Another round of attack and defend in northern France using the Lardies' rules, this skirmish was virtually a repeat of the scenario played earlier in the month. This time, however, it was the Germans who were defending a ruined village with a platoon of elite Fallschirmjaeger, jointly commanded by Charles and Neil W. Opposing them were Dan and Bryan who were leading a platoon of US Paratroopers, also rated elite. The Americans had a substantial amount of support in the form of two additional regular squads, an M8 armoured car and an off-table 81mm mortar battery, whereas the Germans had to make do with a couple of minefields and an adjutant.

The Americans began their attack with a couple of squads assaulting the Germans on their right wing, using smoke grenades to cover their advance and the M8 providing covering fire from the table edge. At the same time, a third US squad moved up to the river bank opposite one of the German occupied houses. The Yanks on the German right took some casualties and lost an officer but eventually their weight of fire, together with the mortar battery and the M8's 50cal, wiped out the German squad (although the junior and senior leaders survived). The third US squad came under heavy fire from the upper floor of the German occupied building, came close to becoming pinned, and ultimately used smoke to escape from the murderous fire.

As a fourth US squad made its appearance, the Germans were stubbornly holding on with two intact squads and each side's force morale was about equal, so a "no-result" was declared.

This game of AK47 featured 5 players. Uhvavu (Ross) were in the middle of the table a vital strategic resource. Officially this was the airport in the region but many have commented that their defensive positions were in fact centred on the local Macdonalds restuarant! Hoping to seize this area were two coalitions of opposing factors. On one side were the revolutionary forces of WALLOP (Jonathon) and SPLAT (Phil) and on the other the 'Great Leaders' WUNKERS (Billy) enjoyed the support of the UN (Pete).

The battle opened with a rapid advance by WALLOP on the Uhvavu held village. The massed ranks of the WALLOP militia were fired up by the inspiration teaching of the WALLOP politburo. Surging forward they were certain that their revolutionary fervour would bring victory, then the Uhvavu defenders opened up & proved how wrong they were. But numbers told and slowly the Uhvavu defences were weakened. At this point the SPLAT forces join in the assault. SPLAT had spent the time before this in a slow advance which they claimed was due to mechanical problems but others have pointed out conveniently meant many of SPLAT's political opponents in their WALLOP allies fell to Uhvavu bullets. They had been sniping with the UN forces but now with WALLOP on the brink of success they moved to claim the glory and incidentally pick up the large order from Macdonalds they had early phoned in.

Meanwhile on the other side the WUNKER 'Great Leader' had clearly been studying tactics. This led to a novel attacking method for this force. The leading elements in trucks tried to do a bayonet charge and drive through the Uhvavu defence. Perhaps not a great idea when in a truck and particularly questionable for the factions elite artillery unit which didn't even have bayonets. The tactic did bring 'great slaughter' as the Great Leader had promised but unfortunately mostly for the WUNKERS! Meanwhile the UN forces moved to capture the airport. The UN denies the rumours that they then tried to get a flight home and 'out of this hell hole' as some have reported. 

It was a fun game with some lovely armies. I am sure the rumours that other factions in the ongoing wars (Andy J, Andy W and Neil C) were too 'chicken' to turn up are totally untrue. I am 'sure' that all believe this was due to ill health and transport difficulties. I suspect further battles will be needed in 2024 to resolve the conflict. 

John F and John H met to resolve some small local differences in nineteenth century Africa. The table, created by John F, was a superb depiction of equatorial East Africa close to the archipelago of Zanzibar (it may have been actually on the island, not the mainland). The scenario was that a group of Zanzibari troops, escorting a caravan of slaves and ivory, are attacked by a group of natives and have to defend themselves and their cargo. The rules were created by figure sculptor Mark Copplestone some time ago (I believe that the figures used were also his design) and, as is often the case when John is running a game, they all fitted on one sheet of A4. Unfortunately, I am unble to report the result of the game as the gentlemen involved had packed up and left before I could ask them.

Bolt Action Bagration 1944 battle report: -

Howard devised a scenario which involved Daniel S with an advancing column of two sections of Heer infantry and a fearsome Tiger tank  were approaching Andy S with two sections of infantry with a Panzer IV tank, Panzerschreck team and an 81mm mortar who were holding a bridge and small village at the other end of the length of the table.

Nick bought Keith along (a founding father of the Stourbridge And District Wargamers Club) and he took the Russians on,  allowing Howard to run the game. The advancing Russian force came on randomly from different points on the table. It consisted of  roughly 4 sections of soldiers, a JS2, T34/85, BA64 and a collection of infantry support assets 

After the Germans set up first facing each other at opposite edges, the Russians came on mostly unnervingly close to the bridge and river. An appearing Russian section were wiped out by a section in ambush. The next section of fanatics came on and then wiped out the Germans and themselves. The Russians could accept these losses the Germans couldn’t. Before  I knew it the village was crawling with Russians and Germans who fought well, Daniel wiping out blocking Russians off the table and destroying the T34/85. The Panzer IV fumbled and reversed off the table. The Germans gave in and the game was lost.

Well done to Keith for taking the game and Howard for devising the scenario.

As Olaf the Flatulent led his Vikings towards the Saxon lines he was struck with an idea. These horses they had seized the day before. If his nephew Orm could be persuaded, his men could ride them round the woods on their force's left flank, then turn and fall upon the Saxons from the flank as Olaf and his men engaged them from the front. This sort of complex plan required patient explanation and Olaf was far from sure that Orm had understood or that his men would both stop advancing and turn right when they got to the far side of the woods.

Hoping for the best, Orm led the main body of the Vikings slowly forward, to give Orm time to get ahead of them. On their right flank Toste 'mad dog' Svensson was leading his berserks forward and was starting to engage the Saxons, but the broken terrain was limiting the effect of his men's normal savage attacks. In the centre the two lines had clashed in fairly open terrain, and the Saxon numbers were beginning to tell. During a pause in the fighting Olaf looked to his left flank hoping to get sight of Orm's men. As he had half expected, the mounted Vikings were clustered in a field in the middle distance, obviously confused as to what to do next. The complex instructions had been too much for them. As Olaf watched, however, he could see Orm standing in his saddle and berating his men. Those actually within shouting range of Orm began to wheel their horses and advance towards the Saxon flank. In confusion, the Saxons on the flank began to run.

The Saxons however, had also had a cunning plan. Rather than simply putting all of their men in a long line and advancing slowly in the normal way, they had many of their best troops left in reserve. This Saxon second line advanced into Orm's men who, too disorganized to turn to face them, were massacred. The remainder of Orm's men, who had been puzzled and left behind by his original turn to flank, had belatedly decided to follow him and they also crashed into the flank of the Saxon army. Struck by this additional blow, the Saxon morale began to falter and the army discipline started to crack. A Viking victory emerged from what had been a bloody stalemate.

Across the Bug River, simulates the early days of the Barbarossa campaign in the Volodymyr/Volynskyi area.

The bulk of our afternoon was spent trying to sort out the counters and work out what the rules were. Neither of us have played this game before and it has been a long time since playing such board games anyway. I think in the end we managed one turn, where the Germans made a successful but costly assault across one of the few bridges. They then successfully beat off a Russian armoured attempt to push them back across the said river!

To be fair, with such complex board games, there is a lot to familiarise yourself with and the day went as we expected. A follow up trawl through the rules with the hindsight experience gained, will make the next try that much simpler and understandable!

Halflings vs Empire of Dust

I had invited my friend and long-time opponent Darren along to the club to play a game. I'd hoped to let him loose on Maurice and James, but instead it was my poor Halflings who found themselves staring across their green fields at a shambling horde of dusty undead. He fielded a regiment of Chariots, two regiments of Spearmen and one of Mummies. They were lead by a brutally tough Pharaoh and a Cursed High Priest who could each surge a regiment up to a further 8 inches in the magic phase. I fielded my Sorceror and Sergeant with regiments of Braves, Spearmen, Lancers and Forest Trolls and a troop of Rifles.

 Knowing how tough the Mummies were, I peppered them with Rifle fire and charged my Lancers down hill at them for the extra Thunderous Charge. To no avail: the regenerated off the bullet wounds and laughed off the Lancer's attack, smashing them together with a flank charge from supporting Spearmen. Only hitting on 5's and 6's is fine when you're throwing 30 dice! At least my Trolls were able to lure his Chariots into the woods and beat them up, but it didn't save my Spearmen from the rampaging Skelly Spears in their flank. For once, my Braves and Rifles survived the battle, but that wasn't enough to make up for my other casualties. Another win for the Shamblers and I'm actually missing those Rhordian Knights! 

A fine looking game in 15mm, organised by Neil C, featuring the increasingly popular (at the club) 'To the Strongest' rules by Simon Miller. Feudal Welsh were matched against feudal English,  one side commanded by Nick and the other by first-time attendee Keith (welcome Keith). Regrettably, I am unable to provide more details on the course of the battle, an omission I will be happy to correct if the information embargo on the action is lifted at some point in the future.

This 28mm game was an 'attack-defend' scenario from the Lardies' rule book. Charles, with the assistance of Neil W, was the German Panzergrenadier commander assaulting a position held by US infantrymen led by Mike and Bryan. The Germans had twice the number of support points than the Americans and chose two armoured vehicles and a pre-game bombardment. The bombardment turned out to be completely ineffective as Charles' dice throwing meant that it never reached the table.

The Germans did have some early successes, managing to destroy a bazooka team and kill a junior leader. However, as more US GI's deployed on their jump-off points the Panzergrenadiers started to suffer serious losses. Charles' Marder III fell victim to second bazooka team and he wasn't able to deploy his second armoured asset (a Panzer IV) due to unfortunate dice rolls. Ultimately, Mike's well equipped squads blunted the German advance and reduced their force morale to zero. A convincing victory for the Yanks.

In August 1914, the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet met for the grand battle both sides called “Der Tag”.

First the battlecruiser forces met and, despite the presence of Derfflinger, the question of “which is better, guns or armour” was decisively answered by the British vessels quickly landing telling blows on nearly all the German heavy units, with Blucher and Moltke taking particularly heavy damage. In light of the damage the Germans turned back towards their own heavy units, but Blucher fell under repeated shellfire and was sunk. Von der Tann took more damage and both Von der Tann and Moltke were harried by British destroyers, which put 2 torpedoes into Moltke. These did not immediately sink him but Moltke sank on the way back to Jade Bay (the referee rolled a double 1!). Von der Tann managed to escape. The British did not avoid damage though. Choosing to “damn the torpedoes” led to Invincible taking a torpedo and forcing her to break off. Lion was also heavily damaged by shellfire which saw her break off too.

At this point the two main fleets arrived. With the German battlecruisers forced back, the remaining British battlecruisers rapidly reduced the German armoured cruisers to scrap and the Town class cruisers took advantage of their 6” guns and armour providing defence against 4.1” shells to similar effect on the German light cruisers. At the game end the Germans were unknowingly about to run headlong into the entire Grand Fleet…

The late Dave Chubb (see a tribute to him here) always used to say that every wargamer had a set of rules in them. Inspired by these words, Graham has produced rules for company-sized WWII actions and brought them to the club for their first public airing this Sunday. Graham's willing guinea pigs for this opening game were Andy R and Ian. Graham put together an Eastern Front scenario in 20mm scale with figures and models from his own collection. I am hopeful that a full review of the gameplay will be submitted by one of the participants in due course and that Graham's rules will be published in full in the near future. 

All the Romans were trying to do was bring some modern infrastructure and services to the primitive Britons, but of course the local 'Asbo' tribe were having none of it. The inevitable protesting rabble had to be sternly dealt with by the law. Our game was a Roman vs Briton confrontation, circa 60AD, using the Infamy rules. The Romans  were in the process of building a road and tower when some angry Britons showed up.

A shaky start for the Romans (Andy R & Daniel M) while they tried to muster their forces in the face of the massed warbands of the British (Tim K & John H) advancing towards them. However, while being able to put a lot of pressure on the Romans assembled around the partly built tower, unusually the Britons seemed to struggle more with the broken terrain than their adversaries.  This led to their attacks going in piecemeal, which the Romans were able to contain for the most part. A strong counter attack by the main Roman line, hurling Pila and being well covered by the fire of their supporting skirmishers, crushed the elite of the Asbo tribe and crashed the Britons' resolve. Many warriors having not got themselves engaged at all, while the chief, badly wounded, barely escaped the field with his life. The construction of "Watling Street" continued the following day without further protests.

Man of the Match goes to the lone surviving (and completely unfazed - no shock) British slinger who was forced to retire only because everybody else did!

One of two Chain of Command games played on this afternoon, this 28mm contest was an Italians vs British battle set in terrain somewhere in the Western Desert. Gordon was commanding a force of British infantry and Pete was in charge of an Italian platoon. The game itself was a repeat of hostilities that commenced between these gentlemen in October. In that game, the Italians were victorious but I am unable to inform you if the British took their revenge in this encounter. Any further information would be appreciated.

Well, where shall I start?  The Greeks were played by Neil, Dante and Nick, the Persians by Andy W, Andy J and Dave.

The Persians advanced to the stream running across the mid-table area and sat down to wait for the Greeks to try and cross. The Greeks did eventually cross on the Persians left and started to beat up The Greek left wing pretty badly. Meanwhile, Nick was trying to go round the other flank but kept on drawing aces from the card deck, much to the amusement of the Persians, so Nick didn't really go anywhere!

After a long period where nothing really happened the Greeks got fed up of waiting (it was 17:45) and decided to cross the stream themselves. Exploiting a gap in the Greek line a unit of Immortals hit a block of hoplites in the flank and trashed them. More Persians charged in to the confused Greeks and two more blocks of hoplites ran away. In the next move the Persians reached a winning position by trashing more hoplites. Victory to Andy W, Andy J and Dave.

This was a wonderful afternoon of gaming (special thanks to Neil) but I didn't think the rules were very historical so I'm looking forward to trying Sword & Spear!  I think we won because after saving huge numbers of hits the Greeks' luck ran out and they suffered loads of casualties in a short space of time. 

