Sixty-One Sixty-Five ACW Skirmish Rules Review...

Sixty-One Sixty-Five Rules Overview Sixty-One Sixty-Five is a set of American Civil War Skirmish Miniature Rules by Sergio Laliscia. They are published by Ganesha Games and are based on the Company's ‘Song of…’ rules system. They are designed to recreate Company level actions with each figure representing an actual ‘man’. It’s available as a printed booklet or as a PDF. The cover is colour and the rest is black and white including some diagrams and a lot of sketch style pictures. There are 34 pages the first 19 are the basic rules and then there are 4 pages of special rules followed up by 3 scenarios, force profiles and a (not comprehensive) QRS. The last pages cover a ‘Song of…’ variant for Squad level actions. The rules state a player can control about 30 to 98 infantry figures which are deployed in Squads of 4-8 men or pairs of skirmishers. A game with each side at 98 figures i.e. a full Company should run for about two hours. Given experience with the rules I believe the number of figures used could be increased but the trade-off would be a much longer game and an increase in activation attempts. Squads of troops and Skirmish Pairs are rated for Quality (used for activation and morale purposes) and Combat (used to calculate Firing and Close Combat totals). There are modifiers for activation, morale and combat that affect these base numbers. Officers, Standard Bearers, Musicians and NCO's are represented by individual figures and are important to maintain command control over the Squads. Measuring sticks replace tape measures/rulers in this game, you use the Short, Medium or Long sticks as required to determine weapon ranges and troop movement. I made up 3 sticks of the correct lengths to use when moving and then and then two more; one with 3 long bands and the other with 3 medium ones for firing. Regarding scales the actual length of time each turn represents is not included in the rules but given the ability to load and fire a musket/rifle in the length of time given I’d say about a half minute given a real action environment. Distance scale is not mentioned either but I wouldn’t relate weapons maximum ranges to the basic stick lengths I would say these signify ‘effective’ ranges for the weapons not actual ranges. Single based figures will be best for this game of course movement trays could be used to speed movement. Normal six sided dice are used most of the time, the only exception is if you include troops with variable ‘Quality’ in your OOB in which case an Average dice is required (six sided with 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 denoted). The only a markers required are to denote Units with discharged weapons. Shaken figures are denoted by turning them in 180 degrees so they have their back to the enemy. The rules include an initiative system is for multiplayer games using playing cards. How the Rules Play This summary doesn’t cover every rule in Sixty-One Sixty-Five but hopefully give you an understanding of how they play! Unit Activation Each turn is made up of a series of Unit (read Squad or Skirmish Pairs) activations. All Units get a chance to roll for up to 3 actions using a die per activation comparing the result to their Quality rating. The basic actions are to move, shoot, reload and close combat  . Actions can be performed depending on the number of die rolls passed. If 2 or 3 dice fail when a Unit attempts to activate the opposing player gets the initiative and can attempt to activate their Units until all have attempted to activate or have a turn over result themselves. Turn overs are important so if you start a turn you could roll just 1 die in activation attempts for your units which would ensure you will be able to activate all of your Units before your opponent gets a chance as you can never fail 2 or 3 rolls in the one attempt BUT it means your Units won’t be able to do much! Ah the choices! Being in ‘command control’ gives units a benefit when activating. So it’s a fine balance depending on each Units quality number or how desperate you are to carry out multiple actions how many activation dice you roll. This is one of the best parts of the game and can cause a grey hair or 20! Movement There are four formations available for use by the Squads; they can be in single or double lines, and in columns. Skirmishers roam free but each pair must be within 1 short measuring stick of each other. Formations affect play columns move faster but poor when engaged in Fire/Close Combat actions and obviously lines are the reverse! Difficult terrain is covered simply and anything flagged as such slows a Units movement by a stick length; i.e crossing a fence reduces an infantry Units medium stick move to a short stick one. Firing/Close Combat Skirmisher fire is effective against other skirmishers and against Squads, usually it does not cause many casualties, but by ‘shaking’ troops can reduce the performance of squads and can potentially cause morale checks. Squad fire if using the aimed action at close range can be deadly! When a soldier is shaken they do not count toward their Squads strength for fire and Close Combat modifiers. They can be ‘rallied’ by spending