A double dose of Dorking

What a magnificent and memorable occasion! I am recently returned from a four-day wargaming extravaganza at our friend Phil's large and lovely holiday home in France. Eight of us convened there on Thursday evening and had fun fighting and feasting until our Tuesday morning departure.

The hardcore wargaming was leavened by non-military-related card and board games. The full list of games played was this, I think:

Gettysburg (BBB) - the iconic American Civil War battle, with custom terrain

Gravelotte (BBB) - the epic Franco-Prussian War battle, with custom terrain

France 1940 (O Group)

WWII naval Pacific (Nimitz)

WWII naval North Atlantic (Nimitz)

Startups (card game)

High Society (card game)

Junta (board game) - the classic game designed by Vincent Tsao, friend of BBB and quartermaster of the Corlears Hook Fencibles

Decrypto (party game)

Dorking 1875 (BBB)

Dorking 1940 (O Group)

I will focus on these last two because it was such a delightful conceit on Phil's part to run them both. Many wargamers will know of the book by George Tomkyns Chesney, The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer, published in 1871, about a fictional future German invasion of England in 1875. Some readers may even have wargamed the Battle of Dorking, as I am sure I have seen it done as a convention game a couple of times. Anyway, this time it was our turn, as Phil had decided he wanted to do it. In fact, he was so keen that he cut out custom hills for the terrain and was still frantically painting the last guardsmen when we arrived. We duly fought the 1875 battle and enjoyed it so much that it seemed a good idea to fight a 1940 version as well.

Some 17 annotated photos tell you how our two games went. A few reflections follow.

The Dorking gap, looking south. Germans will arrive from the south edge (top of pic). The large building on a square is the town of Dorking. Roads and rail lines run N-S and E-W. The River Mole runs through the gap. The major ridge on the left is Box Hill. The nearer building in the centre is Westhumble Station; the one lower right is Polesden Lacey; lower left, I think the King William IV inn. On the small ridge top left is where Graham used to live, above the railway tunnel. All of these were objectives, as was the major ridge on the right as well.

In addition, this party of Royal Engineers was a timed objective. The Germans had to overrun them by Turn 2, otherwise they would demolish a strategic section of railway line. Surprisingly, the German players didn't even try - too intent on their right-hook plan (and too wary of British covering fire).

I commanded the British right, a brigade of one regular battalion (one seen here) and three of rifle volunteers. My mission was to hold the righthand ridge. This is Turn 1: the Hun has occupied Dorking and is sweeping towards Box Hill, ignoring me initially and letting the RE do their vital work. White counters mark objectives. (Figures are Pendraken 10mm from Phil's collection. Forgive his unflocked bases - he was painting them right to the last minute. I think the guards deployed while they were still wet!)

Front view of my position, showing some RVs in the line. A second RV bn is left of pic. The union jack marker is my third RV bn in reserve. (We also had a couple of dummy unit markers.) The Polesden Lacey manor house is just visible top of pic, subsequent home of the famed beauty, Lady Greville.

The German right, commanded by Crispin, collides with our left, commanded by Phil, on Box Hill.

A Phil's-eye view of the repeated assaults on Box Hill. The Germans soon set up a Grossbatterie (out of shot top of pic) that did great execution. The blue counter shows the British regulars are now Spent.

A couple of turns later, another corps arrived on the German left, commanded by Dave. My thin line of Rifle Volunteers in the foreground did not keep Dave's Germans off the high ground for long.

My first RV bn having been swiftly routed, I was obliged to wheel my remaining three bns to the right to face Dave's onslaught. A brigade of Germans promptly sortied from Dorking to scale the heights and mow down my regulars from behind. Blue and yellow counters show the effects of the German fire. Fortunately, a battalion of guards had de-trained at Westhumble. Phil sent these up the hill (lower left) to take the Germans in flank and contest control of the ridge.

