This game was a 28mm Normandy scenario devised by Neil W. A British platoon, commanded by Charles S, was given the task of capturing and holding a vital river crossing before the Germans could destroy it. The German force, led by Bryan, included a team of engineers who were busy laying explosive charges while the Brits attacked. In the game Charles made a bold and direct attack, spearheaded by an armoured car that almost reached the bridge. Unfortunately for the Brits, it was immobilised by a Panzerfaust team lurking behind a hedge. The infantry pressed on but were unable to make much progress against the dogged defenders and the end came when the German engineers successfully blew up the bridge.

Harry and Jon L continued their infatuation with these venerable rules (I think this is the third time this year they have played them at the club). The figures came from each player's collections and the hex based table and terrain looked impressive. However, I am again unable to provide eager readers with an account of the action.

Dead Man’s Hand - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or 'Carry on Cowboy (the sequel) 

After our dry run on the 1st December blood was up revenge was on the table. The Broke Back boys needed to gain revenge on the Hill Billy Sack Boys. This time Daniel had his Desperadoes, Stu S had his Cinderella Gang, Keith had a mob of lawmen, Howard arrived with his gang of Sack Boys and me with the Broke Back gang 

Stu created a narrative where randomly scattered barrels had orders with a monetary value to be dropped off all over the table to gain the money. A mass shoot out kicked off and it didn’t end well for the Broke Back boys. Again the Hilly Billy boys won and took the day!

Pete where was your special D20!

In the spirit of the festive season a board game usually features in our final club meeting of the year. This time it was 'Junta', a game designed by Vincent Tsao and first published in 1978. According to the Wikipedia entry for the game, 'players compete as the corrupt power elites of fictional parody of a stereotypical banana republic, trying to get as much money as possible into their Swiss bank accounts before the foreign aid runs out'. The players were Bob, Darren, Ross, Jon P, Nick, Andy W and Billy. I am not sure who won in the end, although at one point I did see Nick with an evil grin on his face, waving a large wad of cash.

This was a very impressive 28mm game with some beautifully painted figures on display. Taking part were Andy GPT, Andy J and Kevin. The game was listed as a 'learn the rules' exercise and featured Austrian and French armies in an imaginary scenario.

Graham, John H and Ray took part in this nineteenth century Principles of War battle fought between Ethiopians and Mahdists with 25mm figures. I regret that I can furnish no more details about the outcome.

Yesterday I played two learning games of "For King & Parliament", the ECW expansion of "To the Strongest". Despite some early qualms about the amount of clutter added to the rules for this expansion (qualms I still have) I did enjoy the two games.  As with TTS I was able to pick them up fairly quickly and then teach them to Nick in the second game, despite that being my second game ever. Both games were played on my cloth with a 100mm grid, which would more normally used for 15mm figures, but because of the flexible scalability of these rules can also be used with 28mm figures, giving a look something akin to 28mm DBA.

Game 1: versus David K (Parliament).  This was a trial run of our intended participation game at Hammerhead using the scenario of the battle of Langport, which I believe was the penultimate battle of any size during the first civil war. It played out pretty much like the historical battle.  The superior Parliamentarian cavalry stormed straight up the hill and swept aside their Royalist opponents, to whom we had given the designation "poor quality mounts" to represent the crumbling Royalist military infrastructure at this stage of the war. My forlorn hope lining the bushes at the foot of the hill were somewhat more effective than their historical counterparts.  Also the NMA artillery failed to knock out their Royalist counterparts in this refight (indeed, artillery on either side did not do any damage in either of the two games).  Nevertheless the end result of the battle was the same.

Game 2: versus Nick Dorrell (Parliament). This was a generic battle intended to represent the early war period, with the main divide being between the fighting styles of the cavalry of the two sides - Royalists more aggressive and firing pistols in melee, Parliamentarians firing their pistols just prior to impact. As it tuned out, these parliamentarian pistol volleys turned out to be very effective in blunting the Royalist charges on both wings, and the Parliamentary cavalry was actually victorious across the board! Meanwhile the Pike & Shotte battaglia played very little part in the battle (mainly owing to my lack of infantry models at the moment), other than providing musketry support to their mounted comrades.

Shoot out at the not so OK Coral, fought on Sunday 1st December at Holt Heath 

Howard picked Dead Man’s Hand, a fun game of cowboys with Howard. and Daniel as outlaws and desperados. I was the law, keeping the safe free from the pesky varmints. Much fun was had before the law men were all rubbed out 

Then we had a second game in which Pete took part, a four way. shoot out and witnessed my gang get shot off the table. Never mind, they will be avenged. I just  need to borrow Pete’s lucky D20 !!

