In the past, we occasionally fought some 18th century battles using the “Black Powder” system. Though “the latter”Black Powder” is a good and well written rulebook, “Honours of War” by Keith Flint (and published by Osprey) recently caught our interest. Having finally managed to set a date for a gaming session (adult life ahoy) and desirous to play a historical/ historicising game, we decided to try out “Honours of War” .
DISCLAIMER : this is not supposed to be a review of the game, nor a presentation of its game mechanics… just your plain ole’ battle report.
Unfortunately we independently started to collect our 6mm 18th century armies without much consideration for proper historical context. (truth be told: we bought, what we thought looked cool).
However, our respective armies, Prussians and British, were allies during the 7 Years War in Europe.
But we would be poor beer&pretzel wargamers, if we could not find a proper solution to the problem…
HOSANNA, our savior hath come : alternative history. Of course, our imagined setting is far from reality and should be considered to be a mere excuse to pitch our British against our Prussians.
The war that never was
In the late 18th century, Europe was in turmoil. The shadow of a great war started to loom over the age of enlightenment. The kingdom of Prussia, already a major player on the continent, aspired for a more global role. For a long time, the chancelleries in Europe expected a conflict between Prussia and its most prominent concurrent, Austria.
But against all expectations, the Prussian government decided to consider a more “long term” approach to politics and turned its gaze beyond the sea. But being mostly a continental power, Prussia first needed to access the sea freely.
Beyond the channel, Britain, Prussia’s once time most likely ally, watched carefully as the eagle spread its wings. But seeing their own colonial prospect threatened by Sans Souci, parliament was forced to send an expeditionary force to the continent and secure the northern German principalities from an expanding Prussia.
Thus, an unexpected encounter took place at the crossing of St.Schnitzel between Prussian Brandenburg to Minden.
Setup
Please bear in mind, that we are still trying to get familiar with the mechanics of the game. We therefore opted for a very simple game. We set up terrain together and tried to organize each table side in a similar and fair fashion: A hill on each side; some forests and difficult terrain in the middle; a road; and the rest would be open terrain.
To simplify (hah!) things, we deployed within 6cm of each table edge. But this proven and tested method from other games is less favorable in a wargame like this. In future games, we might apply another method.
Forces
Our respective forces had around 1350 points each (using the points system from the rule-book).
| Prussia : the army of Heinz-Karl von Hinterschinken | 1355 |
| 4 regiments of standard infantry | 440 |
| 4 regiments of standard cavalry | 440 |
| 2 regiments standard artillery | 110 |
| 2 independent regiments of Light Cavalry | 220 |
| 3x brigade commander | 45 |
| commanding general (dashing) | 100 |
| Britain : the army of Sir Richard Wobbletummy, earl of Gout | 1360 |
| 3 regiments of superior infantry | 360 |
| 1 independent regiment of superior infantry | 120 |
| 3 regiments of superior cavalry | 360 |
| 2 independent regiments of superior light cavalry | 240 |
| 3 regiments of superior artillery | 180 |
| commanding general (dashing) | 100 |
Objectives
Initially we wanted to use specific objectives : secure this area, cover this much ground… But since this was more of an introductory game for us, we opted for a “bloodbath” approach: The game would end, once one side reached its army breaking point, i.e. lost half its fighting power.
The battle of Schnitzel crossing
Opening…
Since we “effed” up deployment, our valiant generals first had to move their regiments into better position and try to make contact with the enemy. The Prussian army, led by the renowned von Hinterschinken, with their excellent training (free formation changes), was able to maneuver swiftly over the field and get close to the British lines. Unfortunately the Prussian artillery had some issues with their horse carriage (failed activation roll) an could not advance at all.
Being more of a cautious nature, the British general, Sir Wobbletummy, moved his troops forward at a much slower pace and tried to adapt to the sudden changes on the board. The British infantry would slowly advance in the center, while their cavalry moved a bit quicker on the flanks.
Horses !
When the Prussian cavalry reached their British counterpart, a massed gun battery awaited them on the southern flank. A surprisingly well executed canister shot instantly disordered an entire Prussian regiment and made them retreat. Deprived of their numerical superiority, the Prussian units had to face superior British cavalry on a 1 to 1 level. The outcome was as expected and the Prussian advance on the south crumbled.
The Prussian general had similar issues on the northern flank. An entire regiment of light cavalry was lost in the woods (failed activation roll), giving the British light horse the opportunity to charge into them. before they reached British infantry lines.
High noon…
The endgame took place at the heart of the battlefield, when the Prussian infantry reached their British counterparts, who carefully hugged the hillside (they advanced really slowly). Unlike the action on both flanks, the center saw no close combat; here valiant infantryman stood gallantly in line and stoically shot at each other, hoping to break their opponents. In this last moment of the battle, the British infantry managed to defeat their Prussian counterpart. General von Hinterschinken had no other option than to concede defeat, retreat his units and vacate the field. (Army breaking point reached)
Epilogue
The game ended with a surprisingly stunning victory for the British. Having lost only one regiment of light cavalry, the earl of Gout certainly will receive a commendation.
The game started rather slowly with both armies trying to make contact. First engagements here and there initially struck us to be rather slow paced. However as the game progressed and our units started to be properly battered, one after the other began to fall back. This unfamiliar yet realistic change of pace during the mid game brought a lot of surprises for us.
- What we learned about “Honours of war” so far:
- We have to get more familiar with some rules, especially morale…
- Deployment is a crucial step in this game. Especially at a 6mm level, rearranging ones units takes forever.
- The limited dice rolls allow us to play rather quickly, once we got familiar with the tables, penalties and bonusses.
- At a 6mm level, it takes forever to make contact and shooting distances are really short.
- Another game where the dice gods don’t favor Eric.
All in all, we remained more or less satisfied and certainly will give “Honours of War” another try in the future. Keep in mind, we are not focusing our activities on warfare in this specific era. This would be a hobby in itself and our amateurish dabbling in the 18th century doesn’t do this period any justice.
D.