Board games only make rare appearances on club Sundays so it is nice to able to report on one such occurrence. Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps is a co-operative survival game in which Marines enter a terra-forming facility and are likely to be attacked and ambushed by xenomorphs at every turn. Getting out alive is, I think, the main objective. Dan, Vlad and Peet were the players and I am unable to confirm how many times each of them was eviscerated in the course of the action. However, all found the experience to be enjoyable although the consensus of opinion was that the game was tough to play.

John organised an awesome recreation of the battle of Isandlwana, using  wargames magazine rules from 1991 (with a few tweaks). We had a huge table groaning under the weight of all the Zulus alone. Howard and Andy were the Zulus attackers, Daniel and Billy were the commanders of the British column. In the game, the British line held and the Zulus were unable to find a place where to attack decisively. A brilliant game and John bought along his boxer round and album to give it a really personal touch. 

During the contest a few tweaks for melee were kicked around for possible use in future games.

Well done John and great fun !

Today, the 1st battalion of the 29th Foot, took to the field after the daughter of the Colonel went missing whilst on a romantic assignation. Captured by the French, they had the cheek to imprison her in a windmill,  guarded by a handful of farm hands in French uniforms. The Colonel had already sent troops looking for the girl and came across her and her captors at the windmill. British skirmishers advanced to secure a walled field but were driven back by French infantry.

The Colonel was wasting no time, forming his troops into a column he advanced them down the road at a pace. Nearing the village, he calmly formed them back into a firing line, wheeled them into position and fired several volleys in to the French.

The French broke and ran under the pressure, further French infantry attempted to form their own firing line and wheel into a position to return fire but the training of the British triumphed as they wheeled and fired first, breaking the French formation and driving them from the field.

A British victory!

This game was an adaptation of a scenario from the Too Fat Lardies supplement "Kampfgruppe von Luck". The action takes place immediately after D-Day and features a platoon of British paratroopers defending the perimeter of the Orne River bridgehead against a hastily assembled force of Panzergrenadiers with orders to re-take the river crossings. The British troops were classed as elite but the Panzergrenadiers carried significant firepower and had plenty of support points.

Jon, the German commander, decided to make his main effort against the village on his left and launched a daring attack against a section of paratroopers in hard cover. After a vicious exchange of fire the paras broke and Charles, the British officer rushed in another section to fill the gap. However, moving from house to house and bringing up another squad in support, Jon was able to get one unit to his opponent's table edge and thus won the game.

This was a 28mm scenario set on the Eastern Front in which a Soviet platoon, commanded by Mike and Neil W, attacked a German platoon led by Charles and Bryan. The Russians had to capture a bridge defended by the Germans and hold it until the end of a turn. Interestingly, both sides selected armoured cars as part of their support options. The Soviets made good progress at the start as a heavy barrage prevented many enemy units from deploying on the table. However, as the effects of the bombardment diminished and more German squads arrived, the Russian commanders found it very hard to make progress. By the end of the game, the Soviet squads were all pinned down by heavy fire and their armoured car was knocked out by a Panzerschreck as it attempted to rush the bridge. The Russians withdrew to lick their wounds,, leaving the German infantry still holding the position.

Today Tim joined me to array his 750 points of Undead alongside a similar number of Halflings to see off Maurice's oppressive League or Rhordia troopers who were buoyed by their victory last month. No James this time, but Maurice didn't seem to need his dice magic as he threw a blinder on his shooting. Tim's eternally suffering Zombies & Skeletons caught the short end of a blizzard of shot from the Rhordian Organ Gun and Arquebusiers. Tim's Soulreaver Cavalry got gradually worn down by the Rhordian Guard, but were avenged by a regiment of Zombies, thirsting for human brains. 

On the other flank, my Lancers made heavy work of riding down his Pistoliers before his Fanatics ate them for breakfast. One unit of Knights was held up by my Spearmen and the other got lost in the woods. They found the flank of my Forest Trolls, but didn't seem to know what to do with them and got thumped for their pains. The game ended with honours even. We tried a second game but had to call it on turn 3 as Maurice had to leave. Again, his gunners were shooting like demons, but at least Tim's Zombies had revenge against them. I came up against his Arquebusiers, Pistoliers & Guard. A good tough fight, and again we couldn't call it either way. 

After a small hiatus we retuned like bad pennies …

Stuart and Dan S fielded Daniels Early Imperial Roman army serving under Emperor Claudius in AD43. They were taking on the Trinovantes tribe who were defending their territory and their generals were Howard and Andy S. The beleaguered defenders fought very bravely at the start and fought valiantly, defending their hill fort, sacred grove and village. However, the ongoing battle wore them down, losing cavalry and chariots fairly quickly. Then they faltered and dropped of like flies in true Ancient Briton style.

We used Hail Caesar rules and must have had around nearly 700 figures on the table. We were not totally au fait with the rules but we still had fun. Thanks for the many comments of the bystanders!

Some of Sam Mustafa's games have dropped in popularity at the club in  recent times but Lasalle continues to make regular appearances, chiefly thanks to Andy GPT. This time his opponent was Pete and both fielded 12mm armies from the 'Epic' range of Napoleonic figures. Close observers of the accompanying photograph will perceive that they were using the hex-grid system that is a common feature in most of Andy's rules modifications -  I am hoping that he will share these with us in an article in the near future. Unfortunately, I have no information on the actual force composition or result of the game but if one of the participants wants to share this I will happily provide details later.

Ian provided the resources for this fine looking 28mm eighteenth century skirmish game. Also taking part were Andy J. Andy R, Daniel M and Tom D. I had an embarrassment of riches in the material provided for this battle as no less than three of the participants submitted accounts of the fighting. For this reason I have decided to give this encounter a page of its own in the 'After Action Reports' section of this website and you can find it here.

This was the third table-top game with figures played in the club's ongoing Soldier Kings campaign game. The battle took place at Holzkirch in the province of Banst. Ross, in this engagement commanding the aggressive Yellow faction was fighting against the neutral territory which was commanded by Darren. The Yellow army had a slight advantage in numbers but the Banst forces had the benefit of entrenchments. 'Twilight' rules were uased to play the game and the scale was 15mm. In the game, the Yellow forces came out on top but the defenders managed to inflict significant losses on the invaders. The consequences for the campaign will now have to be calculated by Nick, who is running it.

I ran a game to introduce some folk to the "To The Strongest" set of ancients rules using my home made grid and 15mm figures. The scenario was the Seleucid Empire attempting to chase off a troublesome nest of migrating Celts, who had recently settled on imperial land without permission. Nick D and Andrew Wharton took a command each as the proto-Galatians, Neil C and Stuart M did the same for the Seleucids.

The battle played out in a fairly typical fashion for match ups of Barbarians vs civilised/effete Southerners. The Galatians got off to a ferocious start, easily wiping out the low hanging fruit such as subject foot, elephants and skirmishers, and were soon well on the way to what seemed like an easy points victory.

Eventually, though, they ran up against the, at that point in history, invincible Hellenic phalanx.  Here they were enable to make much headway and were slowly ground down and spent by a series of frontal counter charges.  With the large warband units being worth three victory points each, the Seleucids soon caught up in the scoring and then inched ahead.

The Celts made cunning use of their light chariots in attempting to work around both Seleucid flanks, but were unable to sufficiently distract the heavily armoured Cataphracts and Pikemen from their deadly purpose, and the Seleucids were left battered but in control of the field at the end of the day. The surviving Celts were eventually resettled in the newly built city of Demetria and given farmland in return for providing military service to the empire.

Thanks to the players for making it such a fun game, and for bearing with my decidedly rusty teaching skills. For those who like the sound of this and are looking for a fun set of ancients rules, Neil C will be running another large intro game at the next St Ambrose meeting.

From Ian - This game was a repeat of last week's scenario, "Attack on an Objective" but on the Eastern Front. Andy J opted to attack with the Russians against Ewan with the Germans defending the inn. It went well for the Russians initially, despite their pre-game barrage seeming to have little effect on the German deployment. However, when all seemed lost for the Germans, the tide turned and it was the Russians who were struggling to develop their initial advantage. The Russians did have a tank but it seemed to be too afraid of the dreaded German Panzerschreck to be effective.

The Russians never got their Vodka and while their morale was much higher than the Germans at the end of the day, they couldn't quite push that of their foes down any further, to force a retreat. A fun game.

From Andy J - Ewan had some Germans defending a pub from my Russians. The Germans were badly mauled by the arriving Russians with the dice gods favouring the proletariat. In an amazingly historical turn of events, the two senior leaders showed up, galvanising the Germans and deflating the Russians. The Germans drew back and reorganised whilst the Russians lost their fire discipline (suddenly they couldn't hit a barn door) . As darkness fell the Germans were still holding on whilst the Russians tried to find a way to attack them. 

This was a game of three Johns - John F who provided the resources and acted as umpire, John H who was playing his first game at the club and Jon who was the opponent for John H. The game was a 28mm representation of a battle from the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878 - 1880) and John provided yet another stunning display of figures and terrain. Unfortunately, I am unable to provided any information on the course of the battle.

If my memory serves me correctly it was during this conflict that another John, Army surgeon Dr Watson, was seriously wounded at the Battle of Maiwand (1880). Shortly after his return to England he began his long association with a Mr Sherlock Holmes and shared rooms in Baker Street, London. I assure you that these are well established historical facts.

Harry and I used the "To the Strongest" rules  in a  Roman civil war scenario. Harry had a much smaller force but was mainly legionaries, mine was about twice the size  but predominantly auxiliaries.

Slowly both sides moved forward, neither sides' Scorpions hitting anything but fresh air. Hindered by a lake in the centre of the battlefield, most of Harry’s units were in contact but mine were bunched up and out of play. Very quickly a slogging match ensued, with Harry’s units inflicting more damage than they received, and, at crucial junctures, certain units failed to be activated by me! The upshot was a substantial amount of my army vacated the field and despite his right wing disappearing, Harry’s centre and left swept all before them.

Another loss for me!

Good game though! 

Gordon and I played a Chain of Command game, British vs Italians, circa 1940 - somewhere in East Africa - focussed on capturing a railway halt and an adjacent oasis. The patrol phase turned the table through 90 degrees and allowed the Brits to occupy one objective with a section almost immediately and they deployed a Mk VI light tank and a Bren team in support. The Italians responded with an MG team which pinged away at the MK VI albeit to little effect.

The Italians then managed a triple move (I suspect the Brits stopped for a brew-up), which saw a very large squad enter from the corner and the rest of the first squad joined their MG mates along with a 20mm auto cannon. A brief firefight ensued in which the exposed Bren team were routed and the Mk VI was at first shocked and then forced to retire. The second Italian squad rushed to occupy the railway station and the first British squad looked very exposed in the oasis

The squad associated with the now broken Bren team finally appeared, only to be shot up by a field gun and a full Italian squad and they broke very quickly. The third British squad and associated platoon mortar had deployed on the other flank, but the losses inflicted crashed the British morale and they withdrew.

The Empire Will Strike Back!

I took Tom through an intro game of Chain of Command, an "Attack on an Objective" scenario, set in Normandy. Tom opted to attack with the Germans against some British defending the target inn. They had obviously left some fine wine behind and came back to get it! They didn't manage to do so despite a very successful "Pre-game Barrage", but we had a fun game. I think Tom has a much better grasp of the rules now, especially the importance of the Patrol Phase and how critical support and deployment choices can be. 

Yet again the League of Rhordia (Maurice and James) were battling to thwart the Shire Halfling raiders (Stuart and I) in our attempt to secede from the League. It started so well. Our Lancers shrugged off the Arquebusier fire prior to riding them down with our dogs and my own Riflemen all but crippled a unit of Knights with their shooting. Then it went rapidly downhill. The Lancers failed to break the Arquebusiers and were taken in the flank and smashed by a unit of Foot Guards. My Aeronauts did destroy the Fanatics, but were torn apart by the Armoured Bears. A Volleygun shredded a regiment of Halfling Braves and then the regiment of Mounted Rifles.

 James seemed incapable of throwing anything but a 12 (or 11 at a push) for our Nerve rolls. My Harvester and Stuart's Sergeant exacted some vengeance, but by then the other two units of Knights had hit our main line and and Halfling Rifles and Braves and their Forest Troll allies disappeared under a flurry of hooves. It was a sad day in the Shire when the battered survivors limped home to report the raid's failure. We'll be back for revenge.

We played two small Great Northern War from the Baltic theatre. Andy W was the Russians and Andy J the Swedes in the battle of Hummelshof, 1702. While Harry was the Russians and their Lithuanian allies and Billy the Swedes and their Lithuanian allies in the battle of Jakobstadt, 1704. Both of these will feature in a future scenario book and both had heavily outnumbered Swedes fighting Russian hordes. 

In the Hummelshof battle Andy J took the fight to the Russians at the start. The Russians forces arrived in 3 sections and so Andy J aimed to cause some damage on the initial Russian force before the rest arrived. He chased down the Russian light horse and managed to wipe them out. But Andy W had bought enough time for his reinforcements to arrive. Soon the Swedes were forced onto the defensive and unfortunately they were not in a great position to defend. So, despite a spirited resistance eventually the Swedes succumbed to the Russians.

The Jakobstadt battle was very surprising. Many readers will find this difficult to believe but Billy did NOT have good dice rolls. The Russian army was large but fragile and so Billy's Swedes launched an attack to sweep the first enemy line away. But it turned out to be a damp squib and achieved little, from then the Russian numbers began to tell. The Swedes caused a lot of losses but also took a lot and they didn't have a big enough army to take them.

So it was defeat for both Swedish armies in these two battles. 

Darren and Andy GPT  met to re-enact some revolutionary stirrings in darkest Africa. The scale was 15mm and figures and models came from each player's collections. Darren was, I believe, in charge of the well known WUNKERS faction  with its usual motley collection of soldiers and vehicles But Andy's force had some impressive modern armour to deploy on the field of battle. Regrettably, I cannot inform the reader of the outcome of the engagement as furious fighting was still in progress when I left the building.

Another tussle in the long running series of games using the Saga rules was  contested by Charles and Wyn this afternoon. As usual, Wyn's collection of 28mm medieval figures took centre stage. The end result of the game was a victory for Wyn - I should say quite a decisive one from the rueful look on Charles' face.