Graham conducted another outing of his WWII rules which have now featured many times at the club. Gordon was his opponent for this session, although I saw that Andy J was also taking an interest after he had finished his Chain of Command game.  I am afraid I cannot provide an update on the outcome of the battle as the fighting was still going on when I left.

We had intended to recreate the Battle of Minden but Wyn brought his excellent terrain boards to the club so we kept the orders of battle but fought the engagement over totally different ground. Bryan and Wyn were in control of the French army with orders to attack while Charles and Neil W were in joint command of the British/Hanoverian forces. Both sides massed their cavalry facing each other on one wing, infantry in the centre and guns deployed as batteries. The French began their assault by charging with their mounted troops against the enemy counterparts and a long and bloody combat began, the French achieving some success in wearing down the Allied horsemen but were unable to force a decisive result. In the meantime, The Allied infantry moved forward boldly against the French foot, hoping to use their superior firepower. The French were unable to withstand the volume of fire poured into their ranks and several units broke. This so reduced the force morale of the army that the French generals conceded the field. 

Pete and I played Chain of Command in China. It's 1939 and the Russians have invaded Japanese held Manchuria. A Japanese force has crossed a river and needs to move down a road to reach some high ground where they can dig in and observe their artillery fire. So it's my turn to see if I can get a unit off the far side of the table! I went for an extra squad in support, Pete (Russians) chose a commissar.

The Japs sent a squad to explore the left hand side of the table and they almost sneaked past the defenders before fresh Russians shot them to bits - very bad things happen. The Russians sacrificed the Commissar to protect their one and only senior leader though. Both sides were being very cautious (lousy CoC dice) but the Japs eventually sent two squads down the right hand side of the table. The Russians could not move across the table fast enough to stop them reaching the table edge so it was a victory for the Japanese - but both force morale levels were at three by this stage so it really was a question of who could throw the required CoC dice!

Lessons learnt?  We both failed to spot that our squads were one big section and didn't pick any teams as supports. This meant that only 2's and 3's and sometimes 4's could be used to get the troops into action. We also had a rainstorm so it was a command and control test of the highest order! In the end the extra Japanese squad edged the game in their favour. 

Andy W provided the equipment for this 15mm game. There were two games played during the course of the day. In the first, Andy, Nick and Ross were involved. In the second, Nick left the table and was replaced by Mike. Details of the two battles have proved hard to come by.

Andy and I played our second Chain of Command Far East game, book scenario 2 - get the supply truck off table. I used a cavalry platoon but as usual I had buckets of support (19). The Japanese were again ahead of me and closing on both flanks, but were barred from destroying the supply truck. I deployed a section on each flank with my tank and M3 scout car going up the road. Andy had sections matching mine plus a better tank and a Rifle Grenade section on the road.

My bright start was stalled when he managed to drop RGs into my M3 and kill the driver, twice ! Despite losing 1 squad to those damned RGs, l was steadily moving up table with troops and the supply truck. At that point Andy decided the only way to stop the truck was to ram it with his tank. His first attempt failed and I swerved round him. Next phase he tried again and succeeded in ramming in reverse, immobilising the truck. That seemed to knock the stuffing out of my KNIL. Next turn three sections broke which finished my morale. An enjoyable and close game right up to the end 

A few comments from Andy: -

We had some odd dice - Pete threw loads of double 6's and 1 treble ( que random event!) for his CoC dice, but the one time he really needed 2 x 6's to charge me in the rear he failed and I managed to block his advance with fresh troops. It was a really close game! We should also point out that we decided the Japanese could not have a road block or minefield - they had to arrive on table to stop the truck.

This Sunday i laid on an a game of Nam 68 - our first try out. Three players took on the role of commanding a full strength US Army platoon. I ran the VC from whose force was dictated to by a set of playing cards. The search and destroy mission had Stu S at point already in the first search area with Daniel and Howard coming in on turn two.

A hidden VC infiltrator kicked off by throwing a hand grenade into the US searching section. Fire broke out from the jungle line with mixed results. US casualties pinned Stu to the centre of the village where more fire came back from his M60 machine gun. Then Daniel and Howard started using their M79 grenade launchers to good effect. Daniel reached the first search point and a hand grenade went off as the searcher found it to be empty. Casualties started to pile up on both sides and a draw was called as both forces pulled back.

