I chose Scenario 14 - A Static Defense from One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas and we rolled up our forces from the same book, adding 2 infantry to the totals for a total of 8 units.
The game was played on a 4' x 3' mat with 4" squares so I adjusted the map slightly to allow for the extra width over the 3' x 3' map in the One Hour Wargames book.
The scenario places the Red player (British played by Anthony in this case) in defence with the task of defending a hill and a town. They must start with hald their forces near each location and keep at least 2 units within 3 squares of the objectives at all times,.
The Blue Player (myself playing with German troops) has to take one objective and be the sole occupant at the end of the game on the 15th turn.
I added some extra cover to the map as we are playing a version of the Portable Wargame where a unit eiher dies or has to retreat if it is hit. If it can't retreat then it also dies (as we shall see).
Unusually, Anthony and I both rolled a 1 for our force composition which gave as each 2 artillery, 1 cavalry and 5 infantry. We designated the rifle troops on each side to be elite, all other units were average.
The initial deployment - the Germans had to enter the table on the southern edge on turn one.
The British left wing defending the town with the general.
Defence of the hill.
The initial deployment of the German attackers.
The second turn saw an artillery exchange which destroyed both the German guns (as they were unable to retreat) and caused the British to lose one gun (as it couldn't retreat) and one British foot unit was eliminated when the German gun overshot its original target.
The Germans advancing on the hill - the plan was a small nuisance force on the right flank and a main thrust at the hill.
Continuing to advance on the hill while the Bavarian unit threatens the town.
Germans advance on the hill fairly unhindered.
Just after this point the german cavalry were hit by artillery fire when the gun on the other flank missed the intended infantry target and hit the cavalry when they were unable to retreat.
The Bavaran infantry were able to extract revenge and destroyed the artillery the same turn.
The British cavalry finally move off the hill and get stuck in.
The Bavarians attempt to win the game all by themselves by finishing off the only British unit on that flank and taking the town. Sadly they pushed he British back but then failed to take the town and were destroyed.
On the other flank, this was the final result at the end of turn 15. The remaining German unit was unable to take the hill or force the remaining two British units from it.
It was a very close game with Anthony convinced he had lost about turn 8 when the hill looked likely to fall but his cavalry was able to survive a melee from two units and then turned that to their advantage to destroy most of the German attackers on that flank before being shot down.
Once again we managed a fun, very close game in just over 2 hours including set up and packing away - One Hour Wargames Scenarios with The Portable Wargames rules are proving a winning combination.