This 28 mm game used the 'attack on an objective' scenario from the Lardies' rules and featured Bryan and Dave B as commanders of the British assault force and Ewan and Dan leading the defending Germans. Neil W was umpire. We made some tweaks to the command dice rules to cater for both the enlarged platoons and the fact that there were two players per side. For a detailed commentary and analysis on how well this worked, please take a look at Ewan's excellent account of the game in our After Action Reports section, available here.

BIR EL GUBI Nov 1941 - recon elements of the 7th armoured division look for a break in the line of the Italian Ariete Division. The allies got close on a couple of occasions broking through the wire and minefields defences but were held up by pre-planned artillery and the arrival of a Italian armour.

Played using a mash up of Bolt Action, with aspects of Chain of Command and Blucher for that little bit of friction on the command dice….

Both Italian and British Platoon Commanders survived and now await further orders. General Gott is keen to keep the pressure on the Italians.

Indian Mutiny siege of Delhi 1857. John laid on an amazing game on a massive 10x6 table, using Principles of War rules. Howard and Andy S played as the brave Indian freedom fighters defending their walls, whilst Stuart S and Dan S were the oppressive English forces laying siege. John was the umpire (as usual).

The range of figures and types supplied by John were huge and very colourful - we had camels elephants and all sorts on the table. The rules were easy to get along with and fairly intuitive.

The advance was slow and steady. Howard’s Afghan mercenaries fought well before the remains were routed off the table. The battle felt like a push and pull with flow and luck switching sides several times. In the end a draw was called and the British had made it pretty much to the moat but not to the gate.

All in all an excellent game. Well done John !!

We managed three games today.

I arrived late, and found Pete with the new Goblin army, taking on James and Maurice, with their Kingdoms of Men in a small 750 point Ambush game. I arrive to see two units of Knights charging into what I thought were hapless goblins, but those goblins turned out to be Luggit beserkers, who were both tough and lucky. They eventually did go down to the Knights, but not without making them sweat for their victory. Elsewhere his Trolls took on the Warbears who are able to win this battle before being shot to bits by the Goblin wizard. Game ended with a victory to the Imperial Knights.

I then joined Pete to command 1500 points and goblins and their human allies taking on the Imperials. This time the Luggits were screened by Goblin Spitter archers and they combined pretty effectively. The Trolls rolled over the Imperial guardsmen, but fell to a storm of Arquebus and Volleygun fire. The massed Goblins managed to win the left flank, however, the allied human Sergeant medium cavalry were no match for the massed ranks of Knights on the right, even with the support of the goblins' own giant Shrek. Victory to the Imperials again.

The final game was at 1500 points with my Halflings against the Imperial bullies. My Rifles were very lucky in breaking his Pistoliers with some early sniping, so my Iron Beast titan had to take a long trek across to the other flank which was pretty much all he did in his first game. We had a huge battle around a defile on the left flank. I sacrificed my Grenadiers to screen the Knights until my Trolls and Aeronauts could get into the fight and take them down.My Speamen were ground down and that unit of Knights avenged his brothers by killing off my Lancers and the Aeronauts as well. In the centre my Horde of Halflings were shot to bits by Volley Guns and Arquebusiers until my Harvester mowed down each  and the Imperial Guardsmen as he traversed the field. It was a bloody fight both ways, with the edge going to the Halflings.

This time we refought the Battle of Shiloh, 1862, from the American Civil War. Ross and Tom D played the Confederates with Andy W, Gordon and Stuart M taking the Union. In the battle the Confederates literally caught the Union army sleeping and encamped. On the first turn the Confederates piled into the sleeping outer troops of the Union army. This set the stage for the first part of the battle. The battered remnants of the first line of Union troops pulled back and tried to reform and form a battle line to face the Confederate horde. Gordon on the Union right struggled with the terrain and the aggressive attacks by Ross' Confederates. On the Union left Andy W was 'luckier' in that one of his units refused to move and so was left behind. This abandoned unit then fought off repeated attacks by Tom D.

As the game unfolded the Confederates advanced and sorted out their units who had started in a mess but needed to be organised as the Union line solidified. Meanwhile with fresh Union units waking and moving to the frontline the Union managed to form a defensive line based on a sunken road, basically something like a trench. In theory this sunken road was a formidable position but by now the Confederates had reorganised and were ready to launch a full attack on the Union line. Across most of the front honours were even as the accumulated Confederate loses started to tell but at the sunken road there was a decisive attack. Tom D launched an attack all along the sunken road and achieved a breakthrough, although at some cost.

We did not have time to finish the battle but after this the Confederate continued pushing for ultimate success and certainly had the advantage at the end. Yet their loses were mounting and so the result was not yet certain. It was a great battle which we last did at the club sometime in the mid 90's. 

This was a platoon-sized 28mm game set sometime in 1944 on the border between Poland and the Soviet Union. The Germans were fighting a delaying action (scenario 4 in the Lardies' rulebook) against advancing Russian troops.  We were able to play two games in the course of the day. In the first, novice commander Neil C (assisted by Bryan) took charge of the Soviet force while Neil W led the Germans. The Russians chose a BA24 armoured car and a heavy machine gun team as supports, The Germans had only a length of barbed wire defences and a 5cm mortar team. Neil C began the attack with the proper aggressive spirit while his opponent played a waiting game. The turning point came when the Russian officer carelessly let his armoured car get too close to the enemy line and it fell victim to an ambush by a Panzerschreck team. The superior German firepower of their infantry squads then took a heavy toll and the Soviets called off the attack.

In the second game, Neil C had another go with the Soviets and Pete took over as the German commander (Neil W assumed umpiring duties). We omitted the patrol phase and kept the same jump-off points and support options as before. This time Neil concentrated the attack on his left flank and made good progress. He again, unfortunately, lost his armoured car but he managed to get one squad onto the key enemy jump-off point which, if held until the end of the turn, would have given him victory. Alas, he did not have a Chain of Command die to end the turn, nor did Pete oblige by throwing three sixes (those of you who know the rules will know what I'm talking about here) and Neil's force morale sadly expired. A great effort nonetheless and despite the two defeats I thinks he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

In July, Nick set up an 18th century multi-player campaign based on the venerable 'Soldier King' board game. Eight club members, in teams of two, are attempting to gain control of an imaginary island empire by ensuring the succession of their chosen claimant to the throne. This is accomplished by the conquest of rival and neutral provinces by battles fought either by using the board game rules or on the table top. The first two contests using Nick's 15mm miniatures took place at St Ambrose today.

In the first, Ross, representing the imaginatively titled Blue faction was playing against Bryan who assumed the role of the neutral commander. The sides were fairly evenly matched, the neutrals occupying a defensive position with a stream to their front and high ground to the rear. Ross confidently launched his attack, concentrating his efforts on the enemy right wing where the mounted forces were at their weakest. In short time he had crossed the water and was making significant inroads into the neutral army's regiments. The attack was supported all across the line and Bryan's position rapidly crumbled, leaving the Blue commander in complete control of the field.

Jon organised and supplied the resources for this 28mm First World War skirmish game in which the British took on the Germans again. It was great to see first time visitor Tom take part in the game where he came up against the legendary dice rolling skills of Billy. I am anxious to point out to Tom that there is a fine tradition of crap dice rolling on club Sundays which is rigorously upheld by the vast majority of members (at one time or another) and that the performance of Billy is the exception rather than the rule. We hope to see Tom at many more club events.

John put on an awesome Chindit patrol game for Daniel S, Howard and Andy as the Chindit patrols. John played the Japanese force. An impressive 6 x 6 table was put on with wooden boards complete with coastline and railway track. The table also featured a Japanese village, radio shack and fuel dump which the Chindits had orders to attack. There were also random jungle lanes which were allocated and other objectives as well. The rules were one page style and turns were card driven for distance and random events from map reading to recognition of aircraft 

The result was a brilliant game. There lots of Chindit casualties but we blew the lot up! Well done John, a great table and figures and a game with nice evocative rules.

Maurice and James shared 1500 points of his Imperial Army. Steve, using his 1980s GW Chaos forces allied with my Halflings to take them on. Peter loaned Steve one of his Varangur army lists which comprised two units of wild Clansmen, a troop of heavy cavalry, heroic leader, a mage and a coven of mages - the most spectacular artillery piece yet seen on one of our tables. Steve formed up opposite Maurice with his Royal Guard, Arquebusiers and a lot of artillery. I faced off against James who had three units of Knights and the army general. 

The battle opened with an artillery, sniping and spellcasting duel that finally ended in our favour. My Halfling Spearmen managed to hold the first charge of the Knights, and my Grenadiers caused a little bit of confusion to before being ridden down like dogs. By that stage, Steve's Mounted Sons of Korgan had routed Maurice's WarBears, my Harvester had got into the fight and Steve's charging Clansmen had overwhelmed the Royal Guard. 

We gradually picked off the Knights who suffered some unlucky wavers and that won us the game. After that I took on James in a smaller 750 point Ambush game. His Knights' initial charges blew away my Halfling infantry and the flying Grenadiers, but my Harvester and the Forest Trolls were able to swing the game in my favour. 

The second game of Kings of War took place between Paul B and Pete. Paul has had a 28mm fantasy army stored in boxes for several years waiting for a suitable set of rules so it was nice to see it on the field at long last. It certainly looked impressive with, amongst other things, a diverse selection of dinosaurs and what looked like a pack of rabid dogs (I may be mistaken here). I think that this was Paul's first experience of the Kings of War rules so I hope Pete treated him gently.

I forgot to bring Trees, so our woods looked a bit bare!

In a Greek setting and using  almost vanilla Infamy rules, our game saw a force of Proto-Athenians raiding an Atlantean farmstead. Dan's aggressive intentions with the Proto-athenians was initially thwarted by a steady flow of "End of Turn" events occuring (Tempus Fugit card being pulled before a named card). However, this wasn't helping the Antlantean defenders under Andy either. The stalling Proto-Athenians were taking an alarming number of casualties from the Atlantean Slingers, but this was not going to be enough to decide this confrontation.

In the end it came down to two major fights. One with a formation of regular Atlantean Hoplites up against one of twice their number of semi-trained enemy Hoplites. The other saw an "Untrained" Mob of Proto-Athenian warriors smash with fervour into another formation of Hoplites who hadn't had time to brace themselves (no Sigma cards left).The Proto-Athenians got much the better of both fights. With a crashing Force Morale, the Atlantean leader decided to withdraw, with his still uncommitted Marine Hoplites, and leave the farmer to his fate.

For me, this showed that the Infamy rules can easily and successfully be adapted to theatres in the Ancient world outside of their narrow as-published one. A big credit to their author in my opinion.

Our game was a fictional battle using the 'With Fire & Sword' supplement to the Divine Right rules. Andrew W was in command of a combined Polish, Cossack and Russian army. Facing him was Ross commanding an Ottoman with Crimean Khanate (Tatar) and other allies. 

The Poles' commander anchored his two flanks with his less 'effective' command, the Cossacks on their left and the Russians & lighter Polish troops on their right. In the centre were the Winged Ottoman Hussars and the best of the Polish army. It quickly emerged that these were going to try to smash through the Ottoman centre. Unfortunately the Ottomans had a similar plan which proved to be more successsful. The Ottomans had placed their Tatar allies opposite the Cossacks and their low quality troops facing the Russians and the low quality Poles. All of the best troops, the Janissaries, the Kapakula cavalry (Sipahi of the Porte) & others, were in the centre.

It soon emerged that the Polish centre was going to attack & they did so with some initial success. Meanwhile on the Polish left the two opposing low quality commands spent most of the game skirmishing without seriously engaging. It was on the Polish left that the decisive move was made. Here the Cossack allies of the Poles were all on foot but the opposing Tatars were all light horse. The Tatars screened their opponent and moved to by pass them and get into the Polish rear. This the Tatars successfully achieved and this turned the tide in the major clash in the centre. The Polish centre was forced to divert troops to counter the Tatars which were now in their rear. This tipped the balance in the centre and one by one the Winged Hussars fell and then the supporting troops. The Polish centre was soon taking army morale tests to remain in the battle which they stubbornly kept passing & so the command was wiped out by the Ottoman forces. The total defeat of the Polish centre was enough to cause the collapse of the Polish army & their allies. The victorious Ottoman were last seen on the road to Warsaw.

Following on from last month's contest, Bryan organised and umpired another round of Hail Caesar using his 10mm figures and terrain. This time Charles was in charge of a Crusader force while Neil W was the commander of an Ayyubid Arab army. The task of the Arab force was to rescue a princess held prisoner in the Crusader camp. In terms of numbers, the Arab army was approximately 20% larger than their opponents but the Crusaders had more heavy infantry and all their cavalry were fully armoured knights. The Arabs moved forward on both wings with all their cavalry massed on the right and it was not long before both flanks came into contact with the Crusader cataphracts. Despite harassing fire from the Arab light cavalry and foot archers, the knights smashed into the enemy line and routed unit after unit. The Arab division on the left was the first to crumble and the division on the opposite wing soon followed suit, which signalled the end of the battle. A comprehensive victory for Charles, achieved with remarkably few losses.

We had four players turn up, and at Ian's and Tim's excellent suggestion, we played one big 1500 points per side doubles game. In a classic battle of Good against Evil, my Halflings and Maurice's Kingdoms of Men took on Ian's Ogres and Tim's Undead. I had some new units in the shape of Forest Trolls and the Harvester lawnmower to give my Halfling militia some punch. Maurice had two units of Knights, Royal Guard infantry, some Warbears and an Organ Gun. Ian had two Ogre hordes and some archers (carrying ballistae, it seemed) while Tim had masses of Zombies and Skeletons with units of Ghouls and Soul Reaver cavalry added for punch. I was lucky to get the first charges in (thanks to a rules misunderstanding) and along with some tremendous dice I was able to hold the Ogres back. My Trolls got smashed, but the Harvester survived with a Double One to break both the Ogre hordes. Tim managed the same with his Skelly Spearmen who held back the Knights and eventually routed them. Maurice's Volley Gun nixed the Soul Reavers while his Warbears went down under a tidal wave of Zombies & Ghouls. There was a lot to learn from this game and I look forward to the next one. 