The rules are highly recommended and gave us the `Nam vibe while the hidden deployment and variable forces made it all the more exciting. All in all great rules even though they are so new that order chits and quick printable reference sheets were missing

This was a chance to refresh ourselves of the Longstreet rules by Sam Mustafa using 12mm Kalistra figures. It was a simple encounter game with two equally sized forces fighting for control of a strategic crossroads. Set in 1862 the Union had a slightly more aggressive force whilst the Confederates had slightly stronger command options. This was supposed to balance the historical forces and it worked as we fought ourselves to a standstill with equal casualties on either side. 

The rules remain relatively simple and entertaining though some of the odd events, (based on historical examples), can seem a little extreme at the time. On this occasion a well placed Confederate unit decided to break ranks and set off at full speed, causing mayhem on one flank. An incident that saved the Union troops from a difficult situation. A good game and a set of rules I definitely want to stick with in the future. Thanks to Dan for an entertaining game. 

Game scenario : Table Quarters, Omega rules.

Had a great game game thanks to Carl T. We played Table Quarters with Omega rules which had different scenarios in gameplay, like night fighting and escalation which is rolling to bring in different units each turn.

The game started fairly well, the wolves immobilised one sentinel and destroyed the other, while the guard killed one grey hunter and one land speeder. Later in the game the guard scored really good rolls and managed to bring on all of their armour from reserves and so did the wolves. The game was quite even at this point. In the later rounds the night fighting helped the wolves and played to their advantage, eventually dawn came and normal fighting resumed.

The shooting phases started rack up a tally of loses on each side and was pretty much even most of the way through. The guard managed to eliminate most of the space marine infantry apart from a squad of grey hunters and had very cleverly used infantry to cover a large amount of the table quarters. The fighting came down hand to hand and the ogryn and guard squads worked extremely well. The wolves with their dreadnought Predator tank and remaining land speeder Typhoon managed to take a few armoured units of the table to even things up.

In conclusion, the game was a draw the guard won on territory controlled, while the wolves had more victory points. A very fun game, close all the way through. Thanks Carl for a great game

Ian kindly hosted this game of Sharp Practice set in the American War of Independence using his models and scenery. Thanks to Ian for organising and adjudicating a typically entertaining afternoon of Sharp Practice. All four players greatly enjoyed the game even though we ran out of time just as the two armies were about to settle scores in an almighty exchange of gun powder. As is often the case with Sharp Practice, the respective teams had loads of fun debating several crunch decisions on how to maximise the opportunities presented by the cards and the random events provided much colour to the game narrative.

The scenario set by Ian, was that a local informer had made the Crown aware of the location of a couple of rebel-rousers who had set up a printing press, in the back end of nowhere, for the purposes of producing salacious pamphlets in order to distribute their baneful propaganda.  Colonel Robinson and his trusty sidekick Captain Keith immediately set march with 2 companies of the King's line and led by the regiment’s colours with the intention of setting fire to the  printing press and arresting the ne’er-do-goods. In resistance, the locals managed to cobble a bunch of militia, a newly kitted and locally sourced company of the Continental Army and some crusty Frontiersmen, all ably marshalled by Major John and Captain Charles.

The Crown’s forces were in no mood to mess around and proceeded to march in column straight down the road covered on either side by two groups of light infantry while Captain Keith proceeded to march his company through the fields in line, ready to provide supporting fire. The Continentals managed to purloin a medium field gun by some nefarious means and it immediately started firing on Colonel Robinson's column, causing him to change formation and move off the road, it also caused some considerable disorder in the ranks of the Redcoats (at one point the company managed to accrue 11 points of shock), thus almost completely stopping the company in its tracks. Random events also played their part in slowing down the Redcoats' progress. What was initially felt to be a relatively harmless canon shot was later revealed to have spooked Colonel Robinson’s horse and caused him to be thrown and injured. Meanwhile, Captain Keith while trying a particularly difficult manoeuvre in a tight terrain managed to lose his footing. It was some time before the men’s laughter died down and the good captain was able to regain his composure to get his company moving again.