actions or by the squad Corporal. To fire a Unit uses its base number adds/subtracts modifiers and adds a D6 roll, the defender then rolls does the same and the totals are compared. The firing unit needs more than 1 to 1 to affect the defender and the higher the ratio the deadlier the result. Close combat is worked out the same way but with a different set of modifiers! So once a unit moves up to ‘the defender’ they can spend 1 or 2 more actions to engage in Close Combat. The charging Unit uses its base number adds/subtracts modifiers and adds a D6 roll, the defender then rolls does the same and the totals are compared whichever side achieves more than 1 to 1 wins and the other side applies losses and retires. Again the ratio the deadlier the result. A nice feature of the rules is if a unit being fired upon or being charged has loaded weapons they get the option to get defensive fire volley! Morale A Morale check is required when a Squad whenever they take 2 or more casualties as a result of a single Fire/Close Combat result or if a skirmisher pair take one casualty. When a squad is reduced to 3 figures they are routed and move to the sides rally point. 2 routed Squads at the rally point can be combined into a combined squad and used again. For non-historical games/scenarios Victory is decided when a side reaches its Break Point total (either one third or half of the men fielded decided prior to play commencing) at that point the broken side loses. Command Control It is good to have rule sets with Command Control and this set features simple yet challenging ones. Okay so you have a company lead by a captain here’s how it works… Every Junior Officer (Lieutenant), NCO and Squad within one Long stick of the Captain is in Command control. Every NCO and Squad within one Long stick of a Junior Officer (Lieutenant) is in Command control. Every Squad within one Medium stick of an NCO is in Command control. But there is a twist, having a standard bearer or musician with your Captain can give reroll chances for activations or morale rolls but only if the following complete chain of command is in place to the affected unit (so if the units is within 1 Long stick of a Captain but not the full below chain of command these bonuses can’t be used!)… The Squad is within a Medium stick of an NCO who is within a Long Stick of a Junior Officer (Lieutenant) who is within a Long Stick of the captain with the attached standard bearer of musician. I clarified this with the rule writers! Cannons and Cavalry These ‘arms’ are covered in the rules. Cannons are pretty powerful so need to be incorporated into scenarios with balance in mind, there is a warning ‘too many big guns’ is not recommended. Canister and solid shot rounds are covered, When activating artillerymen they pool their actions together to pivot, prolong, load and fire their piece. Cavalry are pretty much ‘mounted infantry’ but rules covering charges are included. A nice feature with cavalry is the requirement for ‘handlers’ to be removed from the Unit strength to manage horses when the cavalry are dismounted Our Comments after 3 games using the rule book Scenarios… The rules are laid out pretty well but there are a few items that were not clear to us we were able to post these up on the Yahoo Group which must be well monitored as we got rapid replies from the designers! We can say support is good from our experience. Weapons are simplified for ease of play which is good and there are the main basic ACW weapon types; muskets, rifles and carbines BUT I see a need for some special home rules here to cover late war ‘repeaters’. A single die per squad was said to make results more susceptible to luck, handfuls of dice would average out results making it less likely a single die roll can make a big difference, I didn’t find this but it was mentioned. As you get more experienced squads on the board the chances for turnover of initiative within a turn diminish almost creating an IGOUGO system. Playing scenario two we found in an 8 turn game the CSA (with a good number of highly motivated squads) by keeping their men in tight command control turned over the initiative attempts only twice  so in this case with them as the first player each turn they basically played all their forces actions before the USA side had a chance to carry out any (the roles easily could be reversed here). Overall I believe that Smooth & Rifled or State of War can give you very good ACW skirmish games BUT I also believe Sixty-One Sixty-Five is a set of rules perfect for playing a game with your mates for several reasons; it uses the Ganesha Games Song of... 'engine' so learning one set of rules allows skirmish gaming for all periods  from swords and bows to machine guns and tank to be covered without learning a plethora of rule sets, it features incentives to use ACW tactics and a game can be played in a very timely manner. All games have trade-offs between 'playability' and reality and these rules lean to 'playability' but that is a good thing as far as I am concerned when catching up with the other TSOGer’s on a Monday evening! Link to Ganesha Games Front cover of rule book I'll write up the battle of Piave Blucher AAR for my next post!