More trouble in Africa as internal political differences once more descend into armed conflict. Darren and Andy GPT, meeting to play this 15mm scale game for the first time at the club, were the leaders of WUNKERS and the Israeli-backed USSMO respectively. My thanks go to Darren for producing another issue of that respected source of impartial information, the Dark Continent Times, which you can read here.

Myself and Neil C had a very enjoyable first game of DBMM, only slightly interrupted by rules decipherment. In the centre, the elite Spartans charged over a hill and into the sun blackening arrows of the Sparabara but managed to get to grips after a few turns.  They mostly got the best of the hand-to hand combat and the Sparabara was collapsing by the end of the game.

The elite Persian cavalry on my left wing easily overran the Greek citizen cavalry and and Thracian psiloi sent against them, then swung into the back of the lower quality hoplites on that wing, leading Neil's entire command to rout. On my right I had a hodge podge of Persian and subject medium and light cavalry and, not knowing what else to do with it, charged as a group into the Spartan subject hoplites opposite.  A desperate struggle ensued, but the Greeks showed their superior grit and my command on that wing was badly battered (disheartened) by the end of the day.

So a drawn battle really (depending on which victorious wing could reach the centre first and what effect it would have).

Here is the match report Sunday 6th August Holt Heath on Stu’s Infamy! Infamy! Water Margin game in 28mm. Howard and Andy took on Paul B and John on as loyal imperial forces against the disaffected rebels.

A steady loyal advance against rebels who were in ambush mode popped up here at most awkward times and there were cavalry charges, lightning bolts and fisticuffs all round - much fun on a great themed table  When the game finished, the loyal forces were 60% happier than the rebels and the rebel leader was in good running mode towards his own table edge.

Andy Scott 

Loyal imperial forces 

100 percent BBC verified report 

We played an early War Eastern Front game using Chain of Command. The German platoons under the leadership of Dan & Andy R were tasked with securing a rail depot, somewhere in Russia, as part of Operation Barbarossa. Naturally, the Russian platoons under Peet & Tim were going to try and spoil things. 

The Germans quickly developed their attack, pushing their infantry through the woodland lining the roads. However, the bridges crossing the stream that traversed the terrain before them had been mined, limiting any chance of a quick breakthrough. For their part, the Russians were promptly deployed along the rail embankment on the far side of the stream, defying any further advance. One German squad did push across the waterway, but was butchered by SMG fire from the very Station House they were trying to take. However, good use of a supporting MMG and infantry gun by the Germans, slowly turned the tide of battle in their favour. 

While casualties were mounting all around, the Russian right wing under Tim was particularly suffering. Eventually this wing collapsed (Force Morale reached zero) and the Russian defence line was broken. While the Germans had a couple of supporting tanks, they played little part in the battle. A definite win for the Germans. Barbarrossa rolls on!

An unusual game that had no Double Phases or End of Turn events, despite at one point Peet throwing five 6's on five command dice! Unfortunately, as the designated "Junior" Commander, they didn't count.

Andy T and Ian played this really nice looking science fiction game in 28mm. Based on the film series, Star Wars Legion "invites you to join the unsung battles of the Galactic Civil War as the commander of a unique army filled with troopers, powerful ground or repulsor vehicles, and iconic characters like Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker" (I am quoting from the website). There were certainly an impressive number of vehicles and figures on the table. I am unable to confirm the outcome of the game but, as no club members reported a great disturbance in the Force, I assume that the Jedi and their allies were victorious.

This was a game in 10mm scale with all the resources supplied by Bryan. Jon and Neil W jointly commanded a late Roman army which was facing a Sassanid force led by Neil C and Bryan. Both sides deployed in fairly conventional style with the Sassanids placing elephants on their left centre. These were promptly charged by Jon's heavy cavalry and were defeated in the ensuing combat. Neil C then rolled a one which meant that the temperamental creatures decided to stampede and thus rapidly fled the field. 

The Sassanids never really recovered from this blow. The Romans flung their heavy infantry against the enemy centre and routed their opponents. Although the Sassanid forces were able to push back the enemy cavalry on their right and break a cavalry division on their left, they were in a precarious position by the time proceedings came to an end.

Charles and Wyn met again to continue their exploration of the Saga universe in 28mm scale.  As usual, the game looked a treat, Wyn's sectional terrain pieces and figures to the fore. Saga is a skirmish game which allows the use of both historical and mythological figures but I think Charles and Wyn's game was solely concerned with human beings, albeit lead ones.

This was a 6mm game which involved Paul B and Stuart S as the two commanders. The basic rules in use were Bolt Action but there were modifications in place to cater for post-war vehicles and formations  - I am not sure if these amendments were the work of the gentlemen involved or had been produced by a third party. The table looked nice ( a vaguely north European setting) and there was an eclectic mix of vehicles and equipment in play.

Myself and Gordon played Dux Bellorum using a new scenario I adapted from one in Lion Rampant. As the Romans, I had to stage a rescue mission for one of my spies who had gotten himself trapped in Pictish territory.

After a long, deadlocked series of mini battles spread across the board I did manage to locate the desperate man in the ruins of an ancient Roman temple, but this coincided with the moment Gordon managed to make multiple breakthroughs in all these battles and my entire army routed soon afterwards.

The scenario worked more through luck than judgement, and I have made some adjustments based on today's game.

Pete, Vlad and I had two 750 point games of Ambush today. Varangur Pete brought his newly painted Frostfang elite heavy cavalry to the fight along with two units of armoured Clansmen, some elite Archers, the Wizard, and his leader, Thrud. He took on Vlad's Goblins who had regiments each of Rabble, Spears, Archers and mounted Archers, Trolls, flying Wingit and his King. It started well for Pete - his Frostfangs smashed the regiment of Rabble, one regiment of Clansmen and Thrud routed the Spears (although the Clansmen were mauled in the process) and the Wizard and Archers wavered the Wingit. Then Vlad struck back. The King routed the depleted Clansmen regiment, the Trolls broke the Frostfangs and regenerated all their wounds, the mounted Archers broke the elite Archers and were hounding the Wizard, the Archers fended off a charge by the other Clansmen and the Wingit finally got some hits in on Thrud. The game ended with a narrow victory for the Varangur. 

Then my Halflings battled Vlad's Goblins. The Wingit flew through a blizzard of AA fire and chewed up my Volleygun before finally succumbing, but he had soaked up a lot of my shooting. My Lancers charged down his mounted Archers and broke them but then were locked in a desperate battle with the Trolls. They nearly made it and would have routed the Trolls but for my first double one (? it certainly was the most memorable)  and got ripped to bits. My Rifles and the Engineer had the worst of a shootout with the Goblin Archers and King. On the far flank my Spears and Braves matched off against his Spears and Rabble. His Mawbeast hounds would probably have swung the balance except for my supporting Sauceror and they edged it to give me a close win. 

Howard and Andy S played Chain of Command Pacific. The action took place on Guadalcanal in 1942 using a counterattack scenario from the Blitzkrieg book. Howard commanded a USMC platoon against Andy's IJA force. The kicker for Howard was that his reinforcements could not come on till turn two.

Andy's CHI HA tank was a wonder weapon that dominated the field, taking a jump off point. Then Andy rolled end of turn and Howard’s spirits lifted and his little M3 Stuart tank pinned the CHI HA tank in place. Whilst it was not destroyed, it took little part in the action for the rest of the game. A savage fire fight ensued. Eventually Howard took the day he was only two Force Morale points from folding himself. Great fun and a good game trying out our Pacific forces.

I’m interested to see how the CoC Pacific Too Fat Lardies book handles the Japanese as when my force morale folded I still had a lot of forces on the table. Great fun and thank you to Table Top CP

Today I took on Pete's Varangur - Chaos Barbarian raiders from the icy north. We managed two games, the first at 750 points and the second at 1000. Twice my poor Halflings got chomped up by the brutal northmen (and their Jabberwock) well before second breakfast. In the first battle he had two regiments of Huscarls and the Jabberwock led by Lord Thrud. I had my usual mix of dog riders, Riflemen and Braves led by the Engineer, Sauceror & Sergeant. He just charged headlong & blew my poor lads and lasses away, showing that hard-hitting, well-armoured troops don't need no fancy footwork on a congested Ambush table. Then he replaced one unit of Huscarls with regiments of Clansmen medium infantry and the Mounted Sons of Khorgaan (even tougher knights) and a Sorceror. I had bigger unit of Rifles and some Ej Grenadier rocketmen. With a bigger battlefield, I was hoping I could do some manoeuvring but he out-deployed me and while I was redeploying he took the chance to quickly get up close & personal with the same devastating results. Credit, also, to his antiaircraft Sorceror who chased my Ej Grenadiers around the table & completely neutralised them. I hope Ian, who watched the games, at least learned something from them. 

A grim, unforgiving slog between foot knights, billmen and archers characterised our Wars of the Roses refight.  True to the period many soldiers on both sides were not particularly committed to the cause and seemed reluctant to get stuck in. I did send my cavalry in a flank march to surprise Paul on his left flank.  While this was successfully executed they immediately proceeded to chase a unit of billmen into a spinney then failed to emerge from it for most of the rest of the game, either through treachery, incompetence, cowardice or tree roots.

In the absence of this intended coup de grace on my part Paul managed to eventually grind out slow, mud spattered victory in the centre of the board - his superior numbers telling against my smaller, more high quality force. Still, as Paul pointed out both out armies were wearing Yorkist liveries, so technically we can both say "our" side won!

John laid on a great 28mm Anglo Zulu War Rorke's Drift, using fast play rules from a copy of Miniature Wargames from 1991. We had a monster table with a huge amount of Zulus being urged on, albeit using a random reinforcement  schedule to replicate the Zulus' difficulty in organising their forces. Andy S, Stuart M and Billy were the Zulu players and Howard and his young Subaltern Daniel S were the loyal British subjects.

In the battle, British volley fire and good marksmanship won through, although when the Zulu warriors were able to get over the ramparts they were very effective. John was the umpire and also kept count of the casualties. The Zulus declared at 488 killed in action and the British had 33 fatalities. John said we had parity with the real battle.

The game was great fun for all of us - well done John.

This 28mm game, located close to the Russo-Polish border in 1944, was the  'delaying action' scenario from the Chain of Command rule book. Daniel M was the Russian commander with orders to drive the enemy from the field and Neil W was the defending German officer. Daniel chose as his supports a two-man mortar team, a three-man flamethrower team and a sniper team. Neil had only a 50mm mortar plus crew as his support. 

The Russians deployed two squads on their right behind a group of wooden houses and barns and soon inflicted heavy casualties on the German squad opposing them. However, as more German troops entered the battlefield the weight of their fire caused serious attrition on the opposing infantry and two Russian squads were pinned. One German squad then attempted to out-flank the Russians on the left and, although it was able to knock out the flamethrower team before it could inflict serious damage, it was unable to make further progress due to the stubborn resistance of the last intact Russian squad. Neither side had achieved its victory conditions by the time darkness fell, so a hard-fought draw was an appropriate result.

John provided the figures and scenery for this WW1 skirmish game between British and German forces. The other players were Jonathan and Neil C. Blood and Valor (rules which we have not previously seen played on a club Sunday) is published by Firelock games and features a phase in which players secretly and simultaneously bid points to decide who will act first in the turn. The composition of a force affects the number of points avaialble. 

In the game itself, Neil C ran out the eventual winner. He attributed his success to the choice of a heavy machine gun as his support, which proved to be remarkably effective, whereas Jon's choice of a preliminary barrage proved less efficacious.

Since this account was written, Andy J has pointed out that he and Pete played a game with these rules back in August 2020, which had completely slipped my mind (looking back at the account it actually says his opponent was Jon). He also informs me that he has now acquired a tank and a trench system and is keen to get these resources onto a table soon. Any takers?

Andy GPT, providing forces from his well painted Epic Napoleonic collection was joined by Carl and Andy T in a f continuation of their exploration of the Lasalle 2 rules they commenced at the club back in April.  The massed columns of figures looked impressive and provided an impressive spectacle on a relatively small table.

The Battle of Piacenza was part of the War of Austrian Succession in the 1740's. The battle was fought in Italy and we used the Twilight of the Soldier Kings rules. In our version the Austrians were commanded by Dave B and Ross who were defending. They were attacked by Gordon leading a mainly French force and Darren with a mainly Spanish army. 

The Gallispan army (the name of the French and Spanish) army was divided and advanced to attack the Austrians. Reacting to this Ross led his forces forward to confront the advancing Gallispan forces under Darren. On the other flank Dave B moved part of his forces forward to block Gordon's French while moving the rest of his forces to join Ross's in an attack on Darren's forces. This attack made some headway but meanwhile Dave's blocking force was being picked off by Gordon's forces as Gordon exploited his advantage. The game was a closely fought action and the battle is a good one to fight. We did not reach a conclusion but I think we will try to play it again as it is a good, balanced scenario. 

Report back from Zulu commander follows: -

Stuart S and Billy had a British hold-out manned by Billy. Weak with malaria and other horrible diseases, Billy's forces were awaiting Stu's re-supply convoy  to reach them. They were jumped from several Dongas by several regiments of Zulus commanded by Andy S and Howard 

The Zulus charged the fortifications taking a battering from the dreaded boxer rounds and Billy’s legendary dice rolling. The Zulus were gallantly pushed back and repelled. The baggage train was pillaged, however, Stu saved face by mauling all the Zulus around him. At this, the force morale of the Zulus collapsed and they retreated.

All credit to Stu for throwing a great game of Sharp Practice 2 with tweaks as well to incorporate the Zulus and the breech loading rifle.

Charles S and Wyn got together once again to indulge in  some butchery in the Middle Ages. I think all the miniatures came from the hand of Wyn although it's possible that Charles also used pieces from his own collection. I any case, the game looked great. I cannot provide information, unfortunately, on the outcome of the battle.