Box Hill has fallen to the Germans, who swarm across it towards the inn (left foreground), held only by a few Yeomanry cavalry, and Westhumble Station, which is more stoutly garrisoned.

Nevertheless, at game end, both these objectives fall to the Hun. However, a couple of rolls on the random events table have helped us. Top of pic, outraged citizens have armed themselves and, with their rallying cry of "Take Back Control", seized Dorking. Out of pic to the right, the East Surrey Hunt has mustered to protect Lady Greville's honour and distracted a German brigade or two enough to preserve Polesden Lacey and retain the western ridge. The victory conditions were somewhat provisional (Mark and Phil only finalised the scenario at 2am the night before) but I believe it ended in an honourable draw.

For our O Group battle of Dorking set 65 years later, we had to zoom in somewhat. Essentially we were fighting over one shoulder of the gap. This is the battlefield seen from the south, the edge where the Germans arrive. The righthand half of the table is the end of Box Hill, with a substantial concrete bunker and some trenches. The River Mole divides it from the road and rail routes through the gap and Westhumble station (upper left, next to the railway, obviously).

I commanded the British left. Our mortar FOO had a splendid view from Box Hill.

Whereas the 1875 game was a properly designed scenario, the 1940 one was a much more ad hoc exercise in getting the toys on the table, as Phil doesn't often get a chance to use his 1940 collection. We British defenders therefore had nearly as many troops as the Germans and both sides kept bringing on more, which made it hard for the attackers to break through. Here we see Crispin's Pz Is and Kradschützen advancing past a couple of burning Pz IIs.

Of course, one way to help an attacker to break through is to have Stukas smash holes in the defence. This German airstrike destroyed both our A9s and seriously discouraged a Mk VI troop. (Though Mark, the other German commander, did later reflect that he'd have done better to pummel the infantry defending the station.)

The Stuka also destroyed our 25-pdr. Our infantry and their Boyes AT rifle hunker down to defend the vital bridge.

Climax of the game was a double assault on the station, first by a motorcycle platoon, then by a Panzergrenadier platoon. Both were repelled by the tightest of margins - it came down to the company commander's Webley to swing it.

What else would you put under the cloth to make hills for a 1940 game?

Reflections

The value of what-ifs. I wrote a "Reflections on Wargaming" essay on this a couple of years ago. Both our Dorking games were extreme what-ifs, gaming battles as part of invasions that never happened. Nevertheless, they were thought-provoking and generated much discussion about both putative invasions. Essentially this boiled down to the conclusion that the existence of the Royal Navy ruled them both out, barring some Wunderwaffe of the kind hinted at but not properly described by Chesney. As for the battles themselves, the 1875 one went pretty much the way Chesney has it - given another turn or two, the thin red line would have collapsed under the weight of German numbers; the 1940 one was instructive in how difficult it was for the Germans to make progress until the Stukas blew a hole in the defenders.

The value of custom terrain. The terrain shapes the battle. For historical refights to have the right shape, it is therefore important to represent the terrain reasonably accurately. Hills are a particular challenge in this respect (see my essay on that too). For the Dorking game (and Gettysburg and Gravelotte), Phil had gone to great trouble to carve custom hills of exactly the right shape. These undoubtedly made the games more realistic, not to mention looking great. It's not worth the effort for every battle, but for major ones like these that are likely to be played again and again it surely is.

Rationalizing the dice. BBB's use of 2D6 for unit activation, firing and assaults means that, while 'average' results will predominate, there is always a small chance of something rather less likely happening. When that occurs - the devastating fire being brushed off, the overwhelming assault repulsed, the vital brigade next to the commander-in-chief failing to move at the critical time - it is important to be able to tell ourselves a plausible story about what must have happened to produce that result. A nice case in point arose in the 1875 game. Dave's corps was poised to swarm my few defenders on my ridge. The random event for that turn was that the East Surrey Hunt appeared at Polesden Lacey. Three of Dave's brigades promptly failed their movement rolls and sat paralysed for an hour. Our rationalisation? Clearly, they had heard the Hunt's hunting horns and assumed a large force had arrived on their flank!

