Swiepwald Woods (or something like it)

This gridded Men Who Would Be Kings game is loosely based on the clash in the Sweip woods during the larger battle of Koniggratz on July 3, 1866 (part of the Austro-Prussian War).  For this game, the Imperial forces (army red) took the part of the Prussians and the Allies (army blue-green) played the role of the Austrians.

Imperial troops in starting positions at back of the Swiep woods.

The Empire's troops, consisting of six infantry units and a single cavalry unit (Life Guards), started massed at the edge of the woods.  They would attain an instant victory if at any point in the game there was not a single Allied unit on the wooded side of the board. 

Empire troops advance into the woods.  Alllied Zouaves are spotted ahead!

The Allies began the game with seven infantry units and two guns.  The gun batteries are deployed on hills overlooking the woods.  Two allied units began the game on the edge of the Swiepwald.  The rest of the Allied foot begin at the hills by the guns, ready to advance into the woods. 

View from the Allied starting positions.

This game used the gridded variant of The Men Who Would Be Kings that I have had good experience with.  What was different this time around was all units had a more modest command rating of 7+ and movement was allowed into woods (1 square/turn) and woods conferred a defensive bonus to shooting (but not melee), requiring one addition hit to cause a casualty.  This meant that long ranged shooting attacks required 4 hits to remove one figure.

Imperial left moves into the wood.

Guards in the wood.

An Imperial unit consisting of Black Watch and Irish Guards were able to move into a key copse of heavier woods in the center of the board early on.  They quickly game under heavy fire from the Allied guns as well as the Queen's Westminsters, Gurkas, and Bombays.

The Black Watch/Irish Guards can be seen in action at the top.

On the Imperial right, line infantry and highlander units poured rifle fire into Allied Marines and Zouaves. A key third Imperial unit on the right, the Madras infantry, was driven back by Allied artillery, or constantly pinned by that same artillery, which caused the firefight with the Marines and Zouaves to drag on.

Black Watch in the wood still taking heavy fire from the Westminsters, and also being flanked by Allied Bulgarian infantry.

Allied artillery, on Allied left, looking towards the Imperial Madras infantry.

Artillery of the Allied right, looking towards its own advancing infantry, left-to-right, the Gurkas, Westminsters, Bulgarians, combined Rifles, and Bombays.

Zouaves have retreated from the Swiep.  Marines take their place.

Since this variant of Men Who Would Be Kings requires two hits to remove a figure at close range and three at long, which was typically increased to three at short and four at long because the target was in the soft cover of the woods, the majority of this game was a very slow trickle of a unit losing one figure and then being pinned or not pinned, and if pinned, perhaps falling back.  The Imperials had the poorer morale this time, and while the Imperial right plugged away against the Zouaves and Marines, the left was slowly but steadily pushed back into the wood.

Imperials line infantry exchanges fire with Allied rifle units.

Imperials highlanders exchange fire with Allied marines.

Gurka infantry can be seen withdrawing at right edge.

In a bit of a stroke of luck, the Allied Gurka infantry became pinned and subsequently failed multiple Rally tests and ended up retreating right out of the battle!

The Imperial Black Watch at the center, however, was finally destroyed by Allied fire, and the Westminsters (who had not taken a single casualty yet) took their place in the copse.

The Allies' Westminsters in the copse, having defeated the Black Watch.

Shortly after, the Imperial right finished off the Zouaves and a charge by the highlanders sent the Marines packing.  So the Imperials were victorious on the right but the situation on the left was dire.

Imperial highlanders after having defeated the Royal Marines of the Allies.

The Imperial right, now just a Guards unit and a Line unit, briefly rallied and advanced back into the woods.  

The Guards advancing on the Bombays.

The Westminsters and Allied artillery having routed the Imperial Madras infantry, the highlanders and line infantry from the Imperial right attempted to swing over and aid the left.  The Imperial cavalry (life Guards), held so long in reserve, also made a flanking hook and engaged the Allied rifle units, hoping to win a melee and gain a sweeping advance (a la Charge of the Miracle Brigade). But unfortunately it scored but a single casualty on the rifles and the rifles managed one as well.  In the resulting tie the Life Guards became pinned, and were subsequently shot to pieces.  In short order, the Imperial Guards also broke, and the Allied Bulgarians charged the Imperial infantry who had become pinned (so half dice for melee) and pushed them back to the table edge.

Bulgarians have chased off the Imperial line infantry, securing half the woods in the process.

At this point the Imperials conceded the game, seeing as they had but two dependable units left and were roughly outnumbered 2-to-1.

The key turning point in the game was agreed to be when the Allied artillery scored an improbable two hits on the Madras infantry, pinning them, and then they fell back from failed Rally actions.  This left the Black Watch/Irish Guards unit unsupported in the Imperial forward center.   The Black Watch was constantly pinned from the combined fire of three Allied units.  The rest of the Imperial left failed to come up fast enough to draw off the Allied destruction of the Black Watch, so when the Imperial left did finally advance it was outnumbered and facing fresh, undamaged Allied troops.  Everything after that was triage.

Both sides should have probably risked melee charges more often, seeing as defensive benefits of cover were removed for melee and one hit equals one figure removed.  The game took about an hour and a half but should have probably been an hour.

Both the Imperial Black Watch and the Madras infantry died to the last man, which seems silly.  Might try a simple Little Wars prisoner mechanic where if a unit is outnumbered two to one and is charged in melee the outnumbered unit simply surrenders in full. The attacking unit lose 1 figure to represent prisoner guards, but no dice are rolled to there is no risk to the attacker and they have eliminated an enemy unit so the calculated loss is acceptable.  An exception might be if the outnumbered unit is in a house or similar hard cover defense in which case they might fight it out?

The Empire should receive some additional red coated reinforcements in the mail on Monday. Its a bit tricky putting their forces together at the moment as they can barely field five infantry units.  Looking forward to using this model of scenario inspiration going forward, basing games on little parts of bigger historical battles but substituting the fictional/stylized Allies and Empire into each game.