Howard and Andy S organised an old favourite a big game of vanilla unadulterated Bolt Action set in the early part of the Barbarossa campaign. A dug in platoon of beleaguered CSIR Italians with supports  were defending a rail head with a river a fordable river as a barrier. The table was a 12x4 with the Italians at their end and coming in from the opposing end were two small platoons in lorries, with an armoured/mechanised support formation of 4 tanks and a pair of armoured cars providing the punchy part. In the middle towards the Italian end was a mixed bag of Russians comprising of a platoon of infantry, veteran SMG section and a load of toys like mortars snipers flamethrowers and the like. There was a mix of several lighter tanks and a armoured car topped off with a mighty KV2. Howard was holding off the Germans who were Andy S, Ian, Mike (who was replaced by Stuart S). Daniel was the other Russian commander whose job it was to crush the Italians who had Howard watching his back.

The game started slowly with a slow steady advance by the Germans The German armoured cars then pelted down the road headlong to the Russians.

The German infantry dismounted fairly quickly giving them quite a hike to cover the table. A balance had to be struck on being on the end of effective Russian fire. Daniel's Russians kept a steady battering of fire on the Italians which they gave back. As German fire took off against the lighter Russian vehicles the  tempo picked up and felt like more like a Blitzkreig.

By now the Italians were left with one man and an anti-tank rifle to try and pin the KV2 tank and several Italian assets had been destroyed. But they had fought like lions and at one point took out an armoured car with a suicidal close assault. By now Howard’s force was spent. It had held up the Germans for so long but did concede in the end. After nearly 16 turns the Italians had one section left which was destroyed by the veteran SMG squad, a job which they were built for. The KV2 had a lot of pin markers on it and a last roll destroyed the tank. This left the SMG squad and a commissar to see off a lot of Germans including 5 vehicles. 

But victory was not theirs as there were no Italians left to relieve!

A very enjoyable game which demonstrated Bolt action. Is a great set of.rules for a big game like this with simple mechanisms. A random activation keeps everyone at the table. It’s not without its faults however. The soft skin vehicles unbalanced the dice bag, small units and teams which the Russians had are taking morale tests after losing one man costing a dice. But no rule set is perfect. Credit to Howard and well done for designing the scenario and keeping force sizes in check. And also for all those who took part, I hope everyone enjoyed it.

Bryan provided all the resources for this impressive looking 10mm game and also acted as umpire. The scenario was set during the 1812 invasion of Russia and was an imaginary encounter between two Russian corps and attached cavalry (jointly commanded by Neil C and Neil W) and a French corps led by Gordon and Dave B. The right hand Russian corps (Neil W) attacked the opposing French division (Dave B) and although honours were fairly even, the Russians failed to make any serious inroads into the French position. On the left, Neil C mounted his assault but found that the enemy troops on this side of the field offered more serious resistance. They were able to repel the leading Russian division and eventually break it. The French were, therefore victorious.

The ESR rules have many novel features and show a lot of potential but are let down by being poorly set out and overly bureaucratic. A lot of time was spent in discussions about what the author actually intended which was somewhat frustrating and held up play. Gordon had a thorough re-read of the rules post battle and drew the players attention to what we got wrong so maybe another session will give better results.

A magnificent display on the grand scale was put on by Wyn with this depiction of an ACW battle on a table that must have been at least fifteen feet long. He  began painting his collection of 28mm Union and Confederate figures back in the 1990's and there were over 1500 of them in action for this game.  The table itself was comprised of modular terrain boards which Wyn had constructed himself. Charles was in command of the Northern forces while Wyn was the Southern general. Because of the massive size of the scenario and the fact that there were only two playing, I am not altogether sure if they were able to bring it to a decisive conclusion. Nonetheless, it looked good

Another great display was once again provided by John, not once but twice. In this mid 18th century scenario set in the forests of North America there were in fact two tables used consecutively, the first in fairly open terrain, the second featuring a splendid scratch-built fort, the picture of which accompanies this report.  The game was played using 28mm figures and John's opponent was Nick. They used a variant of the "Loose Files and American Scramble" rules by Andy Callan which can be found here. I am not sure whether it was the British forces or the French that triumphed in the end or what "assistance" they received from their Indian allies.

Kingdoms of Men vs Halflings

Thanks to the longer session, Maurice and I managed to get two games in at 1500 points each. This allowed us to expand our armies (he chose more Knights, an Organ Gun to supplement his Cannons and two Guard Infantry regiments while I added some flying units to my army in the shape of Aeronauts, Ej Grenadiers, and a Captain on Winged Aralez).

We also got to use the full extent of the 6 x 4 table, and that probably helped me with more room to get behind his battle line with my flyers, and then getting in the crucial flank and rear charges that really boosted their combat power. It was a race, firstly between my Rifles picking off his Artillery before they could do too much damage; and then secondly between his Knights charging forward and smashing my units and my airmobile being able to pick off enough of his troops to negate the power of the Knights.  Another benefit was the extra time we had to analyse the table positions and manoeuvre our troops. It resulted in a really fascinating contest. I managed to win the first game on points, but by the end of the game, he still had two of his knights arrayed against motley, assortment of my own troops and would have won on the next turn. In the second game, he got off to a good start with his shooting, and then his luck deserted him just enough to swing the balance my way when a couple of spectacular dice rolls on my part decided the game in my favour.

It was a great opportunity to carry on exploring the system which seems to get better every time we play.

Harry and I played a mini WOTR campaign, using the Sword &Spear rules and the map and the rules framework from an Impetus supplement. I, as the King, set up in London with an ally, Lord Raby, in Shrewsbury and Harry, as the Pretender, landed on the South coast.

I abandoned London and set out for the Midlands to raise more troops and link up with the Allied army. In fact, the Midlands was an error, as several towns refused to help and Lord Raby showed signs of wavering. The Pretender marched towards the rebel towns and caught me just outside Derby before I could reach Raby.

Despite being the Attacker, the Pretender was caught with his army widely dispersed and despite outnumbering the Kings army was soundlybeaten, although the Pretender himself escaped. More manoeuvres followed as the Pretender withdrew towards London to rebuild his army while the King went South to recruit in Worcester, Swindon, Southampton and Portsmouth. About this time Lord Raby showed himself as a traitor and joined the Pretender.

Raby now headed South to join with the Pretender, but the King, having returned from recruiting on the South Coast, immediately attacked Raby just outside of Cirencester. An all day battle followed but by dusk there was no definite victory, so both armies withdrew with significant losses.

The campaign will resume at St Ambrose on the 18th 

On Sunday the patriotic forces of freedom secured sweeping advances according to sources close to the Socialist Peoples Liberation Army of Tuttutandgo. Sources close to the S.P.L.A.T. politburo claim that they have liberated large areas of the western province from the evil grip of the W.A.S.T.A counter-revolutionary thugs. They state that counter-revolutionary activists, their family and their friends are, as I write, being 're-educated' and will be buried next week. Meanwhile the brave soldiers are 'redistributing' the valuables of the liberated area to the deserving members of the SPLAT forces. 

Meanwhile the W.A.S.T.A. high command dismissed the events as a minor setback. WASTA sources assign the defeat to the activities of their 2nd Armoured Group. This unit failed to join the battle and this undermined the defences. Sources from this unit claim that the commander had his map upside down and so failed to arrive. Attempts have been made to ask the commander but him and his family seem to have 'mysteriously' disappeared without trace. The W.A.S.T.A's are rumoured to be organising for a counterattack.

The game was fought by Nick (SPLAT) and Andrew W (WASTA's) using the AK47 rules. These are quite a fun set and as usual gave a great game. The WASTA forces were defending and suffered from a poor start to the game. They only had a few defending units at the start of the game and also suffered from the rest of the army arriving slowly. This gave the SPLAT attackers the chance to occupy the key terrain and gang up on defending units. Despite this it was a close game and great fun.

The second AK47 game of the day was played between Darren and Neil C, this time using the later version of the rules. Darren has kindly produced another issue of the politically impartial newspaper of repute, the Dark Continent Times, and you can read a detailed report of the action within its august pages here. Thanks Darren.

Four of us played “Sails of Glory”? and had a jolly good time. By the time the sun set over the yardarm the four French ships had sunk three of the British ships.

The game was really barely organised chaos as none of us really knew how to sail or fight the ships but it was great fun and we could probably do much better in a second game.

We played Killteam, a commando raid game set in the 41st millennium. The games are short but we were novices to the game. So we played the same scenario, raiding a spaceship for supplies three times to get to grips with the rules and tactics. We each played the same team twice and then swapped teams for the final game. The Primaris marines proved to be the stronger squad in all three of the games.  

Andy S and John (BEF) took on Pete and Dan S (Howard's Germans) at Chain of command in an attack on Hedgewood wood. Howard sat out and umpired. This was a Too Fat Lardies Pint Sized Campaign Scenario from Caesar's camp. 

Two games were played in the course of the afternoon. In the first a low force morale roll for the BEF (with a Daimler Armoured car which quickly ran off the table edge) halved the force morale in one hit. As a result of getting the BEF on the back foot the game collapsed like a paper bag in no time at all. 

A quick restart was done and sides were swapped when Pete dished it up again. When I asked Pete if he liked playing Chain of Command it was like asking the Perrys if they like sculpting  Napoleonics!

However great fun if comedic, yet learning took place.

Leswell Gap, Northern Germany: 0447hrs

Soviet heavy reconnaissance elements penetrate into critical NATO defensive area.  BAOR Battlegroup under Colonel Andy moves to intercept.

Andy's heavily loaded British forward screen slowed up the advance of the Soviet recon, armoured vehicle hulks littering the crossroads in the village of Leswell.  The Soviets then changed their planned axis of advance and threw most of their heavy tank company against the NATO right instead, through woods and fields.  Four T-64Bs attempted volleys of ATGM against the opposing Chieftains, but the hedges kept the British MBTs safe in cover while the Soviets took continuing casualties from APDS (when did UK get APFSDS?).  Under the cover of this costly fire support, two T-64Bs raced forward through the central woods and stole a British objective. They were however immediately destroyed by infantry LAW on their flank and Chieftain in front.

The Soviet army did well to wipe out the enemy scouts but were badly clobbered on objectives plus casualties among lots of their heavy units. They broke spectacularly at 45 on T6 against the BAOR rating at about 29 with plenty to spare up to their limit of 48.

Did Andy answer his own question about the validity of pursuing geographic objectives?  The taking and exchange of objectives caused brutal BR chit draws and really hurt the Soviets.  But would the Soviets have been better off staying on their firing line?  Despite all these draws, no random helicopter gunships came up - maybe we need to stir the chit pot some more!  Andy and Ian also fed back that they liked the Battle Rating token system, which is a very innovative but abstract mechanic.  Interesting!  The observation rules caused some debate again.  They are extra work but if we want that level of realism we need some detailed rules.  How realistic they really are is probably a very long discussion!

Ian chipped in with amazing nuggets of direct experience and some ruthless cunning ploys to help the Soviets.  Meanwhile, Andy applied his incisiveness to evaluate the rules and destroy Reds, both without mercy.  I think they got what they wanted, each gaining a strong flavour of the game and going away better equipped to plot further conquests.  Thanks Jon for essential pencil!  Thanks Andrew for the decisive blue-tack!

 I am grateful to Dave K for the following report on this 28mm fantasy game. Also taking part were Dante, Vlad and Maurice.

We had an enjoyable double game of Kings of War Ambush. We managed both games on one table using 3' x 3' battlefields at 750 points each. Maurice and his Kingdoms of Men - Knights, Halberdiers, Arquebusiers, Crossbowmen, and Mortar, led by their General faced off against Vlad's Goblin Raiders of Rabble, Spears, Archers and Dog-mounted Archers (?) backed up by Trolls and a beautifully painted Winggit flying contraption, all led by their King. They opened up with a storm of shooting. The Rabble took one hit from the Mortar & broke while the Halberdiers wilted under a rain of arows. The Knights scattered the Dog Archers but were stopped in their tracks by the Spears and flanked by the KIng. The Arquebusiers took a peppering from the Archers and were bombed by the Winggit before being hit by charging Trolls and the Archers. The Crossbows were next to go and then it was the Kights' turn as the Winggit piled into their rear to seal the victory.

I took on Dante's Dwarves - two regiments of Ironclad Infantry, a troop of Ironwatch Rifles, a Steel Juggernaut and swarms of Mastiff Hunting Packs on a very bucolic battlefield with wandering flocks of goats & herds of marauding pigs. I had single regiments of Braves, Lancers & Mounted Rifles and a troop of Foot Rifles supported by a mounted Sergeant, an Engineer and a Sauceror with her brews. Dante was plagued by poor dice in the first few turns which let me whittle down his Mastiffs, hit the flank of one Ironclad regiment with my Lancers and waver the other with shooting to keep it out of the fight [we forgot to roll for its Headstrong]. He did eventually break my Lancers with attacks from the Juggernaut and two units of Mastiffs, but I had been deep enough into his half by turn three and had scored enough casualty points to win our game. 

This game was another try-out of Nick's Napoleonic rules which are now almost ready for publication. The scenario was an imaginary encounter, using Stuart M's extensive collection of 6mm figures, featuring Gordon and Bryan who were commanding British and Austrian forces respectively and Stuart and Neil W each in charge of a French corps (Nick was the umpire). A stream conveniently placed down the centre of the field effectively divided the battle into two separate engagements with Gordon facing Stuart and Bryan matched against Neil. The onus was on the French to attack and both corps lost no time in moving swiftly against their opponents who were mostly occupying high ground. There was not enough time to reach a conclusion so the game was a technical draw but the rules played well and gave a realistic impression of Napoleonic battles on the grand scale.

Once again John produced an excellent table as he single-handedly recreated the siege of Khartoum (1884-85) in 28mm. I say single-handedly because, amazingly, he was unable to find an opponent for this fine looking game and so fought a solo battle. Tom Penn's Principles of War rules were in use and John assured me that he had an enjoyable time. I suppose that the advantage of fighting solo battles is that you can't lose.