At this stage things were not looking good for the Crown but after a tea break (a new chapter), luck seemed to change sides. The Continental gun fired a dud and the resulting smoke obscured their vision of the British line. Meanwhile the Colonel managed to regroup his company (remove shock) and the two British companies came together and were just about to enter close range and give the rebels a heavy salvo when the sun dipped and it was deemed time to drawn the operation to an end. Although the British were confident that their superior training was about to pay dividends, the Colonists had bought themselves enough time to set up a seriously impressive firing line of their own. What could have been will never be known but as the Redcoats retired to their camp, a great deal of clunking and clicking could be heard emanating from the village. The printing press had, no doubt, been put into operation to disseminate a lot of nonsense about the so-called brave resistance of the fledgling Continental Army. 

Graham and Ray B played the Prussians, myself and John D played the Austrians in an Austro Prussian War 1866 encounter. Casualties were almost even but the Prussians won on objectives. 

Andy W supervised myself and Kevin playing Spearhead (North Africa), a game I have long been interested in so joined at the last minute, having only intended to come and collect the money! I played the Italians, Kevin the British & Commonwealth, with each of us attempting to seize two towns on the desert board.

Kevin concentrated all his strength on one of the towns - I set my infantry against this town while sending my armour round to snatch the other one. So an extensive infantry fire fight developed on the left of the town A, while in the centre of the board Kevin's tanks fought it out with one of my divisions that was pulled away from its mission to seize town B. I had a run of fairly bad dice rolls (shooting) in the opening few rounds of combat, but just as Kevin was celebrating this he started to roll what must be one of the longest sequence of ones I have ever seen on a gaming table.  All his forces were badly battered by late afternoon, and his entire South Africa contingent routed.

He then attempted to save the situation with the desperate gamble of a mass charge into close combat right across the table.  Close combat is basically sudden death, with the loser of each combat immediately removed  from the game.  It was a valiant attempt by the plucky Brits and they probably did win more rounds than they lost.  Nevertheless their losses here took them over the army rout limit and I was left in control of a large expanse of sandy scrub!

I was impressed with the rules overall and this game definitely increased my interest in them. Thanks to Andy for his skilful compering.  Sadly we were having so much fun we did not think to take any photos

Howard launched our third game of 3rd edition Bolt Action. We played an encounter from the Cobra period of Normandy 44. Of their 1540 points, Howard and Dan had a Tiger I and Tiger II and a small amount of infantry and supports which  finished his force off. Myself, Stuart S and Paul E (who we met last month) and playing as the US Army had four sections of infantry in two small platoons, a heavy weapons platoon (MMG, HMG and medium mortar), a pair of Shermans, a pair of recce jeeps and a Greyhound armoured car. The table had a river with a bridge in the centre and the rest of the table was mostly rural. The objective of the game was to recover documents off the bridge.

The Allies advanced trying to avoid the big cats by flanking the Germans. Casualties were dished out by both sides  and as Howard and Dan pushed onto the bridge savage fighting broke out all over the bridge area. However, where the Allies won though, the small number of German infantry were reduced to a tiny amount, who could not take the table or objective 

All in all a good fun game and more learning the nuances of a new edition of rules.

Your Halfling correspondent sat back with a cup of tea to watch this month's clash between Darren's Empire of Dust and Stuart's Order of the Brothermark at 2,300 points each and trying out the new Command Dice from Clash of Kings 2025. Both generals had the minimum three free dice and the most command points scored in any turn was five so we didn't see any spectacular combo's. Stuart used the extra three inch range for his Fireball spell effectively, but the points were mainly used for single rerolls to hit or wound or 2-point wound heals. It looks interesting, but we need to spend some army points on more dice to see them really work.

Pharaoh Darren deployed an infantry-heavy (the Mummies, Revenants & Skeletons) left flank, scouted up to occupy some woods. His Monolith, Scavengers and the two hordes of Enslaved Guardian Archers formed his centre and his right flank strike force comprised an Enslaved Guardian horde, an Undead Wyrm, Shobik and His Nibs. Crusader Stuart formed his Villein Scouts on either flank and then matched Darren with his Paladins & Oathsworn Guardians on his right, Arbalest & Villein Bowmen in the centre and his Knights & Ogre Palace Guard on his left.

While the battle might have ended in a convincing win for Darren, it was actually a very close game. The infantry battle (after the Fireball fireworks) began with a grinding melee. Somehow those damned Mummies survived front & rear charges (after losing and then healing back nearly all their wounds) to crush the Paladins. In the centre the Enslaved Guardians started by not being able to hit anything except the Arbalest, but they proved more adept at close combat against a regiment of Knights and then the Villein Bowmen and the Oathsworn Guardians. The second regiment of Knights and the Palace Guard weren't strong enough against Shobik, the Wyrm and the Enslaved Guardians. And we had an epic duel between Pharaoh and the flying Exemplar Hunter to entertain us. Again, it was touch & go but Pharaoh finally swatted away the upstart Hunter.

