H.G. Wells' Little Wars, the Fight to the Finish

Some additional toy soldiers having arrived, and others having been repaired, a full-throated game of Little Wars was played using the "Fight to the Finish" scenario. The troops were laid out on a side table, the houses and trees and fences were arranged, and a coin flip determined who should set up first. Each side had about 30 infantry, 11 or 12 cavalry, and two guns. "Blue" had two 4.7" naval guns and "Red" had one naval gun and also a Royal Artillery piece.



The overall flow of the game was like this: both sides advanced off their starting lines and then artillery fire exchange began. Blue was able to successfully charge Red's 4.7" and seemed poised to capture it, but on the following turn Red coordinated a counter-attack that drove off Blue forces and re-secured the naval gun. Blue reconsolidated its remaining forces at its center. Red made a very risky charge at the center using a mass of troops which had hitherto been sheltered on its forward right flank - they took a heavy toll from artillery fire and then many prisoners were taken in the counter-attack. Blue then reorganized and advanced on the 4.7 again, at which point Red withdrew from the field. Final score was roughly Blue at 147 points and Red at 38 (Red escaping with both guns and about some troops, and also collecting 7 points from prisoners).



The fences, while nice to look at, tripped up artillery fire too much. Both sides worked hard to minimize open shots against their own troops, and the fences served to only make difficult shots almost impossible. Turns were timed, 3 minutes per side, and you had to move or shoot your guns first. This completely removes the need for chairs at your table as there is no time to sit down. The non-moving player can't sit down either, as it is best for them to stand opposite of their opponent's gun, both to watch for whether a hit was scored or not, and also to try and keep ammunition from getting lost amidst the junk in my basement. When troop counts got below 20 we went to 2 and a half minute turns.

The key to melee is that the determination of whether troops are in melee, and whether each side is supported or isolated, is that the measurement is taken from the point of contact (or contacts).  Therefore, both Red and Blue would have a single man contact another soldier, and then move as many allied troops up within 6" of that contacting man as possible. In this way you can almost guarantee that you will outnumber your opponent in the resulting melee, which in turn tends to lead to prisoner-taking and/or surrendering instead of brutal man-for-man casualty removal.

"But what about small arms fire?" you may ask?  Yes, it is a mechanic that is absent.  But first of all, look at the many photos of this game, and notice that infantry still tends to be positioned as if it were offering rifle fire. In the mind's eye, the exchange of rifle-fire is still going on.  From a mechanic-standpoint, the trade-off here is that by not having small arms fire, you also don't have to have formations or units, and also by extension don't have to deal with facing or coherence and such.

I took a lot of photos - many more than typical! In using the auto-correct function on my camera the order got a little screwy, and I'm not going to caption all or even any of these like I usually do.  The next game will be the "Blow to the Rear" scenario and I've already made two more new buildings which should dress up the table nicely.