Getting the toys on the table. While a lovingly crafted, perfectly balanced scenario that generates a close contest and a nailbiting climax is always welcome, there is also considerable pleasure to be had from much less tightly scripted affairs. Our 1940 game was the sketchiest of scenarios - after all, it was entirely fictional anyway - Phil just gave both sides whatever he liked, reinforcing the Germans as they bogged down and reinforcing the British as their defences creaked. The ultimate meta-victory conditions were achieved - he got his toys on the table and we all enjoyed a good-looking game and a ding-dong scrap.

An army marches on its stomach. The rations during our four days were excellent. It behoves me to pay tribute here to the redoubtable Lisa, who conjured up culinary miracles every day, amazing in both quality and quantity. Fortunately Phil's cellar had sufficient wine and Armagnac to wash these down. Fair to say the troops' morale was high throughout.

The HQGE. Another of my "Reflections" essays was this one on the "High Quality Gaming Experience". It lists six key ingredients: Terrain, Troops, Venue, Rules, Scenario, Company. Our four days in France had all of these in spades. This was an Extremely High Quality Gaming Experience and one I hope will be repeated. A la prochaine!

Boer War: polishing a rough Diamond (Hill)

This is a tale of defeat turned into victory - not so much on the tabletop (though we did have a see-saw game), but in terms of scenario design.

Irregular Miniatures 6mm British colonial troops from Mark's collection, planting a nice blue flag on an Objective.

Three years ago, we playtested the first draft of Anton's scenario for the battle of Diamond Hill. This was one of the last set-piece battles of the Boer War, which festered on for another couple of years but was essentially a guerrilla war from then on. As my report from 2022 shows, that first attempt was rather abortive. The main reason was simple - it turned out that there had been a miscalculation of the figure ratios, resulting in there being more than twice as many Boers on the table as there should have been. No wonder the poor Brits got mown down in heaps.

The psychological pain of this debacle was such that Anton couldn't bear to return to Diamond Hill until I finally prompted him into action this month. Apart from correcting the order of battle, we also rejigged the map, framing it so that it was no longer a simple frontal assault but allowed the appropriate manoeuvre room on both flanks and beyond the Boers' front line. This made all the difference and produced a far more interesting game, a far more even contest, and a far more satisfactory scenario all round.

Before plunging into the photos and reflections, I'll repeat the scene-setting paragraph from 2022:

"The situation is that the war is approaching its end; Pretoria has been taken; Louis Botha's Boers are being pressed back eastwards towards Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique) and have established a long defensive position on a line of hills. The imperial forces are aiming to breach this line and press on eastward down the road towards Middelburg."

View of the whole battlefield, looking east as the imperial forces arrive from Pretoria. French's Cavalry Division is about to enter along the road at bottom left corner; Pole-Carew's 11th Division with a substantial artillery force arrives astride the railway (by the Eerste Fabriek station halt, left foreground); Hamilton with a mixed force on the imperial right wing (right foreground). Red counters denote small half-strength artillery units. Green counters mark Raw locally raised mounted infantry. Green pipe-cleaners mark the steep slopes of the Magaliesberg (left foreground) and along the front of the Boer position.

In the top half of the pic is the Boers' thin shabby brown line. Diamond Hill itself is that central bastion to the right of the railway with two Boer batteries flanking a 2-base Boer commando. (Boers are Irregular Miniatures 6mm from Anton's collection, sitting on my veteran card sabot bases.) They are outnumbered 3:1 in this battle. However, they do enjoy the benefit of Entrenchments, Skirmishers, Smokeless Powder, Camouflage, and some imperial Tactical Ineptitude, so it's an even fight.

