces of our line. One thinks troops refusing to charge would also shy away from getting into close range. But those are questions for Nigel Marsh, the game designer, not Rich, the game master. A nice touch: militia units open fire anytime enemy troops are in range.

 

After the game I hopped in the car and drove an hour north where my wife’s savory beef stew was waiting. All in all, a very good day.

Edit: I do think cotton smoke would enhance the look and make it clear what units have already fired this turn. After the third hour of play that sort of thing is helpful. Plus I like the look.

Working part-time at SPI, in a far-away galaxy, a long time ago.

I mentioned in another post somewhere that I once did some work for SPI. SPI (Simulations Publications Inc.) was the original publisher of Strategy and Tactics magazine. At least one person expressed interest online in hearing more about this, so here goes. 

 All internet images have been removed from this post, sorry.

Back in the 70’s I had a part-time gig at SPI, mostly as a game tester and partially doing stuff for Redmond Simonson, their graphics chief.  

The head game designer was James Dunnigan, who had come up with the heretical notion that different board games required different systems.

(Early Avalon Hill games used identical CRTs (Combat Results Tables). Battle of the Bulge was the first to have different results on the CRT.) The work I did for Redmond is done with a mouse and a PC these days.

 

I recall testing John Young’s Year of the Rat, a game of the 1972 NVA offensive.

I had the ARVN and John the NVA. His units operated hidden, upside down. He was beating the crap out of me. Then I found a flaw. Air strikes could immobilize an NVA unit. If my ARVN ground units could manage to get a retreat result on an immobilized enemy unit it would be eliminated. While unable to come back from the initial shellacking, knocking out several NVA divisions took some wind out of his sails.  

 

I tested one scenario of the WWII Pacific surface combat game CA, the battle of Tassafaronga, when Tanaka’s destroyers did extensive damage to the intercepting USN cruisers off Guadalcanal. As Tanaka, I ran my tin cans down, dropped the oil drums packed with supplies off the Japanese-held beach and ran back north. The intercepting cruisers blew me out of the water at long range. My torpedoes took out the leading US destroyer. We went to meet Dunnigan. Hearing that the Japanese had been wiped out, Dunnigan asked the full-time tester if I’d screwed up. The tester said not as far as he could see. Dunnigan went into his office and came out with a paperback bio of Tanaka, Japanese Destroyer Captain. Finding we used daylight sighting, he consulted the book. He said use night sighting since it was a night action. I was relieved, figuring the problem was solved. I bought a copy of CA when it was published. With night sighting rules, the USN had to get within range of Japanese Long Lance torpedoes and was crucified, making that scenario a forgone conclusion. Historical result, not much fun. Otherwise, I found CA too basic for my taste. Ships were OK, damaged or sunk. There was no further granularity.

If you read or watched Winds of War, Tassafaronga is where Tug had to abandon ship when his heavy cruiser was torpedoed. 

 

One of my favorite  SPI games was John's Musket and Pike. I recall having worked on the graphics. Another player surprised me a decade or so back by saying I had a design credit for the game. Digging out my old copy from the closet revealed it was so. I have no recollection of testing the game. It was long ago and I’m long in the tooth. The game has a number of inaccuracies, since-debunked myths and the like. Super Swedish cavalry hit harder and moved faster (8 strength – 8 movement) than normal heavy cavalry (5-6). The complete lack of command control enabled all the musketeers in one’s army to rush to one spot or another at will. Actual musketeers had some flexibility within the battalion but not much otherwise beyond deployment. Units had three states: OK, disordered or dead. This worked better when there were a lot of units, instead of a few ships per side as in CA. The Lutzen scenario had the Swedes go berserk whenever their first cavalry unit was disordered, simulating the death of Gustavus. After that, Swedish units ignored disorder results. It was hard to  eliminate any of them. The usual way to knock out units was disordering already disordered units. This was based on the since discredited story that the Swedes went berserk and routed the Imperialists. Gustavus’s death was kept quiet and the Swedes eked out a marginal win in the real battle.

 

That said, Musket & Pike was a blast to play, if Lutzen was ignored. It played quickly. Many of the scenarios had great replay value, if sometimes dodgy OBs. I played many games of this. Perhaps some scenarios from it can be used in different periods. One that comes to mind is Szent Gotthard, a town in Hungary. A small, regular imperial force on a hill is beset by a larger Ottoman force, half levy troops and half regulars (Janissaries). Badly outnumbered, they must hold on desperately while a large force of regular mercenaries appears behind the Ottomans. The Ottomans need to clear the hill so they can then use the slopes to defend against the new arrivals. Great game, no idea how close it is to the actual battle.

 

I have fond memories of SPI. John Young passed away way too soon. Redmond should have been around longer too.