One Hour Skirmish: Flight to Nantes

The year is 1793 and the Vendee burns with the righteous fury of a people denied! Stunned by the backlash against the bloody rule of the Committee for Public Safety, the scattered remnants of the local militias flee headlong for the safety of the walls of Nantes. Familiar with the countryside, the Vendeean farmers have no intention of letting them off so easily.
A quick little skirmish on the road to Nantes using John Lambshead's excellent little card-driven ruleset, "One Hour Skirmish"
NOTE: A commenter helpfully provided one important clue as to why these games go so quickly - figures who move a second and third time on one card have to pay three and five actions respectively. That means taking three consecutive moves on one card costs a single figure NINE actions, rather than three. We'll get it right next time.

[@MegaSnegovichok]

Great report! But it looks like you followed the OHW turn sequence (I go-You go), while in OHSW sides flip cards for initiative (who goes first) EVERY turn. That makes for more cinematic swings of fortune.

[@nicknascati8725]

Yeah, I have Henry, Trollope and Dumas on my kindle. At one point when I tried gaming this a few years ago, I had an actual printed book of Banners of the King.

[@j453]

Be honest, are the cards as fun as dice? They can technically give you more possible outcomes, which seems interesting but also seems potentially combersome. I was interested in Malifaux for a bit, they use a deck of cards too. You can use regular playing cards but they also have fancy proprietary decks as well. Anyway, dice alternatives are allways interesting to me.

[@dartmart9263]

Of course dice are way more fun. Way more. But I don’t think they would work with this rule set. I would love to see a replay of this battle using Song of Drums and Shakos, and then compare the outcomes.

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

They are a nice change of pace. A little spice to throw in the mix, but certainly not a main course. I need the rattle of the bones in my hand. It does depend on the style of game, though. Cards can really keep a big game with lots of sides and lots of players moving at a brisk clip.

[@dartmart9263]

@@TheJoyofWargaming What do you think would have been the outcome with a Song of rule set, specially one where you can potentially move every figure?

[@j453]

@@TheJoyofWargaming i like how you phrased that, "the rattle of the bones in your hand" haha i love it 👍👍

[@davidnorth2250]

Hiya. I recently got these rules and I like them quite a bit. I'm enjoying your replays. But I noticed one thing... You're allowing a soldier to move more then once at the cost of one action per move. But the rules state that a soldier moving more than once has to spend 3 actions for the second move, and 5 for the third (Page 6, under 1. Player Phase). This would have slowed the blues down quite a bit, and made their victory a bit harder. :)

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Yeah, you ain't lying. Bear in mind I record and post these videos a month in advance so I might get it wrong for one or two more battles. I'll get it right eventually. Thanks for the help I do appreciate it.

[@nicknascati8725]

Since I’ve started reading your reports, I’ve gotten totally into the Vendee rebellion. Any resource tips you can share?

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Hethwill is doing a map and counter game on it right now. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWrKn6uelM6YmbM And I enjoyed this novelization of the events: NO SURRENDER! A TALE OF THE RISING IN LA VENDEE www.amazon.com/dp/B08FY8VDL2/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_g_Z2Q34BN0ZDV8CQ286QVJ

[@dartmart9263]

Shouldn’t the blues have started from the end of the road instead of the middle? That way everyone starts off at an edge of the board?

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Neil Thomas's One-Hour Wargame scenarios frequently feature initial setups that are not along the board edge. When you're defending a town or a hill, for example, your forces will start off in various deployment zones. This is one of those scenarios.

[@dartmart9263]

@@TheJoyofWargaming I’m thinking that perhaps that’s why the game didn’t last the full hour.

[@nicknascati8725]

That should of course be Henty, damn auto correct!

[@jamesl3214]

I have yet to test this set out but in response to armchair murmurings, the ‘taste the sauce while you’re cooking’ approach is what makes these videos great. Maybe for tweakage, you could try adding a randomly generated amount of scatter terrain to the maps (I really get the impression this rules set is about running from cover to cover and taking pot shots until bayonets time). Alternatively, I like the idea of nutting out some kind of ‘parry’ or extra wound in close combat, with high draws being a quick kill and lows being a blunder? This makes sense for troops who specialise in swordplay and create a contrast with the muskets, which seem appropriately off kilter and slow, but deadly when they land. Eh, everyone’s an expert! Please bring back your 8 bit Zelda redwoods, and tell me your postal address so I can send you my 6mm overflow to support your work (and maybe dislodge some writers block)! Bless from Sydney

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

They really do need a lot more stuff to hide behind. I correct that a bit in the next video in the series with a handful of trees. But it needs more than that, even. Water hazards or blocking terrrain. What works for four-inch bases just doesn't work for 12-inch bases.

[@TheSapperjoe]

Hello, I will admit that while I had ‘One-Hour Skirmish Wargames’ since its release, I have never gamed it. I was rather turned off by the cards being involved for all actions and resolutions (I didn’t see that it was dice-less when I pre-ordering it). I am okay with cards being used for some actions and resolutions, just not for everything. Shuffling cards is not my favorite thing, but I can see their usefulness in many cases. Anyways, while watching you using this rules set, it did get me to at least start to re-read parts of the book again to maybe reevaluate my previous opinions. That is why I noticed that you made an additional mistakes with the system, besides the multi-actions that another gentleman brought up. Since you were consistent, it didn’t effect the game. Really, this is more of a historical accuracy mistake, instead of a game mechanic. The French didn’t use rifled muskets for their infantry. They used the Model 1777 smoothbore musket, although some time after 1800, they modify the musket and was called the Model 1777 Corrected. In the rules, smoothbores muskets only take one action to fire and one action to reload. Rifled muskets take two actions to fire and one action to reload. Plus, the range of the rifled musket is infinite per the rules (really, I would say 36” since it basically had twice the effective range as a smoothbore, but since you are gaming on a 3’ table...). I don’t know how well the Vendeans would be equipped with rifled muskets, as they were very expensive at the time and not common. But then again, American farmers had a number of them to whittle down the British army about 20 years earlier, so maybe a few of them might have them at least for play balance. As a side note, basically only the British Rifles regiments were issued with rifled muskets during this period. Something I might suggest to consider for games with this rules would be the following, I would not give all shooters the Deadeye trait, only those with the rifled muskets, if any, or your Heroes. The professional armies at the time, or in case of the Revolutionary French, the conscripts, didn’t encourage marksmanship, but mass shooting. The exception would be with the Light infantry, who were encouraged to use aimed shots. Another thing, I would consider giving the Republicans the ability to engage in melee without spending an action (I like your idea on that)because they have bayonets and the Vendeans probably didn’t useless their muskets were captured from an armory or Republican dead or captured, plus rifled muskets rarely were fitted for bayonets. The better option is to give some kind of negative to the Vendeans’ morale on a turn where bayonet Republicans are in melee range, say 6”, if they don’t have bayonets or long reach melee weapons. This would actually make more sense and would reflect American Revolutionary militias reluctance to stand vs a British bayonet assault for the same period in game system. Regardless, I greatly enjoy your videos and you are inspiring me to start trying to work on miniature gaming again.

[@bobiojimbo]

When defending from a shot, the turn ends on a Joker, and the shot is neither a success nor failure?

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Them's the rules. As I understand it, the joker means that the turn ends immediately. I'd have to double check to see whether that means you need to spend an action to reload or not, but definitely the other player doesn't have to turn over cards to see if this guy got hurt cuz the shot didn't get off.

[@bobiojimbo]

@@TheJoyofWargaming Interesting. Can make for some really tense moments where that shot really needs to happen or not.