White counters indicate Objectives: a ring of hills covering the Boers' line of retreat; the Elandsfontein station on their line of retreat; and the Kameels Poort road exit (top left) that offers French's cavalry a route to get round and cut off the retreat. The Boers also earn an Objective if they can exit two units off that east edge on the final turn; they lose one if the Brits move two units off it by Turn 6 (out of 8).

Imperial left wing moves out on Turn 1. I commanded this, while Mark had the imperial right. Anton commanded the Boers. Three of us was a good number for this game (we could maybe have accommodated one more).

Hamilton (Mark) moves out on our right. Our plan was pretty simple, largely dictated by the fact that a frontal assault seemed suicidal. Instead, as we had so many cavalry, we took advantage of their mobility to push round both flanks and try to roll up the Boer line from each end. Meanwhile, we tried to set up a massive gun line to pummel the Boer positions from beyond Mauser range. (This last proved not to be easy, as the harassing fire from the Boer guns kept driving our batteries back. We only really got it set up for the last couple of turns.)

A view from the Boer side. The big empty space in front of that strong Boer position on Diamond Hill betrays our cunning plan.

By Turn 3, French's cavalry are mostly across the minor stream and have dismounted (brown counters) and shaken out into a firing line to take on the right-flank Boer commando at the kind of odds that give us a chance of success. Pole-Carew's infantry have pushed up to lend support on French's right (the two 4-base units in upper centre of pic).

On our right, Hamilton's infantry guards a tidy gun line while his cavalry races round the Boer left flank. All going according to plan so far.

Turn 4 plan view. Hamilton's cavalry assaults the lefthand Boer position (top right). On our left, slow going against the righthand one. (For BBB players: the Boers enjoy four left shifts against imperial rifle fire (five against artillery) and benefit from a right shift or two when they fire back.)

Alert readers will notice more troops for both sides have appeared on the top left (NE) part of the pitch. The Boers get to deploy an ambushing unit there on Turn 4 and one on the opposite flank on Turn 5; the imperials then get more cavalry entering on the N and S (left and right) edges after the ambushes. This reflects how the cavalry moves on each flank found themselves ambushed in the actual battle, as the Boers had a thin screen that stretched miles beyond the ~15 miles by 10 represented by the table.

The ambushers are ambushed: Anton's right-flank ambushing unit pinned down my units in the foreground but was then outflanked by the arrival of my reinforcements.

The setting winter sun casts long shadows across the Diamond Hill battlefield as the imperials try to close for the assault. Here the Boer right flank is under attack from my imperial left wing force. I have driven the ambushers out of their rifle pits (lower left). Pole-Carew's infantry are trying to cross the stream but are pinned down and taking casualties from withering Boer fire. (White puffs indicate Disruption.)

Even tougher going for Mark on our right. His first assault took a Boer gun position but cost him a cavalry brigade. Boer fire had taken out others. The ambushers on this flank have been driven back to Elandsfontein (right edge) but obviously these will slow him down. Nevertheless, his latest assault has dispersed a Boer commando. Can he now overrun that isolated Boer battery? (Left foreground.)

Turn 7, I think. The Boers are running out of troops, but the imperials are running out of time: the Boers only need to retain 1 Objective to draw and 2 to win (if they can exit units off the board on Turn 8). Here we see my troops rolling up the Boer right, but the hills we're taking are worthless except as stepping stones to the ones that matter.

Plan view to explain the endgame better. The blue counters on the road exit (top left), Elandsfontein and the L2 hilltop (top right) are the Objectives we've taken. The Boers still hold four white counters, and we only have one turn to clear them off. At least we are in range to attack them all, but are there enough of us and will the dice be kind?

Our assaults go in on the final turn. In the centre, Mark has got two units onto Diamond Hill in rear of its garrisoning commando (whose artillery has finally been stripped away by our counter-battery fire). Across the railway from Diamond Hill, my infantry are assaulting the last unit of Koos de la Rey's Ermelo Kommando. On the right, Mark has launched a desperate charge into the teeth of the ZARP's rifle fire and is counting on his guns blasting away the last Boer battery. How did these go?