Another colonial game but this time without figures. Billy and Jon played the board game version of this famous engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War which took place in January 1879 (the game includes counters and a map to re-fight the Battle of Isandlwana as well). Jon was the Zulu commander while Billy led the plucky British detachment. Billy had the misfortune of seeing Lieutenant Chard killed early on in the fighting but the Zulu warriors were unable to press home the advantage and the game ended with no decisive result.

My thanks go to Andy J for the account below. The game used the second edition Bolt Action rules and the scale was 20mm.

Harry (Japanese) and myself (Americans) played a game of Bolt Action. The US troops managed to shoot the opposition up pretty badly until a light mortar got into position and did some damage to one US infantry group. By the time the US airstrike showed up (late, as usual) targets were getting pretty scarce, so a win for the US.

We both mis-read the lists but it was a good learning exercise. 

Paul B provided all the resources for this 28mm game, including an excellent set of figures. I think I am right in saying that this the first time that the three other players - Andy S, Daniel and Howard - had played this particular set of rules. The scenario featured French infantry pitted against British Redcoats and 95th Rifles. As the game was very much a "training exercise" the actual result was not of any great significance but I trust the contestants all had an enjoyable time playing it.

Another fine looking game which utilised Wyn's collection of 28mm medieval figures. The rules in use were Fire and Fury with suitable modifications for the period. Wyn was the umpire, Charles was in charge of a force originating in Silesia and Neil C was the commander of a Polish army. At the end of the game Charles ruefully confessed that he had lost the battle because he had forgotten to order his men to charge at critical moments in the fighting. Neil, however, generously acknowledged that the result had, in fact, been a hard-fought draw. I forgot to ask for the umpire's opinion.

This was the first game Ewan has run at the club, and a very impressive 10mm display it was. Brief comments form him follow but he has also provided a fuller account of the actual game which you can read here. Thanks Ewan.

Thank you all for visiting, chatting and participating in the introductory game of BG: NORTHAG !!!  I had loads of fun and it was a real priviledge to be allowed to join the club and do this with you.  Special thanks to Jon for being a stalwart trooper first in and last out, I couldn't have done it without you! It was a tense battle, a decisive British victory, but things could easily have been different.  If I may speak for Jon and Dave, I think we enjoyed the balance of realism, complexity and playability.  There's a lot of exciting elements, such as the phased deployment, artillery and much more that we only scratched the surface of.  Please chip in guys and say where you agree and disagree.

We had some great discussion of Cold War literature and also about historical heights of crops, in different centuries not just seasons.  It's a whole War Studies doctoral thesis I'm sure, that was amazing!

A 15mm game that came from the collection of Nick, this encounter was a re-fight of the Battle of Fontenoy, 1745 in which the French, under the command of Marshall Saxe, defeated the Pragmatic Army led by the Duke of Cumberland. Along with Nick the other participants in the game were Darren, Ross and Neil C, who has returned back to the UK after a long sojourn in the Middle East. I left the hall before the game concluded so I am unable to declare the the final outcome. 

This game was the first try-out at the club of the Chain of Command 'unofficial' variant "DMZ", (second edition) designed by Jason Sendjirdjian. The scale was 10mm and all the figures and terrain were provided by Neil W. Vlad and Bryan were in joint charge of a US Army platoon with orders to clear a village of enemy troops. Wyn and Neil W were commanding a platoon of the North Vietnamese Army ready to repel the attack. The US forces commenced deployment in jungle locations and moved cautiously to the edge of the foliage, the NVA chose to deploy close to the forest perimeter (in hindsight, probably a hasty decision) and soon came under very heavy fire from automatic weapons. The NVA were forced back as a serious firefight developed and also had the misfortune of suffering two officer casualties in quick succession. In contrast the US platoon took remarkably few losses and, as the force morale of the NVA plummeted, were able to disperse the defenders without having to assault the village. 

The players' consensus view was that the rules showed promise but needed a few in house tweaks to make them more realistic.

A fine collection of Warlord Games' Epic Napoleonic figures were on the table in this game - I think the scale is around 12mm but I'm not absolutely certain. Sam Mustafa's Lasalle second edition rules were in play, Andy was in charge of a French Army and Andy T and Carl, members of the Stourbridge club, were his British adversaries. This was Andy and Carl's first visit to the club and we hope there will be many more. The game was a close run thing and I believe that an honourable draw was the eventual result.

Another spectacular 28mm display from John (I think this one occupied no fewer than five trestle tables)  which depicted another episode from the Allied invasion of Syria and Lebanon in the summer of 1941. The other participants in the contest were Andy S, Billy, Dante, Daniel S and Stuart S. Rapid Fire first edition rules were in use and the terrain on the table-top featured lots of ancient ruins. 

My thanks to Dan for the comprehensive account that follows. The game was played with 28mm 'flats' and they looked extremely effective

Over the day we managed to get 3 games in of strength and honour, they were all the same scenario the battle of the Sambre 57bc parts of Caesars gallic wars.

Briefing.

Caesar is conducting a campaign against the Belgic tribes and is preparing to make camp for the night. 6 legions and 2 skirmishers are around the area of the camp whilst 2 further legions are bring up the baggage train so not on table at the start of the game. The Belgic tribes (8 warbands and 2 skirmisher units) have moved forward to the edge of a forest which has the Sambre river running just in front of it and a short distance in front of that are the Romans preparing to camp. To simulate the suprise attack the Romans must have 4 of the 6 legions on table disordered at the start of the battle.

Batlle 1 Romans-me Celts-Andrew

The Celts managed to get most of their left flank across the river quickly, these are there Elite warriors and they pressed on to fight the legions in front of them, 2 warbands slugged it out with 2 legions and little movement was made. The other 2 warbands pushed a Roman legion back off the hill but failed to rout into from the table. In the ctrw and Celt right flank they were slower to cross the river and once contact was made with the legions on the hill they were pushed back and the warbands suffered badly; this is where the Celts picked up most of the set-back and disaster cards, and they were eventually pushed of the table. A call was made for them to total their cards up and it was more than their army morale. Romans 1 up

Battle 2 Romans- Andrew Celts-me

A similar set up with the elite Celt warbands on the left wing, these were able to push 2 legions off the hill and were able to rout one. The centre and Celt right flank was a to and fro affair with warbands and legions pushing units back and forth. Mainly a few bad rolls by Andrew at critical moment meant his card total was high and the Celts low, once a call was called to count the total up the Romans had more than their moral value. 1 game all

Battle 3 same as battle 2.

This time I changed my Elite warbands to the right flank and after some initial success a legion was able to catch a warband in the flank causing it to rout. In 

the centre and left flank the Celts could do little to stop the Romans pushing forward routing 1 warband from batlle and causing others to become disordered.

The Romans called for the count and the celts were almost double their morale value, a severe defeat.

Overall Romans 2-1 Celts

Harry was the umpire for this Ancient game and also provided all the resources. The scale was 15mm. It was good to see the return of Daniel M, playing the role of the Roman general up against Peet who was leading some Germanic tribe of barbarians. I think I am right in saying that none of the participants had had much prior exposure to the rules which must have made life difficult, especially for the umpire. The outcome was a victory for Rome.

A 28mm game which involved Andy S, Daniel S, Stuart S and Howard in which forces of the British Empire took on a Vichy French army. Thanks Stuart for the following AAR.

The first day of Operation Exporter 8th June 1941 – The coastal column attempts to push up towards Iskandaroun. They encountered tougher than expected opposition as the French had blown the road, immobilising a light tank and a pinch point between a high cliff face and the sea forced the Commonwealth forces led by the Australians to attack on foot.

A great game using Bolt Acton with bits of Chain of Command overlaid to add friction and force morale.

The following report was provided by Andy J - thanks Andy. There were some fine model ships on display which I think were in 1:600 scale.

Nick Gordon, Stuart and I played  c17th naval game from the start of the 1st Dutch war. It started with the British ship "James" shooting up a Dutch ship, these 2 sailed away in to the distance whilst both sides sent re-enforcements who all got into a lovely firefight.  MVP here was the commonwealth ship "Victory" which raked and destroyed a Dutch ship with 7 hits from 8 dice but then moved on to rake another Dutch ship and threw 8 dice again, this time achieving no hits at all!!

Played under "Mad for War" rules the outnumbered commonwealth ships obtained a convincing victory (excuse the pun) forcing 2 Dutch ships to strike their colours and coming within a whisker of making a third strike as well, which would have resulted in the surrender of 1 of the 2 Dutch squadrons. Many thanks to Gordon for another great naval game. 

I am grateful to Ian for the following account. This game was played in 15mm scale and also involved Andy R, Dave B and Phil, who was playing his first game at the club.

We played a very early WW2 Eastern Front game (using Pz III E & T26's!) in our continuing trial of the O Group rules. Playing on a large 6x6 table. The German attackers' objective was to seize the high ground that was firmly within the Russian defence zone.

While the Germans were doing well, they were a long way from achieving the objective after more than three hours of play. This only equated to three actual Game Turns in reality. While a better familiarity with the Rules will help in the long run, they are a complex set that seem to definitely not be in the "Fast Play" category. It isn't being helped by us perhaps pushing them outside of their "comfort zone" by including too much armour?

Still, it was an enjoyable game and put us further down the 'learning curve', which is what it was all about!

This 28mm contest was a scenario set during the 1814 campaign in which the Prussians, led by Charles and Neil had to hold on to a church occupied by two groups of musketeers and the French, commanded by Wyn and Bryan, had to capture the building while resisting any interventions by enemy forces coming to the rescue. In the game the Prussian soldiers holding the church were able to keep Wyn's light infantry at bay throughout play but on the other flank the French inflicted serious losses on the Prussian Fusiliers and Schutzen who were attempting to reach their comrades. In a brave attempt to regain the advantage, Charles ordered his Dragoons to charge the French six pounder and, although the assault routed the gun crew, the morale of the Dragoons failed. The Prussian generals decided to withdraw and the French held the field.

My thanks go to John for the report that follows. This was a great looking game with 40mm figures in which John and Mike fought out a battle in a little known war of US history.

2nd Seminole War, Florida 1837.

Fort Foster was in need of reinforcements, and the US authorities scraped together a mixed force of infantry, dragoons, marines and local volunteers. The nature of The Everglades is such that men are moved around the coast by boat to nearest location point, before the slog through the swamps. The Seminoles, pushed to breaking-point, decided to make a show of defiance. The intention was to fire a couple of volleys before retiring into the undergrowth. The fittest and strongest of the reinforcements had been sent out the previous day, with instructions for the others to follow when ready. Six various groups attempted the march. Very quickly they came aross the remains of the previous day’s party, who had been wiped out. The Seminoles, meanwhile were in various ambush locations. The American casualties were mostly from first volley (aimed) firing. Seminole shooting was often erratic, and powder measuring was very hit and miss

The dice gods were certainly not in favour of the Americans. There was a 3% chance of an alligator attack. Five times (!!) that 3% came-up. There was obviously a feeding frenzy, which resulted in 3 casualties. The Americans finally managed to extricate just over half of their men, despite there being further Seminole parties being in hot pursuit.

Maurice and I managed two games of Kings of War. We played in Ambush mode and our first game was at 1000 pts with my Halflings against his Kingdoms of Men. I was fortunate to take out his two cannons with my Rifles, Wild Runners and Engineer with his long rifle before they could start blowing me to bits. it was a good start for me until his Knights started charging. One was held up by my Spearspikes for pretty much the whole game but the other routed my Braves, took a charge from my Lancers and then beat them to a pulp. My airborne Ej Grenadiers had a fairly ineffectual attack on his Greatswords who defeated them and then charged down my Wild Runners. His Crossbowmen won the shooting duel against my Rifles. I was left with only my heroes on the field. 

We then cut the points to 750 for the second game. Maurice was nicely set up to defend, except his Knights who rode through a very desultory peppering of fire from the Wild Runners, routed them, then rode down my Braves. My Lancers rooted his Crossbowmen out of the woods and then his Greatswords after they charged in, but couldn't cope with a charge by the triumphant Knights who were the MVP of the day. Once again, that left me with my Engineer and Sauceror as spectators to the demise of another Halfling army. 

Andy GPT and Pete played a game using rules not seen at the club before using 15mm figures and vehicles. Seven Days to the River Rhine, produced by Great Escape Games, is designed to simulate armoured combat in 1980's Europe when the Cold War was at its most intense. Rather than produce a battle report, Andy has chosen to write a review of 7dttrr and show how Team Yankee scenarios can be easily adapted to this set of rules. You can find it here. Many thanks, Andy.

I am grateful to Andy J for his contribution to the account below: -

A 28mm which featured Gordon's newly painted French Revolutionary Wars armies - and very nice they looked. Gordon partnered Pete in command of the French force while Andy J and Dan were joint leaders of the Austrians. Andy's totally objective account of the action follows: -

"The game started with a rush for the building in the centre of the table. As it was nearer to the Austrians deployment this ended in tears for the French skirmishers. It also became clear at this point that Gordon was using loaded dice which produced about 50% “6’s” !  We all got into a nice big fire fight and the game ended in a bloody draw". 

 I think I am right in saying that this was also Gordon's first experience of the Sharp Practice rules.  I hope he found it a rewarding experience.

A repeat of the Rapid Fire game played at the club on 19th February (see below) using John's superb terrain, figures and models in 28mm. The scenario was a recreation of the Long Range Desert Group raid on Barce airfield in September 1942 (Operation Caravan). This time Jon was in charge of the plucky Brits, Paul J was the Italian commander and John was refereeing as usual. The British forces made it to the target but it took them some little time to destroy all the enemy aircraft stationed there, so the Italian defenders were able to inflict heavy losses on their opponents. Unfortunately, I had to leave before the climax of the game and I am unable to report how many of the British vehicles and their crews were able to make it back to base.

Since this account was written, John has very kindly submitted a more detailed account of this action and the full report can be found here. Thanks John.