It was a game where Darren's dice-luck swung wildly. He nearly retired them, but perhaps now he'll end up framing them. Stuart didn't really do anything wrong, but when your opponent regenerates or Heals back 40-odd wounds during a game, it's always going to be tough.

Graham has been working hard at revising his nascent Second World War rules and deemed it was time to try them out at the club once again. This time his willing guinea pig was Nick and the two fought a late war scenario set in western Europe (Graham provided all the equipment for the 10mm game). A number of issues and queries arose during the game which have been incorporated by Graham in his latest edition, which can be found here.

This was a 10mm game based on the Seven Years War battle that took place on 13th April 1859, using the order of battle and map from Nick's 'Twilight of the Soldier Kings' Scenario Book II. Charles, acting the part of Ferdinand of Brunswick was in command of the mainly Hanoverian and Hessian troops which were attacking the enemy positions. Keith and Mike, both novices as far as the rules of the game were concerned, jointly assumed the role of de Broglie, the French commander. Neil W was the umpire and explained the rules as the action progressed.

As they were defending, the French had to deploy first. The Allies launched a diversionary attack on the town of Bergen which tied up some French cavalry units. However, the garrison in the heavily defended town inflicted serious attrition on the enemy foot soldiers without suffering major losses. Charles launched his main assault in the centre, sending in the bulk of his infantry to force the issue. The French held firm, aided by some effective firing into the enemy flank from conscript units concealed in a wood. The attack faltered and the Allies retreated with a bloody nose.

This was the second game of the day that experimented with the latest edition of the well known Warlord Games rules. In this battle, Andy GPT and Pete tried out an early war scenario in 28mm with each player providing their own forces. I am unable to comment on the outcome of the game nor am I in a position to speculate as to whether the players found the new rules satisfactory or not.

Chieftain Tunnabrix's chariot charge.

Chieftain Tunnabrix's heart swelled with pride at the magnificent sight of his chariots thundering towards the enemy - only to sink into his boots as massed archery took out over half of them before they got there. The massed ranks of the Celtic chariots managed only to run over a couple of Cretan auxiliary archers and mildly irritate a scorpion crew.

The attack - I'll fated as it was, had allowed Tunnabrix to get his cavalry round the enemy flank. Encouraged by Tunnabrix's shouts, two waves of Celtic cavalry in succession charged into the flank of the legions - only for the Romans to stick out a well armoured elbow and shrug them off.

Let down by the failure of their supporting troops, the Celtic infantry crumbled before the superior power of the legions.

The only bright spot for the Celts was the destruction of two Celtic warbands who had thrown in their lot with the enemy - killed to the last man - traitors!

Gordon and Darren met for a 10mm tussle set in the Balkans using the Square Bashing rules that Gordon has been championing at the club in recent months. Gordon provided the forces from his collection of Serbian and Austrian armies and also all the terrain pieces. This was the first time that Darren had played these particular rules, though he has played several sets of other Peter Pig rules in the past and could see some common features and mechanisms. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge of the result of the battle.

This was a 10mm scale adaptation of the famous battle of the War of Austrian Succession. We used Sam Mustafa's 'Maurice' rules but the scenario and OOB came from Nick's Soldier King book and included units that were detached from the main forces in the original engagement. Bryan and Wyn were in charge of the French army and Graham and Ian (both first time players of the rules) were joint generals of the Pragmatic Army (mainly British and Hanoverian units, but with some Austrians).  Neil W was the umpire.

The Pragmatic Army was attacking and the infantry advanced in four lines with the river protecting their left flank, although they did suffer from harassing fire from French artillery on the far bank. Both side's cavalry units manoeuvred themselves to face each other on the French left, though neither force was willing to risk a charge.  The first musketry exchanges took place around the town of Dettingen and it was the Pragmatic Army's infantry that suffered the most with some units breaking under the hail of lead. However, the foot soldiers pressed on and a series of close combat encounters took place without decisive result. However, two French batteries were destroyed as British infantry fired across the river and scattered their crews. 

Unfortunately, we ran out of time and so, technically, the result was a draw. However, the Pragmatic Army had suffered a significantly greater loss of morale than their opponents so the French were declared the victors.

Mexico 1870. Apache troubles.

