The Wilderness at Colours 2026
(Two items in this blog post: The Wilderness at the Colours show, then the Balkan Wars battle of Driskos at OWS.)
The Colours wargames show run by Newbury & Reading Wargames Society and held at Newbury racecourse every September is one of my favourite shows. Our Oxford Wargames Society participation games have become a regular feature of the event (see previous reports).
For this year's game we chose an American Civil War battle, The Wilderness (1864). There were several factors in this decision. One was the fact that, although I wrote this scenario over 10 years ago, we wanted to playtest it again to check and polish it for the planned BBB American Civil War scenario book(s) that we hope to finish next year. Another was that we could use Dave W's 10mm Pendraken figures, which are better than 6mm for display at shows. A third was that the table is reasonably easy to set up - no hills! And, finally, it's just a rollicking good game because of the battle's geometry: two armies collide at right angles, each marching on two roads, so everyone is in motion and questing for the open flank.
We fought the battle through one and a half times during the show. The first game ended at the halfway mark as it was clear that, through a combination of veteran player skill and good fortune, the South had achieved such a good position and done so much damage that there was no way the Union was coming back. The second game was a much more even contest of ebb and flow, both sides smashing holes in each other in different places, action all over the pitch, and - of course - coming down to the last dice on the last turn to end in a knife-edge draw. Here are seven photos of the action from the first game, just to give you a flavour:
Seeing the wood for the trees ... the battlefield is woods everywhere except the small patches of fields. It's 12 miles x 8 across. One base represents 2,000 men - the Union army is 100,000 strong. Union forces are in the top left quarter, marching from left to right. Confederates are in the foreground, about to intercept them. A few cavalry are skirmishing off-table to the right and will appear mid-game. The difficult country means it is all about the road network, so the game Objectives are the main road junctions and the Union supply trains (the two wagons at the fords, top left).
The Union left-hand column is Hancock's II Corps. It's imperative that this should step off smartly to reach the objectives in the southern half of the table and cover the open flank of the other US column.
The head of the right-hand column is at the Wilderness Tavern. Steve J opted to start the whole column deployed for battle, rather than keep them in column and attempt to extend his line, as that would have risked being hit before he could deploy.
Unfortunately Gregg's cavalry failed their activation and stopped outside the Chancellorsville mansion for a sausage roll. (For our non-UK readers, that's a
culinary reference.) That meant Hancock's corps had to trudge cross-country to pass them, costing valuable time.
By contrast, the arriving Confederates succeed with all their movement rolls. Their ragged columns race forward to envelop the exposed Union force at the Wilderness Tavern. Can the US bring up more troops in support in time?
The answer of course is no. Crawford & Wadsworth's divisions are caught isolated, hit front and flank by double their numbers, and smashed back.
Union reinforcements finally move up but will arrive piecemeal and be beaten back in their turn, leaving the rebels free to pounce on the Union supply train at the Culpeper Mine Ford (the wagon model in the foreground). At that point the battle was irretrievable for the Union.
But enough of the toys - it's about the people! And what a lot there were. Apart from the three of us on the team, I think we had at least eight different players join in at various times, while dozens more stopped to chat and have their ears bent by me enthusing. (Apologies to anyone I bored unduly.) Particularly pleased to meet Morten from Denmark, Chris Gosney aka "The Crusty Colonel", and Simon Miller of "To the Strongest" fame. But it was just great to meet everyone, ranging from veteran players and old friends, via those who have the rules already and are introducing their clubmates to BBB, to those who had never seen BBB before.
As always, it was an exciting and rewarding day. I had a great time, I'm sure we entertained our participant players, I had a lot of good conversations, and I hope many show attendees enjoyed the sight of our densely wooded table. (My only regret is I was too busy to make it to the Helion stand and see my new book that was apparently finally published last week.) I'm pretty sure we enhanced Colours and I hope NWRS will invite us back again next year!
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Driskos (1912)
As if the Wilderness on Saturday wasn't enough, I was in action again the following Monday, this time running a small Balkan Wars battle at the club: Driskos (1912). This was a playtest of a new scenario to be added to a new edition of Dr Konstantinos Travlos's Bloody Big Balkan Battles! book.
This was part of the Greek effort to capture the city of Ioannina in Epirus, after the Greeks and Serbs had both inflicted some major defeats on the Ottomans. The battle picture is that the Greeks have taken some high ground at Driskos that dominates the northeastern approaches to Ioannina. The Ottomans counterattack and, in a two-day battle, drive the Greeks back. The scenario depicts the counterattack.
It's a pretty simple battlefield: the Ottomans have to advance across an open plain to storm a few villages on the steep hills and take the dominant hilltops. Figures are my 6mm Heroics & Ros (ACW zouaves painted as Ottomans) and Irregular Miniatures (WWI British painted as Greeks). Buildings are tourist souvenirs from a visit to Dubrovnik. Phil and Crispin commanded the Ottomans. I was joined on the Greek side by a new comrade, Edward. Our opponents opted to weight their attack on their right, hoping to roll us up from our left. We launched a counterattack, advancing our reserve unit off the heights to hit the Ottoman left flank. It was a bloody fight as modern weapons took a heavy toll of both sides. It looked like a Greek win until right near the end, when the Ottoman artillery blew some of our troops away and Ottoman infantry surged forward, defying our defensive fire, to seize the objectives they needed for victory.
Situation at dusk on Day 1 of the first game. The Ottomans have been repulsed by the few elite Evzones in Morkios (left of pic) but established a foothold in Janista (centre of pic). The remaining two turns on Day 2 will be just enough for them to seize Hill 1078 (right foreground) and Moni Kiras (top right) for the win.
We were able to swap sides, reset and go again. This time we tried a different plan, concentrating against the central Greek salient initially. We got the surge in earlier, sending in three simultaneous charges just before dusk on Day. The odds said we should have succeeded with one or two, but the dice were against us. We reeled back and conceded defeat.
Reflections
Small games: pros and cons. A small game like this has several advantages. We were able to set up quickly and play it twice in an evening. The small manageable forces were ideal for introducing a new player to the game system. The simplicity provides a very distilled tactical challenge that still allows for different plans to be tried. On the 'con' side, with so few units on the table, one or two extreme dice early on that inflict particularly heavy casualties can have disproprortionate ramifications for the rest of the game. But even that 'con' can be a 'pro' in that such variability adds to the replay value.
Simple but subtle: troop quality. Though the forces are small, there is enough variety in their orders of battle to create choices and add interest. The Turks have two regular regiments with modern Mauser rifles, but their third is raw redif reservists with older weapons (and old blue uniforms). On the Greek side, there is only one large regular unit, the rest being a mix of Garibaldini, Cretan volunteers, and other irregulars, but they do have the best troops on the table: the 1-base Evzone unit.
Surprisingly successful! I wasn't sure how well this scenario would work as a game, but actually it was great fun and will need almost no revision. Thanks, Konstantinos!
