First impressions of Honours of War

The Seven Years War (SYW) has long been a favourite period on my wargames table. Over the years I have tried many rule sets (WRG, Principles of War, Warfare in the Age of Reason, Konieg Krieg, Black Powder, Maurice, etc.). Most give a good game, but none has quite hit the spot! Therefore the publication of Honours of War (HoW) by Keith Flint, published by Osprey sparked my interest, which was further increased by a number of positive reviews and AAR’s.

I purchased the rules, quickly read through them and decided to trial the Lobositz scenario as a solo test. I choose this ‘larger’ scenario because I really want rules that can handle significant numbers of units on the table. The battlefield dispositions are shown below:

The game certainly played fast and an Austrian victory resulted after only 5 turns of play. On the Austrian right flank, Draskowitz’s grenz held at bay the Prussian infantry under Bevern, whilst Ferdinand’s attack against Lacy was severely mauled by the central Austrian guns. Von Kleist did quickly bring forward his troops to plug the resulting gaps. The decisive fight was in the centre where the Austrian horse under Radicati destroyed the Prussian cavalry led by Kyau, and then it hit Gessler’s command in the flank as it was manoeuvring to face the delayed Lowenstein. On turn five the Austrian commander, Kollowrat, became active but the battle was won before he could get involved.

So, how did the rules cope? They are clearly written and easy to play; I used a 15mm QRS supplied via the Osprey website and rarely had to refer back to the main rule book. The command/control aspect was simple but the scenario did not include any ‘Dithering’ commanders, which was a pity, but ‘Dashing’ commanders can frequently put on a good turn of speed! Casualties mount up quickly and artillery was devastating, so that units rapidly reach the 5 hits necessary to cause an irretrievable rout! Superior (Grenadier) units did perform marginally better than Standard units, but not enough to give the impression that they were dominant, super-troops. The Austrian Grenz in the cover of vineyards performed surprisingly well. I never had a chance to assault any of the built-up areas, so cannot comment on how this mechanism worked. The cavalry melee was the decisive factor in the game. I read, but did not appreciate the consequences of, the fact that combat is fought to a conclusion in a single game turn. The Austrian’s largely won by providing supporting units in a second line and, with hindsight, I should have moved Gessler into a support role rather than moving around the flank. The rout of the Prussians under Kyau in a single turn totally exposed the remaining Prussian horse to defeat!

In conclusion the jury is still out on Honours of War. I feel there are still many aspects of the rules that I have yet to explore, but I did find the high casualty rates a bit off putting. I certainly felt the artillery was to powerful, and having two guns in a central position on the battlefield was too dominant and restrictive.

Off the Painting Table (Feb 2016)

That’s it! Done, dusted, out of the way! I’ve finished painting all my spurious fantasy figures that have lurked in a box in the attic for what seems like an eternity.

The final batch consisted of 20 Goblins produced by Mantic that must have been bought from a bring-and-buy stall sometime in the past that I have no recollection of. I have no prior experience of Mantic figures and I think they are OK’ish. Not as well sculpted or animated as GW figures. I think they are over clothed and/or armoured, and I’m disappointed with the armament options; a few axes or clubs could have been included rather than just sword arms. On the plus side, Mantic are apparently significantly cheaper than the overpriced GW products (but as these were second-hand figures, this is not a consideration here). Anyway these Goblins can now join my ‘Bag Guys’ Kings of War army, bringing the points total to the 2,000 points target.

After Action Report; AWI (John Bull rules) 24 Jan 2016

Ian arranged this game using his 15mm AWI figures with the John Bull/Patriots rules (by Perfect Captain - http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/jbull.html). We played the scenario “Commitee Meeting Adjourned” where the British/Loyalist forces launched a surprise raid on a village where Rebel leaders were meeting (in a non-disclosed building) with the aim of capturing them. The American/Rebel forces in the vicinity would count as surprised for the first couple of turns. We diced and I took the British forces and secretly noted which table edge I would enter from. Ian then deployed his American forces.

Fortuitously on the first turn I was able to bring on a unit of British Regulars and volley against Ian’s ‘surprised’ Continental Line, his best troops. My shooting dice were ‘hot’ throughout the game and I routed the Rebels. I then pushed on into the first and second houses of the village (bottom of above photo). On my left flank I again met with success and drove back another Rebel unit. Soon I had taken 3 houses and was advancing on the central church, where I suspected the Rebel leaders were meeting. On the other flank the Rebels recovered from their surprise and established a firing line facing my Tory unit and British Lights, but the firing from both sides in this sector was ineffectual.

Although my dice rolling for shooting was very good, I found my use of the bayonet was poor and I repeatedly failed to rout the Rebels in combat by rolling low. This was annoying but had little impact because I quickly captured the Rebel leaders and marched them back to the British baseline. At this point Ian capitulated; his forces were seriously depleted and had no chance of preventing a British victory.

A good game but unfortunately for Ian the rout of his Continentals at the start really put the Rebels on the back-foot and they never recovered. The rules work well and use the same mechanisms as found in the Russian Civil War rules (Red Actions), which I have used many times and like a lot. The graphics are not quite as good and there are some AWI-specific unit characteristics, which you would expect. The flow of the game was smooth and the alternate unit activation is the prime decision mechanism for a player.