Ayton May 2022 18thC notes and queries

[Essex Boy]

This should help you start thinking about organising your toys for the 18thC game at Ayton in May. There may be some itsy bitsy tweaks, but you can pretty much take the following as settled.

Edit (4/12/21): 'Don't worry if you have no 18thC troops, or can't quite make up the numbers suggested below, there should be more than enough spare units for everyone to have a few battalions. That said, there's plenty of leeway with what you can bring along. I'm rather hoping to bring some stuff which will look rather Marlburian, possibly even some pikes.'

So, how do the rules work?

Each turn you roll to see who activates first, after which it’s I go you go, activating one brigade at a time. Brigades activate once per turn and the turn ends when all brigades have been activated. The game will be organised so that you’re not all standing around waiting to activate one of your brigades.

Whichever brigade you choose to activate, your options are limited. You can give one order and Move the whole brigade or give orders individually to each unit in the brigade. The possible unit orders are: Move or, Fire or, Charge or, Rally. You pick a unit, give it one of the orders, and complete that order before moving on to the next unit. You can of course choose to do nothing but yes, that’s right, ‘or’ means just that – you can’t move and shoot for instance.

There are a couple of other orders which you can use in certain circumstances, i.e. Brigade Recall and Return to the Colours. These can be used to patch up knackered units and are really rather handy.

Units can take a certain number of ‘hits’ before they are wrecked and removed. For line infantry that’s nine hits, all cavalry and light infantry can take seven hits, gun crew take four hits and skirmishers just one (I did say that skirmishers are rubbish). Guns are a little different, but generally you roll the same number of shooting and melee D6 as the initial hits you can take (effectiveness is reduced once a unit has taken a few hits).

Movement is per a dice roll. There are no formation changes – you go where you want provided no figure travels further than the dice roll permits. Casualties aren’t removed and morale is almost unheard of (not even for the Gateway Horse).

The challenge with these rules is the order in which you activate your brigades and units. They are much play tested and have never failed to provide a fast, fun and challenging game (on sale in the foyer during the intermission).


Troop Types

There are very few troop types, i.e. foot, horse, guns and skirmishers.

Foot units are battalion strength and either line or light. The former are the backbone of the army and have staying power. The latter have some advantages over line if moving through or fighting in difficult terrain, but they are rather brittle in comparison. The number of light units will be restricted, so if you turn up with whole brigades of figures in a rather extended order, you’ll probably be asked to pick just one or two to me ‘lights’ and the rest will be ‘line’.

Horse units are one or two squadrons and are either heavy or light. The former will have an advantage over the latter in melee, and there may be some small advantages for armoured chaps or the very occasional chap with a lance. I’ve not yet decided what to do about dragoons but unless you have the dismounted figures, that won’t matter anyway.

Guns represent battery strength and are either field or heavy. I’ve not yet decided on what to do about battalion guns. I believe the consensus is to leave them out of the game. Happy to discuss.

Skirmishers represent a company of chaps, on foot or mounted, who serve virtually no useful purpose. Virtually. If you think your redskins are going to leap from a tree and turn the course of history…..think again. They’re not even a very effective screen for your line troops. A word to the wise, you are unlikely to get away with calling skirmishers ‘light foot’ unless they look the part and take up the same space as a foot unit.

Troop Quality

Troop quality or other characteristics have yet to be decided. You may have some elite troops, but you might also have some dodgy troops. You may even have fanatics of some sort. Who knows?

Brigades (edited on 6 December to the preferred three unit structure)

All of your troops must be in a brigade. A brigade will have a Brigadier and three units of foot or horse (yes, you can mix the two in the same brigade). A brigade which is wholly or predominantly foot can have a gun. You can have one or two skirmisher companies attached to any brigade, but you can’t have more Skirmisher companies than you have brigades. You are unlikely to be allowed more than four brigades on the table at a time, and I suspect that figure may fall to just three brigades.

For every two brigades you can add a Major General as a divisional commander. Whoever is the army CinC will also have a General figure.

Basing

Ideally, foot and horse units should have a frontage of between 7” and 10” and upon which figures will be arranged so that they look the part. Units only ever fight one on one, and 99% of the time they can only shoot at one target, so there’s no harm in bigger or smaller bases. Similarly, figure count doesn’t matter because there’s no casualty removal but, like I say, the unit should look the business. Guns needn’t take up a space larger than the model and crew, and skirmishers should just be a few figures spread out a bit.

[Count Belisarius]

I feel attacked by some of that. And the rest I view as a challenge...

[Essex Boy]

......unless Mr Goat is passing under the tree.

[Buff Redux]

If you paint your natives orange Purps won't hit them while they're in the tree.

[Jeremy]

We’re all waiting for the ‘Gateway cavalry win all combats regardless of dice roll and combat factors’ section.

[FreddBloggs]

No elephants?

Oh and who makes the best model, of a model major general?

[Paul]

We’re all waiting for the ‘Gateway cavalry win all combats regardless of dice roll and combat factors’ section.

I think I found it in the microtext

Horse units are one or two squadrons and are either heavy or light. The former will have an advantage over the latter in melee, and there may be some small advantages for armoured chaps or the very occasional chap with a lance. Gateway Cavalry will count as super heavy armour, almost impregnable, and with the hitting power of a Division of Tiger tanks. Their Morale is that of a WW2 Japanese Infantryman. I’ve not yet decided what to do about dragoons but unless you have the dismounted figures, that won’t matter anyway.

[FreddBloggs]

They would still manage it somehow. Having seen firsthand EB's luck (or total lack thereof) with dice.

[garyp]

We’re all waiting for the ‘Gateway cavalry win all combats regardless of dice roll and combat factors’ section.

There's no way the Gateway cavalry can ever win, regardless of how the rules are written, so the relevant rule is hidden in the 'Rally' section.

"Gateway cavalry always come back, no matter how many times you trample them into the dust."

As Andy found out at the Grantham game.

[Essex Boy]

You're all very funny.

One very important point I failed to mention is that, if you have no 18thC troops or can't quite make up the numbers, fear not, there will be plenty of extra units to go round. Gary, for instance, has volunteered the use of his huge collection, and I'm very happy to let someone else command the Gateway horse.

I'll amend the not above.

Iain