This game was a 1:3000 scale WW2 naval encounter set somewhere close to the Norwegian coast in which a powerful German raiding force, commanded by Bryan, was attempting to break out into the Atlantic to attack merchant shipping. Charles was the flag officer of the Royal Naval squadrons sent to intercept and destroy the enemy vessels. Neil W was the umpire and the models used came from his collection.  Tactical manoeuvring was made more difficult by the presence of a couple of small, rocky islands but both sides lost no time in closing the range and exchanging fire. The British lost the cruiser HMS Suffolk early on but replied by sinking the Lutzow. The German and British heavy units remained relatively unscathed despite repeated torpedo attacks, in the course of which the destroyers of the Kriegsmarine suffered heavily and Admiral Bryan was ultimately persuaded to call off his sortie. 

'Mit Blut und Eisen' is a Fire and Fury variant devised by several members of the club many years ago (see here for more details). In this game, set in the Seven Weeks' War, Billy and Nick were in charge of two Prussian Corps, Andy W an Austrian Corps and Ross a Saxon Corps (all the 6mm figures were provided by Ross). Nick's command on the Prussian right had the better of it against Andy's Austrians despite the recklessly courageous behaviour of one of the Austrian units that caused the Prussians some consternation. On the Prussian left, however, General Billy came under pressure from the Saxons under Ross and had to fall back. A close run thing with no decisive result in sight as darkness fell (i.e. I went home).

A game notable for the return to the club after a long absence, of Howard, one of the very first members and also the very first game featuring new member Ewan. It was good to see them both. Andy S has very kindly provided the following details of the game: -

Stu and Howard as German commanders took on Andy S and Ewan as the French officers in the "Palm Off at Perbais" scenario from the Too Fat Lardies  "Gembloux Gap" Pint Sized Campaign booklet. The French held the German advance at the expense of their own troops with both sides taking chunks out of each other.

German firepower came out on top in the end and the French effectively succumbed making it a German victory. A great game, very close run in the end.

My thanks to Ian for the comprehensive report that follows: -

Our game was the 4th scenario in the Chain of Command supplement, Kampfgruppe Von Luck, an attack on the Church at Ranville in the early hours of D Day. It was one we hadn't got to previously while playing the Campaign. In our recreation of these D Day events, the German attack had stalled before this point trying to secure the village itself. German casualties had become unsustainable following the real historical outcome.

In this battle, a reinforced (4x Sections) of Panzer grenadiers supported by a couple of "Becker Funnies" (guns mounted on old French AFV's) were tasked with dislodging a Platoon of British Para's holding the Church and its immediate vicinity. The open ground turned the encounter into a firefight slugging match. Whilst this left the German attackers with little cover, the sheer volume of firepower from their SP guns (one a 150mm!) and all the MG42's slowly whittled the British defenders away, despite their heavy cover. I, as the British Commander, decided that ultimately this was fight the Para's were not going to win, and would have to withdraw, leaving the field to the Germans under Dave B and Andy R. However, the Germans had also suffered many casualties and as with the previous battles in the Campaign, such losses given the historical situation we were representing, were unacceptable.

A good game with the German players making good advantage of the assets available to them to secure the win

Chieftain Tunnabrix leads his troops to repel a Roman landing.

The battle opened with Tunnabrix's left wing, comprising chariots and light cavalry, attacking the Roman right flank, which was auxiliaries and cavalry. The superior mobility of the Britons and the speed of their advance caused chaos and heavy casualties among the Romans. On the other side of the battlefield, Roman cavalry and archers attacked the Celtic foot, causing heavy casualties among their unarmoured opponents, the cavalry pursuing fleeing Britons into hilly terrain and getting separated from the rest of the Roman army. The Britons kept the initiative and the speed of their chariots made it difficult for the Romans to coordinate an advance. When the legions finally contacted the British lines they caused huge damage, and knocked Tunnabrix himself off his shield, but they were too late to turn the tide of the battle, victory really belonging to the British chariots.

Note that Tunnabrix's appearance is the result of careful research and consulting the depiction of a Gallic chieftain in a number of well known books on the period.

More mechanised science fiction mayhem on the table-top as Vlad and Gareth resumed their acquaintance with Adeptus Titanicus, both fielding some striking and beautifully painted models. There are various types of robot that feature in the game (Warhounds, Warlords and Reavers to name but a few) but I was not aware (until Gareth explained) that the machines are actually crewed by living beings. The contest was clearly a bloody and protracted one as the guys were the last to pack up at the end of the afternoon.

The Battle of Winchester, Crown forces fail to hold back the Martian Tripods, the Royal Artillery, despite scoring several hits, failed to bring down any of the war machines. The mighty heat ray swept many of the infantry from the field as red weed crept across the land. The game was played with Bolt Action rules with several adjustments. 

This WWII 28mm game featured an encounter between a British and a German platoon each with armoured support. Charles S was the British leader, Mike the German officer and Neil W was the umpire. The forces of the Third Reich had an early success by getting one squad to occupy a building and forcing a British section to retire. However, the British fought back, making good use of the H.E. capability of their Sherman to pound the German positions. Mike's platoon fought doggedly and heavy losses were suffered by both sides. Ultimately, as force morale fell and virtually all their units became pinned or broken, the Germans conceded the field to their adversaries.

A large scale recreation of Marlborough's famous victory of August 1704, this 15mm game featured a large number of units, all supplied from the collection of Nick and, of course, used his own set of rules. Also taking part were Andy J, Gordon and Stuart M. The British and their allies were the eventual victors. Andy J's comment was "the British just ground the French down until we failed our army morale tests. I our defence I would also plead that Gordon’s dice were generally more helpful than ours!" To which Stuart M added "Quite, my first big attack he rolls a double 6 to avoid losing a brigade and in the penultimate turn I rolled three times 2 or less to fail to get a unit to charge to again pull off a heavy attack!" 

Maurice, Dante and I met up to play the Ambush mode, which is a fairly low point value, small table version of the game that otherwise uses nearly all the rules. It meant we could get into action very quickly and play two games during the course of the afternoon. Maurice used his GW Empire figures, Dante had his tough and heavily upgunned Dwarves, while I had my Halflings with their zippy cavalry, and extra characters for special effects. Dante and Maurice played the first game. Maurice's knights got in a first strike, riding through a hail of shot to blow away a regiment of Dwarven Riflemen but with cannon to the left of them and Sharpshooters to the right, they didn't last too long. In the centre Dante's infantry trudged up to Maurice's gun line, taking hits from cannon and crossbows. One unit of Ironclads got into a grinding fight with the Royal Guards. They should have won it, but the Guards rallied twice to hold their own. The other unit went chasing crossbows in the woods, giving us all a fright with their 'Throwing Mastiffs' (think Roman Legionary pila). But they couldn't close with them before cumulative casualties broke them.

Then it was my turn to field my Halflings against Dante's Dwarven Artillery variant of his army. I was super lucky that he missed most of his shots and my cavalry were able to dance around and cause mayhem until they finally succumbed to a firestorm of Mastiffs. I was greatly helped by the effects of my Sauceror's brews and my Engineer's sniping. 

We had a great time and are looking forward to a second outing on the 2nd April. 

Another impressive looking game in 28mm from John's extensive collection. I would like to thank John and Stuart for their joint contribution below : -

September 1942 saw the LRDG mount a night raid on the Italian Airfield at Barce, northern Libya. Stuart S. led the patrols, whilst Dante opted for the Italian defenders.

LRDG Orders:  The destruction of aircraft, infrastructure and material in the Barce sector would severely hamper axis offensive capabilities. Primary target is the Italian Airfield at Barce. Destroy  as many aircraft as possible, causing the maximum amount of damage and disturbance to the enemy. Secondary objectives should also be destroyed, but only if this will not prejudice the success of your primary task. Fuel Storage facility and Supply dumps within the Airfield Administrative infrastructure in Barce. Headquarters of local Italian Command.

Being an Italian Colony at this time there were plenty of modern buildings, in addition to the airfield and various military targets. Being so far from the frontline, the Italians were caught off guard. Many defenders were either in barracks at evening meal or scattered across town. Two patrols of jeeps and Chevrolets made full use of the darkness to approach the town along the main coastal road at full speed. They were spotted as they roared past the first checkpoint. As the heavy machine guns rattled, the defenders put up flares to illuminate the area. One patrol stayed to deal with the barracks and the troublesome mortar providing the illuminations, although losing the leading jeep in the process.

The second patrol headed directly for the airfield (where there were visiting Me109s), also losing their lead vehicle which was taken out by a grenade thrown from the hotel. The main gate in the perimeter fence had been obligingly left open. The patrols destroyed all the grounded aircraft and fuel supplies before making a hasty exit. They lost a further 2 vehicles as they left behind a very battered and bewildered Italian command.

Gordon provided all the equipment for this naval encounter, including some very nice 1:1200 models of fighting vessels. The rules used are by Barry Hilton and the author had also helpfully provided a scenario set during the War of the League of Augsburg featuring an engagement between Dutch and Swedish ships. Also taking part were Andy S and Jon and all the participants were playing the game for the first time. As this was a "suck it and see" exercise the end result was not important. However, it seems that first impressions were favourable and Gordon said that all the combatants had gained a good grasp of the rules by the time the game ended.

A large scale game in 6mm, this game was a refight of the Allied defence of the Sidi Rezegh airfield during Operation Crusader in North Africa in late 1941. Ross commanded two British Armoured Brigades and Ross was in charge of elements of the 21st Panzer Division. Despite the best efforts of the Germans, they were unable to dislodge their opponents from their positions.

This 15mm scenario, designed and umpired by Nick , was a recreation of the Battle of Gemauerthof, fought in July 1705 between Swedish and Russian forces in the Great Northern War, which ended in a Swedish victory. Neil W commanded the Swedish army while Maurice and Billy were in joint control of the much larger Russian forces. Heavily outnumbered, the Swedes adopted a defensive posture with a stream protecting their left flank, the table edge protecting their right. 

The Russian left flank cavalry made the first moves and a series of mounted charges and counter charges ensued. The Swedes suffered heavy losses but eventually forced the Russian wing to take a morale test which it immediately failed, which resulted in its exit from the table. On the Russian right, however, where the bulk of their cavalry were situated, heavy pressure began to tell on the Swedish units and their casualties mounted. The Swedes were unable to bring across their victorious forces on the right quickly enough and the Swedish general, facing repeated morale tests, threw in the towel.

Medieval Skirmish warfare was again on display as Charles and Paul B indulged themselves with an another episode of Barons' War in 28mm, Vlad also being initiated into the mysteries of this game. Paul had been busy painting new figures for his collection, the varnish hardly dry by the time they made their debut at the club. Unfortunately, some of Charles' figures suffered minor damage en route to the venue but nothing, I trust, that could not be quickly put right with a lick of paint and a dab of glue. Regrettably, I am unable to comment on the outcome of the battle because I forgot to ask.

We don't see too many battles at the club that are set in Middle Earth for some reason but I am pleased to report that Daniel S and James have now corrected that omission. In this 28mm game, Daniel was the 'good guy', commanding a force comprised, as far as I could tell, chiefly of Elves, although there might have been a few humans as well. James took on the role of the Dark Lord and led a force made up of the usual dastardly collection of Orcs, Goblins and Trolls. Things were not going well for the free peoples of the west by the time I left and I can only assume that the powers of evil ultimately triumphed.

Pete and Harry had another go at the Xenos Rampant rules which made their first appearance at the club last month. the scale was 15mm and, as before, they managed two games in the afternoon. In the first contest, Pete played the role of a Martian general directing the manoeuvres of his fearsome Tripods and Harry commanded a group of Space Infantry. Pete scored a technical victory in this contest. In the second game, Pete deployed some Soviet Second World War kit, including a JS3 tank, to take on Harry's forces - which gives some indication of how versatile these rules are. Harry won the second game. He explained " this was possibly only because of the rather odd scenario in which Pete had to lure me into his half of the board, despite there being very little incentive for me to go there!" He also remarked that the rules were a little 'knotty' in places and it would take another game or two to get them sorted.

A very nice looking game in 28mm. The following report is a combination of accounts provided by Andy S and Stuart. Thanks chaps.

Stu and Dan S took Andy S with a game of bolt action set in France 1940. We used a variable activation tweak to play havoc with the order dice bag. Andy fielded a platoon sized German force (Motorised Infantry Regiment Gross Deutschland), including a Panzer III and a SDKFZ 222 armoured car, advancing into the village Of Suzy in Northern France. Stu and Daniel had a similar platoon sized force of French (1st Cavalry Brigade) with an armoured car and a fearsome Char B1 bis tank.

The French were taken by surprise but as the forces met towards the middle things went downhill fairly quickly for the Germans. The Panzer III missed a side shot at the Char B, the Char B did not and brewed up the Panzer III. German casualties piled up and poor shooting dice and low activation scores did not help. The Germans were forced to retire and call up the Stukas! All in all a very good game, most enjoyable.

Thanks to Stuart and Dan for a very good game and interesting order dice pool activation tweak.

A refight of the game played by Harry and Dave K in January (although Mike was involved for part of the time here). Thanks to Harry for photographs and text.

Today's game was a much improved version of our river Sambre scenario. It played out very much like the actual historical battle, until Mike, who joined us for the first half of the game, pulled off the incredible feat of despatching the mighty Julius Caesar. The Romans still won in the end, thanks to stirling defensive work by Labienus and stirling offensive work by Mark Anthony.

They probably would have won more easily were it not for the loss of Caesar, but as it was it really did go down to the wire, with both sides needing one more hit to secure victory. The barbarians were able to get much more stuck in for this improved scenario, rather than getting bottled up on the river bank, leading to a very incident packed, exciting game.

This game of Sharp Practice saw Pete’s pirates taking on some Spanish law enforcement led by Andy J. Thanks to Pete and Andy who both provided information for the report below.

Cpt Silver led his crew (3×10) on a raid to steal Spanish gold, supported by locals (2x6 skirmishers). The plan was to use the natives to pin one flank while the main force swept in on the other.... No. Some lucky long range shooting by the Spanish slowed the Native advance to almost a dead stop. This gave the Spanish time to reform to face the main Pirate force. Eventually the cumulative Native losses routed one of their units and stopped the other in its tracks. Once the Spanish Regulars could concentrate their fire on the Pirates the day was lost and they sulked away to fight another day.

This was a test game, our first for the period, and we will try again. The bow armed Natives did ok but it seems that the Pirates points are a bit over priced when facing lots of regular troops. More Militia next time!

