From Andy: - Jack 2, Dave and myself had a force of Rangers followed up by an armoured reserve which were all inexperienced. Howard, Stuart S and Jack 1 had a contingent of Italian defenders dug in and in ambush as a blocking force, followed by a mixed DAK force coming on as a  reserve.

Initial moves saw a lucky Italian mortar strike take out  nearly a quarter of the Rangers in attack. Shooting started with mixed results and casualties were incurred by both sides. Then the US armour turned up with the old dilemma of not moving and shooting or moving and shooting at a penalty. The DAK armour arrived, destroying US armour from long range and the US couldn`t keep the arms race up as the German 5cm L/60 gun didn't have a long range penetration modifier.

All in all a good game with a great narrative, well put together by Stuart.

From Stuart: - Cracking game despite bad luck on the opening turn losing a lorry full of rangers to a mortar round. The Rangers cleared the high ground only to find their assault blunted by a single Italian tank. Allied armour finally took care of it only to replaced by a German counter attack. 

From Pete: -

Today, Andy J and I revisited the 1939 Russo-Japanese war using CoC and the "Chrysanthemum Dances With The Bear" scenario book. The terrain was typical Mongolia, open with areas of broken ground. The Russians decided to advance on both flanks despite them only having 1SL to control things. A Russian infantry gun in the centre was effective until the Japanese rifle grenades zeroed in.

The Russian right - cavalry and infantry - got bogged down when the Infantry JL was hit and a desperate charge by the cavalry was shot down. On the left, two Russian squads made it to broken ground. With 3 LMGs they inflicted serious hits, routing 1 squad and enough leader hits to force the Japanese morale down to zero.

A tight game that took all afternoon with the Russians morale down to 3 by the end.

From Andy: -

Pete and I played another game in Mongolia - this time with the Russians attacking and the Japs (me) defending.  It was a proper WW2 game - the terrain was flat with scrubby bushes scattered around, so anyone unwise enough to step out of the bush was immediately cut down in a hail of fire!

The Russians were able to advance through the scrub however, and laid down a barrage of machine gun fire which, although countered by the Japanese rifle grenades and rifle fire eventually lead to the collapse of the Japs morale. A very bloody skirmish with a few subtle dice rolls affecting the outcome - not just whether our officers were hit, but also how the force morale was affected. We both had lots of double turns as well, but that gifted our opponent COC dice, so a very double edged sword.

All in all a great game, so many thanks to Pete.

This was a very impressive looking 28mm game that utilised Bryan's excellently painted figures. Bryan jointly commanded the Saxons with Bryan while Bob and Wyn were in charge of the Vikings. The rules in use were the second edition of Hail Caesar with the Shieldwall supplement.

Another outing for these rules, which are an 18th century development of 'To the Strongest'. Harry's opponent on this occasion was Ray, the scale was 10mm and the table featured a very finely painted selection of period buildings.

Saint-Marcel, France June 1944. French Resistance and SAS v Germans

Rules: Skirmish rules from Wargames Illustrated back in 1991.

A re-run of the game played last November. This game was based upon a real event in Brittany, shortly after D-Day. Small numbers of Germans were sent to eliminate what they thought was a minor cell of Maquis. The Germans (second-rate garrison troops) approached the village and took-up positions in the various houses and shops. The scattered French forces initially approached the buildings trying to evict the enemy,  but after suffering casualties decided to withdraw to the hills and forests.  One building had been wired for demolition. Although detonation was successful, it turned out to be one of the buildings the Germans had not occupied.

The rules are simple, written with large skirmish actions in mind. Event cards were used to add something extra and it was decided that in future all the French will be hidden at the start of the game.

This was a 10mm scale refight of a small engagement in the War of the Austrian Succession. Following the defeat of the Pragmatic Army at the Battle of Fontenoy in May, the Allied commander, the Duke of Cumberland, ordered General von Moltke with a force of approximately 6000 men to march to the port of Ghent in order to protect it from an anticipated French advance. En route to Ghent, the Allied detachment ran into a French force of 6000-8000 men (led by General du Chayla) at the town of Melle. in the game, Charles and Luke were the French commanders, Billy and Jim the Allied generals and Neil W umpired the proceedings.

