One Hour Wargames

I finally managed to try out Martin Rapier's hexed-based variant of the World War II rules in Neil Thomas's ONE-HOUR WARGAMES book ... and thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

I used my mini-campaign board and Hexon II hexed terrain, some of my Megablitz Soviet and German troops, and Scenario 30: 'Last Stand' from the book. The only changes I made to the rules were to use a card-driven unit activation system (as experience has shown me that this makes for a more interesting situation when fighting a solo wargame) and to allow units that have moved to fire during the same turn. (This was done to see if this speeded up the pace of the game.)

---

Last Stand: Morschauserland vs. Eastland Eastland troops were trying to hold up an advance into Eastland by Morschauserland troops, who had crossed the border to try to regain control part of the disputed border area.

The Eastland commander had three units at his disposal:

• 1 x Infantry Unit
• 1 x Artillery Unit
• 1 x Tank Unit

The attacking Morschauserland force comprised:

• 4 x Infantry Units
• 1 x Motorized Infantry Unit
• 1 x Artillery Unit

The Terrain

The Initial Eastland Positions

Turn 1
The Morschauserland Motorized Infantry Unit advanced on the small town that was astride the road leading away from the bridge across the river. It came under fire from the Morschauser Infantry unit in the town, and dismounted before crossing the bridge and returned fire.

The Morschauserland Artillery Unit fired in support of the Motorized Infantry Unit, and were then fired upon by the Eastland Artillery Unit on the hill.

The remained of the Morschauserland force advanced towards the ford across the river.

Turn 2
The Morschauserland Motorised Infantry Unit (supported by fire from Morschauserland Artillery Unit and one of the Infantry Units) assaulted the Eastland-held town, but were unable to dislodge the Eastland Infantry Unit holding it.

The Eastland Artillery Unit continued to fire at the Morschauserland Artillery Unit, and the Morschauserland Infantry Units began to cross the river via the ford.

Turn 3
The fighting for possession of the town continued, and casualties began to mount on both sides.

At the same time, the Eastlander Tank Unit finally advanced to stem the forward movement of the Morschauserland Infantry Units that had cross the river via the ford.

Turn 4
Eventually firepower and numbers told, and the Morschauserlanders finally destroyed the towns Eastland defenders ... but at a price! (The Morschauserland Artillery Unit had been destroyed by its Eastland counterpart.)

On the other flank, the Eastland Tank Unit inflicted substantial casualties on the leading Morschauserland Infantry Unit, although not without suffering casualties of their own.

Turn 5
Whilst the Morschauserland Motorized Infantry Unit waited for its transport to catch up with it, the supporting Morschauserland Infantry Unit passed through it and advanced up the road.

On the other flank of the battlefield the fighting between the Eastland Tank Unit (supported by artillery fire from the Artillery Unit) wiped out one of the Morschauserland Infantry Units.

Turn 6
The Morschauserland Infantry Unit on the road continued its cautious advance, and the Motorized Infantry Unit was reunited with its transport. The Eastland Tank Unit withdrew slightly as its strength was becoming seriously eroded and the Morschauserland Infantry Units used this opportunity to swing towards the road.

Turn 7
It was becoming clear that the Eastlanders were not going to be able to stem the Morschauserland advance ... but they tried to inflict as much damage on the invaders as was possible.

Although the Morschauserland Infantry Unit on the road managed to get away and continue its advance into Eastland, the Eastland Artillery Unit destroyed the Morschauserland Motorized Infantry Unit and the Eastland Tank Unit eliminated one of the remaining Morschauserland Infantry Units.

The Morschauserlanders had achieved their aim of continuing their advance, but at the cost of severe losses. The Eastlanders might not have stopped the advance completely ... but they had given it a bloody nose and left the invaders seriously weakened.

---

In my opinion these are an excellent set of rules. I fought the whole battle in about an hour ... and I spent more time taking photographs and writing up the battle report than I did actually moving the troops and throwing the dice. I will certainly be using them again, although I do have a few developments/changes of my own that I want to try out. I will also revert to the 'move or fire' rule as written, as allowing units that have moved to fire during the same turn speeded things up a bit too much.

---

Note: I kept a note of each unit's strength by using small magnetic numbers that I originally made for my Megablitz battles. I started off using a 1 and a 5 to make up 15 (each unit's starting strength), but as units began to suffer casualties, I had to total the numbers on each base as I didn't have any number 6s, 7s, 8s or 9s. I intend to rectify this situation as soon as I can.