Ian provided the kit and acted as umpire in the following 28mm game. He also wrote this report for which I am grateful.

This Game was an Introduction scenario, set in 1944 Normandy, pitching a British and German Infantry Platoon against each other. Young Dante took on the British in the attack role while Wayne had the defending Germans. Support points and choices were limited, but a roll of 10 secured the British with a couple of Armoured Cars and two Engineer Teams. This was a fortunate choice as the Germans used their 5 points on a couple of minefields, some barbed wire and a roadblock. The British deployed and pushed their attack forward whilst the Germans patiently waited (or tried to). Some very lucky rolls saw the little British mortar get its smoke bang on target nearly every time. The cover provided helped the Engineers in turn to partially remove the roadblock barring the way of the Armoured Cars up the road. Being unable to bring enough firepower to bear on the encroaching combined arms threat, the German commander was struggling as the combat progressed....but was holding on. Close range firefights can be brutal, and it didn't help that the German Panzerschreck team missed its opening shot against the British Staghound Armoured Car, only to be savagely wiped out by the return fire. The solitary German senior leader, needing to be everywhere as casualties mounted, was ending up nowhere.

As so often happens though, the young British Lieutenant in his exuberance, pushed his Armoured support too far forward in going for the 'kill'. Both AFVs quickly fell prey to the German squad Panzerfausts...and the tide turned in an instant. The British Force Morale started to waver, and with only effectively two infantry sections remaining, winkling out the two and half German sections protecting the objective building was going to be a big ask!

The 'game' was clearly up for the British! However, 'Man of the Match' has to go to the British 2" Mortar Team who were by all accounts "a total pain in the ass".

My thanks to Vlad for providing the following AAR on this Warhammer variant. 

A learning game for me (Vlad) and a refresher for Gareth. Gareth fielded a Reaver and two Warhounds. I had a Warlord and a Reaver.

As I had not played before, I set up cautiously at the table's edge and took a defensive stance, which Gareth took advantage of and stormed quickly down the length of the table, losing one of his Warhounds in the process......first blood to me! Undeterred he crowded my Warlord and continued to batter it with close range fire, whilst my Reaver stood off offering somewhat poor supporting fire! My Warlord succumbed to the constant battering but not without sharing some love equally, but, an end was in sight, which came down to a very important single D10 roll, a 1, and my Warlord would shut down quietly, and Gareth was in the clear to engage my Reaver,  a roll of a 10 would have seen a cataclysmic explosion of my Warlord potentially causing massive damage to both of Gareth's remaining two Titans, thus leaving my Reaver to mop up. Fortunately for Gareth a 1 was rolled and all that was left was for my Reaver to limp away.

A simple set of rules, but with a lot of subtle nuances that make gameplay a tactical challenge. An entertaining afternoon that I look forward to repeating soon.

Thanks to Andy R for the detailed report and comments below: -

We played a 4 player game using the 1st edition of the rules. There is a 2nd edition of the rules but I think 1st edition is more widely owned by club members. Andy R designed the scenario and provided the home-made terrain. The players (Maurice, Tim and Andy R’s two sons: Dan and Finn) cobbled together their own warbands from their own collections, or those of their Dad’s. I was a bit worried the game might be a little slow with 4 players but once everyone got the hang of the rules I think it went rather well. Everyone was successful in retrieving treasure from the Frozen City, which in a campaign setting would mean experience points and the opportunity to develop their wizards and warband. The youngest player, master Finn,  secured a victory-point win with a late and daring dash to grab the central objectives. He just about hung on to them despite getting peppered by arrows from his vindictive elders!

A few people came over to have a look and many expressed an interest in giving the game a shot but some were reticent to commit to another project. I would like to reiterate that I already have plenty of terrain and would happily build some more. All the players need do, is whistle up a warband consisting of two wizards and a maximum of eight henchmen. You don’t even need the rules though if you do have a set you get to choose your own spells! On display for this game were various old Warhammer and LOTR models and a band of Footsore Saracens….I think we’ll probably do at least one more game, to which all are invited. Also it wouldn’t take much encouragement for me to set-up an adventure campaign of linked games in the future where people could dip in and out and they feel like it… 

The Beached Whale

Based on a true story, this WWII Eastern Front game saw an immobilised Russian Kv2, supported by a couple of Infantry Platoons and two T26 tanks, trying to prevent some lead elements of the German army from taking a Railway depot in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa. The two German Platoons assigned to this attack had a Pz38 Platoon in support, along with other armour elements.

Unfortunately for the Russians, the main gun on the Kv was damaged  in the opening phases by a lucky shot from a Jagdpz 1 cleverly brought up specially for the purpose! This left the Russian behemoth as a mere bystander for the rest of the game. However the Germans could not completely knock out the monster, and some tenacious fighting by the Russian Infantry saw it survive the day to be recovered and repaired during the night. As this was the Russian victory condition, they can be deemed the scenario winners.

It has to be said that some oddball Command Dice rolls by the German right flank (Andy), and by the Russian Tank support (Dante), proved to make coordination with their colleagues very difficult for those particular Platoons.I enjoyed watching the players sweat in the difficult roles I had given them LOL, but there was still plenty of fight left in all players' Platoons when real time called a halt on proceedings.

May 1944, Somewhere in Burma.

Operating behind enemy lines, three Chindit patrols attempted to disrupt Japanese preparations to construct a new airfield. The ‘Leicesters’ were tasked with destroying a large dump of aviation fuel. Nigerians from the West African Brigade were to blow a railway culvert, and the Gurkhas aimed to destroy the secondary target of a radio shack.

Early on the Leicesters became bogged down in a firefight with two Japanese boats and their M.G. crews. Unable to find sufficient cover on the river bank, they suffered significant casualties as the ‘Dice Gods’ were not with them on this day. The Nigerians fought off a Japanese cycle patrol and several guards in the vicinity of the railway culvert, only to be ambushed as they tried to lay explosive charges. The Gurkhas fought valiantly, but with the other patrols all but eliminated, decided to withdraw and fight another day.

The Japanese on this occasion employed some very accurate shooting. They had been encouraged to do well no doubt, after one of their men had been executed for falling asleep on guard duty. Their Jhind allies were not called into action.

Charles and Wyn continued their series of medieval battles in central Europe (left off since the middle of last year) using a modified version of the Fire and Fury rules original designed to reproduce battles in the American Civil War. The game was in 28mm, using Wyn's finely painted collection of miniatures. Charles was the Silesian general while Wyn was the commander of the Polish forces. I think that Charles was the attacker in the scenario they played because when I asked Wyn at the end of the day what was the result, his pithy remark was that he had 'fought them off'. If Charles wishes to contest this interpretation, I am more than willing to hear his arguments.

After the second appearance of Stuart M's Si Vis Pacem rules last month, the WWII version, written by Dave Manley, made its debut at the club. Bryan and Dan were the British Admirals and Andy W and Neil W their German counterparts. The game was played with 1:3000 scale models and the object of the scenario was for the British force to escort a group of merchant ships to the opposite table edge while fighting off German attempts to intercept and destroy them. The German destroyers, leading the line, moved to cut off the advance of the merchantmen, forcing them to turn away. An extensive gunnery and torpedo duel then commenced with many smaller ships on both sides being sunk and the Germans also losing the cruiser Lutzow. By the time the game ended the Royal Navy had sunk more German ships and inflicted damage on the enemy heavy units while their own capital ships were relatively unscathed.

Although the title suggests that this 15mm game was played using Sam Mustafa's well known set of rules, in fact it was one of Andy GPT's inventive adaptations of existing publications. For once, however, this did not involve the use of hexes (Andy explained that the movement rules were not really suitable for them). The scenario played was an 1814 encounter between the Old Guard, led by Gordon and the Austrians commanded by Andy and based on a historical battle which, I regret to admit, I have forgotten the name. The result was a victory to the Austrians. In due course I am hoping that Andy will once again, make his modifications available to visitors to this website.

Yet another set of rules making their first appearance at the club, Xenos Rampant is a science fiction version of the popular Lion Rampant rules published by Osprey. The beauty of these rules is that they are adaptable to numerous fantasy 'periods', any mixture of figures can be used and the combatants' imaginations can run wild with scratch built equipment and so on. Pete and Harry were the protagonists, Pete fielding lizard men and, of course, the ubiquitous dinosaur while Harry had Space Orks under his command. Two games were played in the afternoon, the first was a tactical draw but Harry won the second by controlling the board - his secret mission of capturing the enemy in close combat was foiled because he shot all the lizard men before they could get to grips.

A set of rules which, to the best of my knowledge, have not been played at the club before, Barons' War covers the dynastic wars of the medieval period at a tactical level. The players (Charles, Stuart S and Paul B) were using the 'Conquest' supplement and for all of them it was the first try-out of the rules. The game was in 28mm scale and utilised figures from the collections of Paul and Charles.  The consensus was that the game was a lot of fun though, of course, many questions were raised which have been forwarded to the relevant forum for clarification. The actual winner of the contest was Charles who was tickled pink by eliminating the enemy commander, firstly by softening up his retinue with crossbowmen and then finishing the job by sending in his knights.

My thanks to Andy J for the following blow-by-blow account of a 20mm WWII imaginary encounter between US and Soviet forces:-

Mark and I played a very casual "Learn the Rules" game of Bolt Action - early war US vs Russians ?

Turn 1.  Both sides deployed and moved on table. US asked for an airstrike.

Turn 2.  Both sides moved into cover to contest the mid-line of the table. No airstrike appeared.

Turn 3.  Fire fights break out all along the table mid-line, Russians T34 is hit by US Sherman.  No airstrike.

Turn 4.  Russian heavy artillery and American airstrike destroy everything in the centre of the table! Flanking units continue to firefight.

Turn 5.  The Russians (free) extra squad gives them the numerical edge as the game draws to a close.

All in all a useful run through the rules, Thanks Mark.

More internal conflict in the Dark Continent was evident as the second edition of the AK47 rules were in play once again in this 20mm game. Darren, who provided the figures, models and terrain, was leading the WUNKERS faction of desperate insurgents while Nick was in command of the SPLATT contingent of opportunistic chancers, both using a mixture of surplus WW2 stock and redundant Cold War kit. The gentlemen in charge took a little while to get going and evidently the combat was long and protracted as a result had not been reached by the time your correspondent left. Despite Darren expressing confidence that he had the upper hand, the final outcome remains shrouded in mystery.

This game was a follow-on from the battle fought in December when the battlecruiser forces were in action - now, the battlefleets were engaged in the North Sea. Stuart M and Gordon were the Grand Fleet admirals and Andy W and Neil W were in charge of the German High Seas Fleet. The two forces were of roughly equal size, including light cruisers and destroyers, though the British also had a squadron of American dreadnoughts in their number. The US ships, steaming at the head of the line, came under heavy fire from the enemy battleships and were eventually forced to break off from the engagement. However, the accurate gunnery from the dreadnoughts of the Royal Navy began to take its toll and the leading German squadron was put out of action. By the end of the game the result was indecisive, though the High Seas Fleet had suffered more damage and the British held the advantage.

A return to more "Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum" tomfoolery from Pete and John as they brought Blood and Plunder back to the club after an absence of over a year. In this 28mm scenario, set in the 17th century and located somewhere in the New World, Pete was the leader of a group of settlers and militia while John was the cut-throat commander of a band of ruthless buccaneers. I suspect that a chest of buried treasure was at the heart of the adventure; in any case the pirates emerged victors after a brutal contest in which no quarter was given

Thanks to Andy and Daniel S for helping us suss out this scenario, an attempt to recreate an historical battle using the To the Strongest Rules and my grid terrain board. We were refighting the battle of the Sabis/Sambre from Caesar's Gallic wars.  This was a pre-Vercingetorix revolt against Caesar's increasingly outrageous encroachments into Belgae territory in Northern Gaul. Historically the Gallic army surprised Caesar's army in the act of building a camp, charging out of a wooded chain of hills and across the river Sabis to do so.  Initially taking heavy losses the Romans regrouped under Caesar's calm leadership and drove the Belgae off.

Our refight followed these broad outlines.  The Romans quickly redressed their scattered line thanks to their superior command abilities and in particular Caesar's "brilliant General" rule, which did a good job of reflecting Caesar's actual role in the battle. They then quickly wore the barbarians down despite taking a few solid hits here and there. The main difference to the historical battle was the speed of the Gallic advance.  Apparently extremely rapid in the historical battle, really knocking the Romans back on their heels, here it was extremely slow. The Gauls did not really make contact until the Romans had fully regrouped, despite our house rule making it harder for the Romans to activate in the first 3 turns (NB We could make this penalty higher)

The slow Gallic advance was down to three factors, which we will have to re-examine before running the game at Hammerhead:

1. The river Sabis.  While not mentioned as having any effect on the battle by Caesar, he does say it was three feet deep, so we thought that was significant enough to use the game's normal rules for rivers.  This caused something of a logjam at the riverbank which appears not to have happened historically.

2. Bocage.  Caesar mentions the Gauls gathered together tall clumps of hedge and branch and scattered them over the battlefield in front of where they intended to charge.  This would impede Caesar's cavalry and also prevent the legionaries from forming a line.  We added some (specially made) Bocage squares to the grid but in nearly all cases they had no effect at all on the Romans whilst significantly slowing down the Gallic advance.

3. Rules for large units.  Under the standard rules the warband style units are large, which means they have more stamina but are difficult to do anything with other than move straight forward.  They also have problems with rough terrain as noted above.  While this did give a good representation of their clumsiness in evading the Roman gladius it did mean they could not get to grips quickly.

First thoughts are we could move the Bocage further back into the Roman area, start the Gauls further forward at the start of the game and give the Romans more of an "ambushed" penalty on their activations.  Could also do some more to encourage the Romans to cross the river and attack the Gallic HQ, as happened historically, so they would have to cope more with their own terrain problems.

Thanks to Dave K, Andy and Daniel for an excellent game anyway, regardless of any testing considerations. Figures used were 28mm, Dave's newly minted Romans versus my German figures proxying for Gauls.