TSOG Road Trip - Little Wars Melbourne 2018

Well I'm still catching up on posting old TSOG related stuff but now I'm time rich as I'm 'a bit unemployed' I'll get up to speed in no time. So you're all probably sick to death of Sixty-One Sixty-Five ACW posts so I'm putting up a report on the Road Trip Al, Dave and I took earlier this year to Little Wars Melbourne 2018....

The TSOG Road Trippers at Nihl RAAF Base Museum, from left to right; Otto Von Neudegg, Captain Darling and Colonel Spodding...

Okay over to Al...

Road Trip Little Wars Melbourne 2018

As dawn’s first light crested the Adelaide Hills, three brave adventurers set forth on a trek across the wilderness to explore the mystical land of “Victoria”. With their breath frosting in the early morning air, rugged up against the chill, SA’s finest loaded their wagon with supplies to sustain them as they headed eastwards. The rush to get ready was evident from the splash of blue toothpaste still drying on Dave’s cheek. The question had to be asked... Was it just toothpaste, or was it actually Avatar sprog? Thus the tone of the trip was set.

ROAD TRIP!

Melbourne Little Wars 2018 was our destination - those poor bastards had no idea what was about to hit them (spoiler, we were very well-behaved and only argued with one local all weekend, and we only called Al “Stu” once).

Al had promised to build a model of a volcano to be used as the centrepiece of a prehistoric dinosaur race (yes, really). So that was loaded in the boot carefully and off we went. 

The drive itself went pretty quickly - 750km seemed to fly by. We stopped for lunch at the Ararat Hotel (a wonderful art-deco building known locally as ‘the Rat’). An excellent counter meal (a schnitty of course) and a local brew later and we back on the road for the final leg.

We stayed at the Sandbelt Club hotel, which is not too far from LW’s venue - comfortable enough and cheap. An early morning and long drive took its toll and we all crashed around 9:30pm.

Another early morning though, and damned cold at that - 3C - and off we drove to the venue. Alan set up his table while Dave and Pete scoped out the traders and the Bring & Buy tables. Many hugs (manly ones of course) and handshakes were had with old friends. Well, Al’s old friends. Pete and Dave knew nobody there.

The hall was bustling early and around 20-25 games were in full flight by 10:00am. The traders tables were packed and the Bring & Buy was three deep with people looking for bargains. Everything was clicking into place for another excellent event.

Our lads were contributing to the local economy by emptying their wallets, refilling at a nearby ATM, and then emptying them once more. Dave managed to fill in some gaps in his 20mm North African WWII collection, Pete picked an absolute bargain of ACW figures, and Al got himself a new airbrush and compressor, plus a swag of WWII figures from his friend Boz. The car was filling rapidly with our haul of loot!

But the games... Al’s dinosaur race game was very popular, being run 5 times during the day. The average age of the players was around 8 however. Dave and Pete played a Bolt Action game and a lovely looking 54mm DBA game. One table that caught everyone’s eye was the Wings of Glory multi-player game. The interlocking, sculpted game mat was beautiful and, amazingly, was added to during the day - starting off with the fields and villages of France for a WWI game, later on new sections were added with the coast and English Channel for a WWII game.

Al's volcano...

The Crowd!

Bolt action North Africa game...

DBA Ancients...Elephants away!

Another standout was the game Twisted - a steampunk skirmish game designed and produced entirely in Australia. The production standards and quality were world-class and Pete had a game of it with the author.

The day finally drew to a close, leaving us worn out and footsore, and very much appreciating a lovely beer (thanks Nic) at a local art-house brewery.

Sitting with the organisers of the event and joining in the post-mortem was interesting, and gave us opportunities to add the ‘voice of the customer’ to the conversation. This was the point at which the disagreement occurred, but thankfully it didn’t escalate.

