Anthony and I tried out the Shambattle rules this week using my LWR 19th Century figures.
The rules were originally published in 1929 and draw on some of the ideas on H G Wells' Little Wars with some other changes. The interesting thing about the game is that the table top represents two countries divided by a river with 3 towns each and the game involves attacking the other country. The version of the rules we used are the set published and enhanced by Thor Shiels (who sadly died late last year) which have some suggested amendments and updates.
There are 3 levels of game - Lieutenant, Captain and General - we played the middle sized game. The Captain's game involved 25 figres a side plus a gun and 2 crew, of which no more than half could be cavalry. We settled on 6 cavalry, 18 infantry, an officer and a gun with crew. The enhanced game includes victory conditions and Anthony was charged with capturing both the east and west bridge and holding them for 3 turns, while I had to capture the opponent's frontier town and hold it for 4 turns.
The photo shows the setup at the start of the game.
The game is very luck based as there is no shooting, just combat and artillery fire. Combat involves rolling a D6 for each of your own men and on a 1-3 they die, 4-6 they survive. My die rolling was fairly poor and my men died in droves..
Artillery fire only hits on a 1 (and only Anthony managed to hit all game) but all figures under the arillery template (which could cover 4-5 men) are killed.
Eventually, Anthony eliminated all my troops and won the game.
The General's game with some additional terrain, 40-50 figures a side and the use of field hospitals which enable you to recover wounded troops looks the most interesting variant.
Not something I can see us playing as regularly as The Portable Wargame or other rules but something that makes a nice change of pace and scale.
