Bad Roads and Poor Rations: A Review

 

  What an outstanding book!  I have been on the lookout for this for a while and  picked it up at Historicon.   "Bad Roads and Poor Rations" provides the War of 1812 gamer with 59 scenarios for battles ranging from minor skirmishes with 50 or so men per side to multi Brigade battles with thousands on each side.  In addition there are also a number of naval actions included.  Its a  buffet for the gamer to pick and choose from in preparation for their next game.  You will not only find information on battles and how to fight them but available figures for the period as well as ship models.  Lastly, there is plenty of eye candy of outstanding Wargames figures in a variety of scales to inspire you.  The book is 220 pages long and is paperback.  Price is $39 but varied around the internet.  What do you get for all this?  Lets take a look!

  First off the author.  A serious scholar Dr. Adrian Mandzy is also a miniature wargamer. He is knowledgeable and excited about this period.  Many of the pictures in the book are of his 40mm and 10mm figures.  Turns out when I bought the book from the On Military Matters booth he was standing at the Winged Hussar booth next door.  I introduced myself and we had a wonder conversation about the book, wargaming and the War of 1812.  He also kindly autographed my copy.  Outstanding!

The book is a hefty 220 pages.  Its big and packed with information.  There are 59 war game scenarios in the book.  These range from small skirmishes to larger Brigade size actions.  There are also naval actions which include landings and individual ship to ship actions.  Something for everyone.  On each section there is a brief background to the action as well as a equally brief description of the action itself.  Terrain is discussed as it effected the action.  Last there are suggestions on how to fight the battle and rules to add color and fun.  And example would be night fighting at Lundy's lane.  Each regiment that fires roll a D6 to see if they fire at a friendly unit or not.   Another area the author touches in us native warriors.  His suggestions for how they operate on the table top is well thought out and accurate for the time.  Well done sir!  

  In addition there is a map of each battlefield as well as a order of battle of troops involved.  The author gives you the number of troops in each Regiment/company/detachment.  I like this rather then saying how many figures each unit must have.  On the other hand the maps are at best general outlines.  I think this is one area the book could be improved.  Lastly at the end if each action us a suggested reading list is bibliography.

Each battle is organized by geographical location.  If your looking for actions like Chippawa or Lundy's Lane you will find it in the  in the Niagara Peninsula/Western Lake Ontario section.  So if you have a particular area of interest this makes it easy to find.  In addition you could fight a series of battles in a given area to recreate a campaign.

  To inspire all gamers the book is filled with photos of wargame figures.  These range in scale from 54mm plastics to 40mm Saber and Sash miniatures to 25mm Knuckkeduster miniatures to 10mm Pendraken figures and a few more in between.  You want ships and boats?  Wonderful looking sailing ships and also landing boats are shown. And a Appendix of Available Figures of War of 1812 miniatures.  This divided by scale from 54mm to 40mm to 25mm to 15mm to 10mm.  I especially like when he mentioned which figures work with other ranges.

  As you can tell I am really excited about this book.  I have had my eye on it for a while and it certainly lived up to my expectations.  There is a lot in it and lots of ideas, inspiration and information to be gathered from it.  If you are interested in the underappreciated period I highly recommend getting this book.  It needs to be in your library.  Very highly recommended!!

  

Battle of Brandywine game by Oldenburg Grenadiers

   Although mostly a miniature table top guy I do like the occasional board game.  I grew up with the old Avalon Hill and SPI games and spent hours playing and enjoying them.  At the time (1970's). Most of my money I earned went to books and my reenactment gear.  But when I could I would pick up a new game.  

   During that time I was intrigued by an add in Campaign Magazine for a series of American Revolution games by a company called Oldenburg Grenadiers.  Especially the Brandywine game as I gave always been fascinated by that battle.  Alas!  Because no one stocked these and I was shy about ordering by mail I never bought one.  Soon I found the company went out of business and these games became scare.   Fast forward to thus year at Historicon and one of the dealers had a copy for sale.  It was missing three counters and little banged up but I could get it for the price of $15.00 (it usually goes for much much higher prices).  I put it down and decided to think about it.  While I was doing so my buddy George came up to me holding the game.  Here you go, I got it for $10 and thought you might like it!!!   I was floured and delighted.

  Now here I am in September just getting around to doing a review of the game.  I have been tinkering around with it between house projects but now have some serious time to devote to learning it.  I came down with Covid, so am locked down for a few days in the house.  I have just enough energy to set up the game, take a break, play a few turns and then nap.  Sounds like a goid time to write up this review.

  The game is very much of the old school Avalon Hill type.  On opening the box and examining the board its colorful and almost cartoon like.   Very unlike the modern game boards.

The counters are what you would expect with the name of the unit, its movement and combat capabilities listed.  Crown forces get two counters per unit as historically they were larger then the American regiments.  

Movement is simple series of sequences.  American go first and when done British go.  Each sequence consists of 1. Unit Morale determination, 2. Movement and 3. Combat.  Morale is done for units that were disordered through combat.  You move a commander counter up to it and roll a 6D.  If the number rolled is even then the unit rallies and operates as normal.  Otherwise it is disordered and cannot enter combat and can move just one hex.  If attacked its eliminated.  

Combat is also simple.  You must be next to a counter to fight.  You cannot attack with more then one counter against the same enemy.  Instead you resolve each attack separately.  So no ganging up!  

To fight the attacker consults the Combat Option/Resolution Chart.  They decide if they are charging or just firing line.  The defender decides if they are counter Charging, Firing line or retreating.  You the cross reference on the chart, throw a 6D and look up your result.  

So in our example lets say the attacker is charging and the defender is firing line and you roll a 1.  The British loses one point, the American 3 points and retreats 2 spaces and is disordered.  Pretty simple.  Rifle units may fight a unit two hexes away while artillery can fight a unit five hexes away. They use a different chart which records how many hits they inflict, if any.  In combat Militia units can only use the firing line option in defence.  And British units fighting militia add subtract 1 from roll.  Cavalry can only charge.  The unit they charge must take a morale check.  If fail they retreat two spaces.

The game uses a step reduction for combat.  For each combat loss you mark off a box, and when the unit reached 0 it is eliminated.  Under strength units can combine combat point with one unit giving the other its points and then removed from the game.

The game starts with all American units deployed west of the Brandywine River.  The British arrive at selected points four units at a time.  Americans must maintain a line if retreat off the board which the British must try and capture.  These are first near Chadd's ford but later at other points along the river.  So in the first few turns do the Americans concentrate on destroying the British on the table at the ford?  But then the British turning moment can out flank them. But the British cannot waste and turns otherwise the game ends before they win.    An interesting problem

So there you go.  A most simple and nostalgic game.