The Loose Association of Wargamers

With retirement fast approaching I thought it would be a good idea to try a game of Neil Thomas One Hour Wargame rules solo as a possible set of rules for some light gaming.

This morning I played my first solo game using scenario 4 - Take the High Ground. I used one of the alternate firing mechanisms with each unit having 5 strength and cavalry, artillery using one D6, infantry two D6 and Zoauves three D6 to fire. A four plus is needed to score a hit.

The union start the game holding the high ground and they have 3 infantry, 2 cavalry and one zoauve unit. They deploy 2 of the infantry units on the hill.

The Confederates have 3 infantry, 2 zoauves and 1 artillery unit.



I played the game with no sutility to the tactics and saw the Confederate and Union trade musket and loses in a stand up fight for the hill with the rebels gaining the advantage.



In the woods both sides had a zoauve unit and the fire fight lasted a number of turns before the Confederates down to 1 hit managed to destroy their opposite number.



The other Confederate zoauve unit is able to emerge from the woods and take on a union cavalry brigade (represented by dismounted 7th Cavalry).



When they are joined by the 2nd zoauve unit.



The combined fire quickly destroys the union cavalry. The union have now lost 5 units to the confederate 2. A rebel victory.

I plan to run the game again later today and look to apply the lessons learnt from my first game.

Sheer simple enjoyable fun. long may it continue!

Brilliant, I'm going to steal this idea. Did you see the ACW 1/32 game me and Tim H did at Ayton some years ago? I've a fair few figures I can use, in fact I could do this with Naoleonics too.

I did not see the your and Tim's 1/32 game. Do you have any pictures of it?

I have just finished playing my second game of the day. I increased the table width to 4 ft to allow a bit more space. I also tried a different approach with the Union retiring of the hill to await reinforcements. This worked well as the force composition gave the Union an Infantry advantage.

The Confederates took the hill and tried to fend off Union attacks on their Infantry by using their cavalry to block movement.

In the end the union broke the cavalry and together with an elite zoauve unit and artillery took the hill on move 12.

I also used the chance deck which also worked in the union favour.

I enjoyed the quick cut and thrust of the rules and this second game was a lot more tactical than the first. The rules are very tweakable as well which us something I like.

I might have to paint up some Armies in Plastic and Imex figures I gave to add a few extra units.

Excellent stuff. Might have to steal some of your ideas there. I was not a fan of the Swoppet ACW back in the day, I much preferred the Herald figures. And I never really fell for the Deetail versions. But the Swoppets are now looking really good to my older and wiser eyes.

We really ought to do that again.

Grrr I keep getting the urge to get airfix 1/32nds I never had as a kid and do something similar!

FreddBloggs wrote: ↑Tue Sep 07, 2021 9:10 am Grrr I keep getting the urge to get airfix 1/32nds I never had as a kid and do something similar!

Go for it. Tim and I have built up some fantastic collections. I never realised how well those old Airfix figures paint up, and the old "soft" plastic versions are a lot of fun to convert. And these days there are hundreds of really good plastic figures out there.

Magic 54mm goodness.