There was however a sneaky nudge to get us to organise the Adelaide version of the show. Hmmm.

But all beers must come to an end and we piled back to the Sand Paper Club to unload our stash and find somewhere to eat. Big Pig - oh yeah! Best ... ribs ... ever. But we drank them out of stout and another beer I forgot the name of. So (swaying now) we made it on foot to the hotel, joking along the way about blue sprog and sand paper (it all made sense at the time). It was time to survey the haul of cardboard, resin and lead piled up in the room. The many, many copies of Strategy & Tactics ought to keep Dave and Pete busy for some time to come.

An amazing day it was. So a huge thank you to the organisers (Dave, Mike and Nic), all the volunteers who helped run the day, and to the game masters who brought such energy and enthusiasm to their games.

Sunday.... Still in Melbourne.

We chose to extend our stay in the city since Al had some business to attend to. Pete and Dave went off to explore the Camberwell Market and visit the Shrine of Remembrance, while Al took off for a working breakfast with a client (hungover somewhat).

Not much to say about Sunday really, except that we did find a wargaming shop open in Ringwood that was just freaking amazing (link). If you’re in Melbourne and into wargaming, visit the House of War.

House of War

Fitting everything into the car along with the volcano was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, but it was under control. Heading off home in the Monday morning peak hour was a little harrowing, but Pete’s expert navigation saw us onto the Westgate Bridge easily enough. Having SA number plates seems to ensure all the locals give you a wide berth.

On the way home, we followed a sign saying ‘historic RAAF base’ just outside of Nhill. Dave, being ex airforce, and Pete being a military buff, were keen to explore. Al, always the cynic, thought it would be little more than a sheep paddock and some crumbling concrete slabs. 

Wrong! This was absolutely the highlight of the trip. The airfield is still in use by the Nhill Aeroclub and there are two hangars there. One is a WWII vintage hangar in excellent condition, and the other is newer but has been set up as an aviation museum. We got there a little late in the afternoon and it was closed, but Len, the curator, came out and asked if we wanted a tour. Damned straight we did! There were three WWII aircraft inside the hangar - an Avro Anson undergoing restoration, a Wirraway in immaculate condition, and a Tiger Moth also in great condition as well as some very rare training simulators from the period - in working condition! Len’s enthusiasm and local knowledge made the tour all the more personal and enjoyable. Thank you so much.

Historic Nihl RAAF Base...

The Anson...

The Wirraway...

One of the 2 Link trainers...

We spent an hour and a half there and were just blown away at this hidden gem. We will definitely stop there again on the way through next time. (Link)

And that was the final noteworthy event on our journey. A fun, safe, and thoroughly enjoyable trip and one we all want to do again next year.

Thanks Al!!!!!!

AAR 3 - ACW Skirmish - Sixty-One Sixty-Five Rules

This fortnight we revisited Sixty-One Sixty-Five again, that's three sessions in a row!

The 7th New York Infantry Regiment stands firm as the Confederates of the 7th Virginia Infantry advance...

This time we’ve moved to scenario 2 in the rules where the Confederates are on the attack!

The Forces

CSA - Break Point 27

5 Veteran 7 man Squads

3 Volunteer 7 man Squads

USA - Break Point 23

1 Veteran 8 man Squads

5 Volunteer 8 man Squads

1 Artillery Piece with 4 man Crew (reinforcement)

The terrain is busy with buildings, fences and woods.

The CSA has the initiative at the beginning of each turn.

The objective of both sides is to break the opposition.

The AAR

Dave and Al commanded the Rebels and Stu and I lined up as the Northerners.

Everything started well for the Confederates they hardly missed an activation rapidly advancing and occupying the three buildings and one of the fenced enclosures. On the other hand each of the Federal units were averaging a single activation per unit and advanced slowly.

Turn 2 and first blood went to the Yankees taking out a pair of Rebel skirmishers advancing down the road but this did not stop the Southerners rushing forward!

Meanwhile the Yankees were hanging out for their artillery to deploy but poor activation rolls resulted in no sign of the gun (in fact it only deployed on turn 8, the last turn we played!).

