"One Hour Wargames SYW campaign AAR, lots of photos" Topic

Last Thursday the Corlears Hook Fencibles played a mini-campaign of the Seven Years War using Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, the Horse and Musket period rules. It was Austrians vs. Prussians and the winning player got to play in the next, chosen by die roll. The winner also got to pick if they were red or blue army in the chosen scenario.

Present were Ken, Rick and myself. Dice put Ken against me in the first game. The descriptions of the battles are in the photos. The first battle (scenario 28) saw the Prussians try to take a town from the Austrians, who had a very constrained relief force.

The Austrians won and next got into a situation where both armies marched down a road in a race for a town. The Prussians got in first (scenario 16 advance guard).









The Prussians won. The next game (scenario 25) infiltration saw a smaller Prussian force attempt to exit two units off the opposite board edge.










The Austrians won a fairly bloodless game of maneuver, setting up the fourth game (scenario 15) fortified defense. The Austrians would attack a dug-in Prussian force. The kicker: the Austrians could at any time in the game remove their surviving force and bring the whole army on again as a second wave, with no hits.

Wow – that was great!

Great report!

Thank you guys, glad you liked it.

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

Great report. I am a huge fan of Neils Thomas OHW Rules.

Martin, have you played the WWI and WWII rules? If so, your opinion?

Great report, very inspiring! Thank you very much for sharing it.
Now that you have played many battles with this rules: Could you please give me your opinion about them?
For instance:
Is it an interesting game?
Is there room for tactics?
Do you think the effect of terrain is well modelled?
Thanks in advance.
Cesar.

It is interesting though rather abstract in some ways. That's why we keep playing it. Also, no one in our somewhat fussy group dislikes it.

The room for tactics varies by scenario. There are 30 scenarios. Some are just frontal slug fests, others require maneuver. I don't think these are rules for keeping a reserve. You may want to pull shot up units out of the line and put them behind other units for late in the game when they start looking good. Losses tend to be heavy.

Terrain modeled, yes and no. We did use this with a tiny modification to play a French and Indian War scenario of Braddock's defeat. It worked well and I look forward to doing another scenario, maybe Lake George sometime in the future. Hills are kind of strange in horse and musket. They serve as cover to hide behind from artillery and being on top aids you against cavalry charges. Aside from that, no effect. There is no overhead fire. If that's a problem house rule it. Again, everything is simple and abstract. We like the rules, others may not.

Thank you very much for your fast and kind answer.