6mm Seven Years War - Honours of War rules try out

As mentioned in my posts on making fields and tree bases and hedges I've had a 6mm Seven Years War collection sitting idle for over 10 years. Disgraceful!  As well as the usual distractions of other projects  this was due to my inability to find  a set of rules that really suited what I wanted.  That was until the beginning of this year when I bought a copy of Honours of War by Keith Flint.  

These are one of the Osprey blue book series.  In my experience these are a bit hit and miss, but this set is one of the best.  Good miniatures photos and some lovely illustrations from the Osprey portfolio.  The rules themselves are clearly written, seemed very playable and enhanced by clear diagrams.  They allow for all scales of figures with good support available on a dedicated website and Keith's blog.

Onto the game.  I played on a 2ft x 2ft board with a farm and some wooded areas (using all my newly made terrain bits).  

The Austrian line

As it was a familiarisation game I went with limited forces for each side using the national characteristics in the rule book.  

Austrians - 1 Brigade commanded by a Steadfast Brigade Commander (BC) of 3 standard infantry regiments and 1 superior medium artillery battery. 1 Independent unit of 1 superior cavalry regiment.

Prussians - 1 Brigade commanded by a Steadfast BC of 2 superior (Guard) infantry regiments and 1 standard medium artillery battery. 1 Independent unit of 1 superior cavalry regiment.

Turn One

Commanding Generals (CG) are moved to within command distance of BC.  Prussians win move initiative.  BC rolls a 1 +1 for Prussian so scores a Steady result.  The Prussian Infantry brigade and attached artillery all move forward.  Austrian BC scores an Admirable but the Infantry regiments brigade only moves forward once whereas the artillery battery moves once and uses the additional move to unlimber. Prussian Cavalry move as do the Austrian cavalry. 

Austrians win the Firing initiative.  The Austrian artillery fire but scoring a 2 on the average dice with  -1 for movement and -1 for superior target means no hits. No other units are within range.  There's been no casualties so no rallying to do. Turn over.

Turn Two

CGs are moved to within command distance of BCs. Prussians win move initiative again.  Even with CG influence the Prussian BC only gets a Steady.  The infantry regiments all advance again.  The artillery use their move to unlimber.  One of the Austrian regiments move slightly the rest hold their position.  The Prussian cavalry change formation from column to line.  The Austrian cavalry hold in place.  

Even with their national characteristic of +1 the Prussians lose out on Firing initiative .  The Austrian medium battery opens up at the advancing Prussian infantry.  They have +2 for canister, but -1 as the target is superior.  The roll is 4=1 hit.  No unit is within musket range so the Prussian artillery get to fire  next.  An Austrian infantry regiment is just within range, the Prussians moved -1, the dice roll is 3, standard artillery scoring 2 is 0 hits.  There's nothing else to work out this turn so turn over.

Turn Three

CGs stay with BCs.  Third turn running Prussians win initiative.  The infantry regiments move within musket range of the Austrian artillery and an Austrian infantry regiment respectively.  The Austrians elect not to move.  The Prussian cavalry charge an Austrian infantry regiment.  The Austrian cavalry wheel to support the infantry in the ensuing melee.  Prussians win firing initiative.  Regiment One fires at the Austrian artillery.  Natural 5 is scored which guarantees 1 hit, which is just as well as there was -3 of modifiers.  2 hits recorded.  The other Prussian regiment scores a 3 but with -3 modifiers fails to register a hit.  Last unit of this brigade is the Prussian artillery.  A 3 with a -1 modifier for light cover also means 0 hits.  Austrian artillery scores 1 hit on the Prussian infantry.  Austrian infantry regiments  One and Two scores 1 hit each on Prussian Regiment Two.  Now for the melee.  The Prussian cavalry score 2 hits on Austrian Regiment Three (they didn't get the frontal charge bonus as the infantry were close order in good morale).  The Austrians inflict 3 casualties (the supporting Austrian cavalry unit cancelled out the superior class of the Prussian cavalry).  There's no rallying to be done but a few units are teetering now.  

It's hotting up.

Turn Four

Once again the Prussians seize the initiative. There's no movement from them.  Likewise, only the  Austrian cavalry move to charge the Prussian cavalry.  The Prussians also win the Firing initiative. Infantry Regiment One continues to fire at the Austrian artillery.  A roll of a 4 with a -1 for difficult target gives 2 hits.  The Austrian artillery has now accumulated 4 hits so they have to retreat one move manhandling their gun.  Prussian Regiment Two fires inflicting one hit on Austrian Regiment One.  Prussian artillery causes 1 hit on Austrian regiment Two.  Austrian Regiment One rolls a natural 5 so guarantee a hit, applying modifiers it brings it down to 2 hits.  But Prussian Regiment Two already had 2 so they are now forced to retire one move.  Back to the melee.  The Prussians cause another 2 casualties on Austrian infantry regiment Three who strike back like for like but also have to fall back as their casualties go up to 4.  However, this pushes the Prussian cavalry to 5 casualties.  The unit is Done For and is removed from play.   

Turn Five

Fifth time in a row the Prussians still have the move initiative.  The CG moves to be near the reforming infantry regiment Two which allows them to rally off a hit but they have to stay stationery this turn.  The roles for BCs don't add anything to their moves.  Prussians elect to stay where they are.   The Austrian artillery and Infantry Regiment Three are stationery as they're rallying off hits.  The other two infantry regiments move forwards in pursuit of the Prussians.  The Austrian cavalry advance towards the Prussian artillery.  Prussians just gain the Firing initiative and Regiment One inflicts 3 hits on Austrian regiment One forcing it to retire a move with 4 hits accumulated.  The Prussian artillery can open up on the Austrian cavalry that are moving closer.  With modifiers they inflict 2 hits.  Only Austrian Regiment Two is in a position to fire causing 1 hit on the reforming Prussia Regiment Two.  The Austrian artillery and Infantry Regiment Three manage to rally off a hit each. 

Turn Six

And yet again the red dice of the Prussians comes up on top,  CG stay supporting the BGs.  No movement from the Prussians.  Austrian Infantry advance and the cavalry charge the Prussian artillery.  Prussians win the Firing initiative.  The only unit that can fire is the artillery.  2 hits on the Austrian cavalry which takes them up to 4 so they have to retire a move. Their charge was stopped.  Austrian Infantry Regiment Two causes 2 hits on their Prussian counterparts forcing them up to 6 hits - DONE FOR.  What's left of them rout.  The Austrian artillery score 2 hits on Prussian Infantry Regiment One  driving them up to 4 hits and forcing them to retire a move.  I didn't bother rallying off any hits from any units as with the rout of Prussian Infantry Regiment Two the Prussians had reached their army break point.  Victory to Austria!!!

Conclusion

Honours of War gives a good game.  On a couple of turns I forgot to use the Commanding Generals and do the Brigade Commanders rolls. And I used red dice to begin and switched to green rather than the other way round!  I need to read the rules through again having played them.  I would think you don't get the full benefit until you play with multiple brigades and then the command element becomes more important.  I'll keep with them and aim to play another game sooner rather than later. As shown below I have enough units sitting there!