Lacking their artillery and even though out numbered the desperate Federals went over to the attack! They pushed troops forward on both flanks engaging the Rebels and successfully slowed them down.

Firing along the entire line continued to inflict casualties on both sides. Soldiers in blue and grey fell at a steady rate and at this point that favoured the Confederates with their stronger force.

Under pressure the Federal skirmishers surged forward and worked hard on shaking several Southerners. This weakened a couple of Squads and follow up charges were launched against them which looked promising but were well held by the Rebs!

With the Union troops fully engaged and over extended the Confederates deployed one of their reserve Squads to their right while the other continued to threatened the Yankees thinly held centre staying adjacent to the road. Here the Union Commander was looking exposed with only a handful of Zouaves between him and a lot of grisly looking Virginians, lucky he was wearing his brown trousers!

At this point the Federals received their artillery. They girded up their loins, reinforced their centre, unlimbered their cannon and then...we ran out of time so called it a night... DOH!

Some pictures...

The Rebel left comprised of 4 veteran Squads advances rapidly!

Overview after turn 2 with the Federals to the left. Rebel skirmishers already occupy all 3 buildings!

Rebel Squads fire and leap frog each other as they advance down the road. This was an effective way to advance and in the end only a handful of Zouaves and a pair of skirmishers face off against them!

To take pressure off the centre and while awaiting their artillery the Federals start attacking the Rebel left flank...

...and in the top left of this picture the Federals also attacked the Rebels right flank.

The boys from the Syracuse Zouaves face off against Southerners!

The fighting intensifies on the Rebel left/Federal right.

Overview of the battlefield turn 6 from the Confederate side. 1 off the 2 Rebels reserve Squads behind the barn deploys to face the Zouaves the other is ready to advance down the road.

The Rebel reserve, the right hand Squad moves to face the Yankees!

The Federal Commander looking a little worried!

The Zouaves start to turn the Rebel right routing the troops facing them!

The Rebel left/Yankee right continue to slug it out casualties are being inflicted on both sides at a steady rate...at this point the Rebs can afford the attrition! Where is that Yankee artillery?

Turn 8 and the Federal artillery arrived and to support it they redeployed more troops to their centre and then...

we ran out of time!!!!

View of the centre at the end of the game from the Rebels side, 2 Squads with another in reserve face off against 3 Yankee Squads and the cannon...

The same scene from the Federals point of view the artillery has arrived...

Overall view of the game from the CSA right the Zouaves can be seen in force and the Rebels flank is looking exposed.

Overall view of the game from the CSA left here the Rebels are better placed the squads are evenly balanced but they have 4 skirmisher pairs available to the Federals 2..

At this stage the losses were pretty even...

USA Break Point 23 current casualties 13

CSA Break Point 27 current casualties 13 + 3 routed

I think this game could have gone either way at this point, the cannon certainly gave Stu and I some fresh 'bite' but Dave and Al still had the numbers in their favour and their foot soldiers were much more maneuvrable than our gun...

This game took longer than the previous ones and after 2.5 hours we hadn’t finished I believed we needed another 30 minutes but Dave and Al had to leave early.

Two points came up in our post game discussion.

Firstly Dave and Al rolled exceptionally well activating their units and over 8 turns they only conceded two initiative turn overs! It may be a valid to say as more Squads on each side become experienced therefore gaining the resolve activation benefit along with leadership bonuses their activation roll will require only 2 and above on the dice so a double 1 will be required for the 2 failures to pass over initiative. This can make the unit activation sequence each turn a little less fluid.

Secondly it was mentioned by that rolling a single die per squad for firing or close combat was leaving the rules open to unbalanced results. Twice in this game crucial close combats that could have swung the game were thwarted by the defender rolling a 6 and the ratio result that could have been 4 to 1 plus turned out to be barely 1 to 1 so a minor victory, I see that differently as with the vagaries of the die the next crucial combat the defender could easily roll a 1!

We’ll replay this scenario again down the track hopefully to get a full result! Then we’ll look at playing a game incorporating cavalry...