On Diamond Hill itself: success! Although we didn't close with the bayonet, evidently being fired on from all directions was enough for Botha's men to call it a day. Diamond Hill is ours.

To the north of it: here we actually did have to go in with the bayonet. Fortunately, the Boers were low on ammo and unable to fend us off or to resist the assault.

All depended on Hamilton on our right. Sadly (but not unexpectedly), he could not drive the Boers off their remaining Objective. Thus, although they had only been able to exit one unit rather than the two for an Objective, they still clung on for a draw.

Reflections

Ups and Downs. I like a game to tell a story. This one did, with a proper dramatic emotional rollercoaster for the protagonists. At first it was toilsome for the imperials, inevitably so, as they tried to manoeuvre into position while being fired on by an intact Boer line. Then, hooray! We started to make inroads on the flanks. But then, dismay! As ambushes were revealed and took their toll in casualties and delay. Hooray again! As our numbers and outflanking finally told, the Boer line was diminished and in disarray and objectives began falling to us. High drama! As multiple assaults went in on the last turn. Will they/won't they? Yes and no - a classic BBB down-to-the-wire draw.

Cavalry Doing What Cavalry Should Do. The imperial force was horse-heavy, over two thirds of it being cavalry (or, really, mounted infantry - though they did actually execute a proper charge or two on the day). As Anton observed, with the revised scenario offering space to manoeuvre, the cavalry was able to do its thing properly as it should and did: using expansive mounted manoeuvre prior to contact, threatening flanks and rears and taking objectives without a fight if possible, but dismounting for an infantry fight where necessary.

The Ambushes Worked. As a game mechanism, I mean. BBB scenarios almost never use hidden movement or deployment. However, for this particular scenario, it seemed appropriate. It did indeed work well, seeming to produce the right game effect and without being overly complicated.

Withdrawing vs Pursuing. Granting an Objective for exiting units on the last turn is a device Anton has used successfully in some of his other scenarios. The twist in this one is that the pursuers can also negate one Boer objective by exiting troops off the enemy edge. (Hardly a unique innovation - plenty of other scenario designers have used some version of this, I'm sure - but that's not the point.) The pursuers don't have to do so - it's a choice - but including that choice adds an extra dimension to the game to make the scenario distinctive.

Playtesting - The Pleasure and the Pain. Although Anton has a great record of writing near-perfect scenarios, his first draft of Diamond Hill was a rare exception. Three years ago it gave us a game that really didn't work: it bore little resemblance to the history, it was frustrating and not very entertaining for the players, and therefore disappointing and discouraging for Anton. So much for the pain. The next part of the process was reflection and rethinking by Anton and me: we worked out where it went wrong, did the necessary major revision, re-drew the map entirely, and played it through all over again. This time, the game was great. It played out as it should, it fitted with the history, all the players had enough choices to make and our share of moments of glory or despair, and it had the perfect climactic finish. The pleasure was made all the sweeter by the preceding pain. I hope this helps readers to appreciate just how much we labour and suffer to bring you elegantly designed, nicely balanced scenarios.

Bloody Big Battles in AFRICA! This game was significant beyond the one scenario. Diamond Hill completes Anton's set of Boer War scenarios. That is important because we intend these to form the core of a BBB scenario book, Bloody Big Battles in AFRICA!, on the same model as the Bloody Big Battles in INDIA! volume. There are a few playtests and revisions of the other scenarios still to do (eg, Mark wants to rewrite his Adua scenario), but the main roadblock is out of the way now and enthusiasm for the project is high again. I think we may be able to publish this before the end of 2026. No promises, mind - but you might want to start painting up your Boers and Brits now (not to mention Fuzzy Wuzzies, Italian colonials, Zulus ...)