The Allied forces entered the table on a single road, wisely bypassing the garrison guarding the river crossing, and began to form into line to oppose the French infantry. Charles, by rolling a skilful six on his first attempt, was able to bring on his off-table cavalry swiftly and they immediately began to harass the left of the Allied line while it was trying to deploy. Meanwhile, the advancing Allied troops neutralised the enemy artillery and then the commanders brought up the regiments of horse to attack the French foot. The assault was repulsed with serious losses to the Allied cavalry and it was clear that the the Pragmatic Army could make no further progress to its objective, which was a repeat of the actual outcome of the battle.

John D and John H got together to play Priniples of War using 15mm figures. I thinf that the forces involved were either from the Seven Weeks War or the Franco-Prussian War but I may be wrong.

This game was a recreation of part of Operation Stack (July 1944) in which the 5th Battalion of the Black Watch attacked the factory area of Columbelles in Normandy. The British thought that the tall chimneys in the area were being used as observation points by the Germans. In command of the assaulting force were Charles and Mike, the defenders were led by Bryan. Neil W was the moderator. 

It had been some time since we played these rules so we were all a little rusty and quite a few misinterpretations were made during the course of the battle. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable game. Bryan set a number of ambushes for the advancing Brits and these proved very successful in knocking out advancing armour. The Allied troops managed to achieve their phase one objective (a crossroads on their left) but lacked the necessary firepower to make their way into the factory complex. The losses on the Black Watch mounted up and they gradually suffered three FUBARS and so lost the game.

This was a scratch game because Pete was ill. Nick guided myself and Kevin through a game of the 3rd edition rules. I was defending - it started well but then went a bit pear shaped when I lost some of my armour. Kevin left for his planned game and Nick moved his infantry in for the kill.  Except my infantry were in cover and mowed down the opposition as they crossed the open ground towards them. I also shot Kevin’s armour up so the remaining attackers ran away with their tails between their legs. 

Another glorious victory for SWARF!!! 

The second game featured Andy W, Ross and Stuart M involved in more political and military disagreements in some third world country. As Ross was one of the protagonists, I suspect that the forces of UVAVU were involved but I again cannot recall what this means (if anything).

This was set somewhere in Outremer around 1100.  The generic Muslims were split into two forces and were attacking a town held by me (in the guise of the intrepid Judith) while a relief force was on its way.  My peasants were in the fields when clouds of dust appeared.  Fearing the worst forces were sent to shepherd the shepherds and move along the merchants into the fort.  The Holy Men of God being left alone as the Lord would provide.  So far so good, the entire civilian population (minus the bothersome priests) was handed from unit to unit and into the fort for the loss of a few skirmishers.  

The relief force detached a unit to bring in the priests and then went head to head with one of the Arab forces and they both pretty much destroyed each other.  Sadly the Arabs came out on top.  Rather than being boring and remaining in the fort the village troops came out and went at the other Arab army.  Sadly it was full of missile men, and though we were able to chop through a couple of units without bother we then got shot to pieces.  

Still, not all was lost.  Until the last effective Christian cavalry force catastrophically converted to Islam (rolled a double 1 for a break test).  Then indeed, all was lost.  All that remained was for the civilians to negotiate their surrender.

This was the third test game for Dave K and Harry's projected offering at the Hammerhead show at Newark at the end of February. More figures have been painted and based and the game looks very nice. The Lust for Glory rules are a development of the 'To the Strongest' set, designed to be used for the early 18th Century period.

A very impressive looking small 'wild west' town was the setting for this gunfighting game, played using rules produced by the Too Fat Lardies. A certain amount of record keeping of the activities of the main characters is required and in this respect the mechanism is similar to 'What a Tanker!' However, as Don and Paul B assured me this in no way disturbed their enjoyment of the game and a good time was had by all.

More 1914-18 combat over the skies of France and Belgium was re-enacted in miniature by Dewi and Kevin, courtesy of 'Wings of Glory' 

Andy GPT and Ray were only there for the afternoon session but they made good use of the time in continuing their exploration of the Peter Pig ruleset for battles in the First World War. I am not sure which part of the conflict was replicated on the table-top, nor the eventual result.