To boost our forces and add some more colour to the table Al has ordered some Perry Zouaves destined to become colourful Southerners and I’ve got some of the Union Infantry in sack coats on the way at least half of which will be painted up as green clad sharpshooters!

I just have one old AAR to catch up on now a Blucher game, the Battle of Piave!

Next fortnight we dial back a few years for some Napoleonic Lasalle action!

AAR 2 - ACW Skirmish - Sixty-One Sixty-Five Rules

The Syracuse Zouves, E Company of the 7th New York Infantry Regiment tackle Confederates of the 7th Virginia infantry...

Well Dave and I liked the Sixty-One Sixty-Five Rules so we played them again this fortnight and Al joined in! We replayed Scenario 1 from the rule book with the rules clarifications from our first play at hand from the Ganesha team!

Al and I took on the Yankees, he commanded the Zouaves and I was in charge of the regular volunteers. Dave took on the boys from the South for a second time.

With experience from our first run through we completed this game in about 2.5 hours and used the skirmishers to their full potential!

The First Blood scenario has the USA on the attack with 8 Squads of militia quality infantry and the CSA have 6 Squads 5 of militia and 1 Squad of Veterans (better armed and a higher activation score)...the objective is to break the enemy i.e. inflict one third casualties...

The AAR...

The sides face off...2 Yankee squads are off picture to the left of the main force in the top left...

The main Yankee attack rolls forward Al's Zouaves to the left and my regular infantry to the right. 1 squad got three activations and in column that gave them 3 moves they can be seen with some skirmishers rushing to the fence far ahead of the rest stuck in the ford...

The last 2 Yankee Squads on the Union right struggled across the second ford (our modification to the scenario)

The Northern skirmishers reached the fence first and can be seen here firing on the slower deploying Confederates (yep poor activation rolls for Dave again!)

The Rebels picked up their pace and their formed infantry reached the fence line pushing the Yankee skirmishers back

The Yankee right prepare to charge the fence line...

During the same turn as the Yankee right faced the fence the out numbered Rebels took up the attack and their right charged across the fence threatening Al's Zouaves...

The struggle for the fence line from the Southerners point of view, they have secured its length and on the right are across the fence menacing the Yankee left!

Under pressure the 7th New York tries to rush their 2 detatched Squads on their right into the action...

Mid game overview as the Confederates on the fence start to inflict casualties on the Yankees but the game is about to turn! Unseen to the left of the below picture a Yankee Squad has flanked the fence through the woods and on the right of the picture hidden by the trees 2 pairs of Confederate skirmishers were broken, this allowed the Yankee skirmishers to harass the Rebels who had crossed the fence shaking several men!

 Next turn the Yankees in the woods poured devastating fire into the Rebels and they began to withdraw and on the other flank the Rebs who had dared to cross the fence line were put to flight by a Squad of Zouaves after being shaken by the Union skirmishers...

From above you can see the Confederate right fleeing and on their left a pair of skirmishers have been deployed to try and cover the flank from the Yankees at the tree line...

Then disaster for the Rebels! They started to withdraw their line starting on the left and due to poor communications (read here a turn over of the initiative due to failing 2 out of 3 action rolls) the flank of the second squad was left exposed to the Yankees in the trees...these Yankees charged them in the flank inflicting enough casualties to push the Confederates past their breaking point, the picture below is post the close combat the 4 survivors of the Rebel squad hit in the flank can be seen fleeing and the flank of the next squad in the Rebel line can be seen....

Overview at the end of the game...

Okay game 2 of Sixty-One Sixty-Five done and Al like Dave and I is pleased with the rules. In this game both sides deployed their skirmishers more aggressively. These guys can reduce the effectiveness of the formed troops and also act as screens protecting the Squads behind them. They were often driven back but then just redeployed and were particularly annoying when used well. When Al caused casualties to 2 of Dave's skirmishing pairs putting them out of the fight that proved decisive on the Union left/Rebel right as it put great pressure on the Rebels formed troops. All in all a very entertaining evening! We decided to play this on our next session so that Stu can give the rules a try...this time we'll use the second scenario in the rules which includes an artillery piece oh yeah!