A small isolated Republican Mexican garrison is awaiting supplies of food, ammo and money. They are holed-up in a walled hacienda. Two supply columns have been despatched from the nearest town, and are thought to be nearby. A patrol from the garrison has been sent out to link-up with them. Before they could do so, they have by chance come across an unguarded Apache camp and taken several prisoners. Another small group has been sent out from the garrison to round-up some much-needed stray cattle. So the Mexicans have four small groups all heading for the garrison. Sounds like a recipe for trouble. The Apaches have been shadowing several of the groups and also know the garrison/village is only lightly defended.

Billy took control of all the Mexican forces with John looking after the Apaches.

Good fortune on the part of the Mexicans meant that most of the troops reached the gates of the hacienda, despite losing the odd wagon and pack mule.  A patrol of French cavalry appeared, potentially sparking a three-way fight as they were fighting for Maximillian’s Imperial Mexican Army. A brief skirmish with the Apaches saw the French choose a quick exit. As more Apaches appeared they had sufficient numbers to attack the village and garrison. The Mexicans in the village were soon eliminated. It left the Apaches free to scale the walls of the hacienda. The garrison had suffered some 40% casualties and outnumbered, were in danger of being wiped out.

1858 Austrians vs French

Ray and I took the French and played the two Johns (John D and John H) as the Austrians using the Principles of War rules. I took a passive role as I had not played the rules before, meanwhile Ray used a screen of light cavalry to cover an infantry attack on one of the objectives on the far side of the table. Our opponents took the central objective in spite of being blasted by our artillery, but in the meantime, our “screen” had destroyed the Austrian heavy cavalry and our infantry took the objective without any real opposition. 

A convincing French victory, and I made three new gaming friends- all in all an excellent day at the office. Thanks chaps.

Sultan Charles had to try and fight off a second attempt on the throne by his younger half brother, following their drawn battle a couple of months earlier. His failure to crush the rebels on that occasion had led to the desertion of a couple more regiments of Janissaries to the rebel cause, allowing Harry Pasha to dispense with the unenthusiastic Western mercenary pikemen he had  been forced to rely on last time.

This battle began with some enthusiastic but mostly ineffectual exchanges of cannon fire, followed by equally ineffective arquebus volleys between the Janissaries on each side. Harry Pasha slowly whittled down the Royalist morale by targeting their weaker elements  - skirmishers, artillery, Azabs and akinji   - then finally managed to rout the cavalry on his brother's right wing (after a prolonged melee).

The rebel troops, seeing the mass of enemy cavalry flee the field, assumed that the entire army was routing and stood down.....whereupon the Sultan immediately launched an effective counterattack with his Janissaries, throwing a large part of the rebel army into disorder. Seeing the need for quick action the rebel prince threw his elite household Sipahis against the Sultan's remaining artillery, opening up new gaps in the line, finally ending the battle, and giving the Ottoman empire a new Sultan.

This time we played a large battle from the War of the League of Augsburg in the 1690's. Ross and Bob led the French, Andy W, Keith and Kevin led the Allies and Nick umpired. The French were greatly outnumbered but were led by Luxembourg, a very good commander, and their army was of high quality. In contrast the Allies were led by William of Orange, a mediocre commander, and they had a large number of poorer troops.

The battle started with the Allies making a general advance and the French launching an attack with the left and centre left led by the massed French guard under Bob. Reacting to this the Allied forces facing the French guard took up a defensive posture and it became clear that the French right/centre right, under Ross, was doing the same. Because of the initial set up this meant that the French right and centre right was soon heavily engaged. On the left it took longer to engage and the reason soon became obvious. Before the two sides clashed on the French left the French suddenly changed tack.

Led by Luxembourg the French guard cavalry formed column and switched from the right to the centre. Caught engaged with the French centre the Allied centre was soon in trouble and the allies committed their reserve command to helping the centre. Meanwhile the French left was also struggling to protect the flank of their assault in the centre. After a valiant struggle it was the French left which broke first but they had done their job. The Allied centre was badly damaged and was having to test every turn to remain in the fight, a 50/50 chance, and the Allied reserve was close to being in the same situation. So both the Allied centre and reserve were on borrowed time when we had to end the game. The French left was defeated but it would take time for the victorious Allied right to intervene in the rest of the battle while on the French right the fighting there had been indecisive.

So overall perhaps a 'winning draw' for the French if we had time for a few more turns. 

Java 1942

Pete and I tried out the CoC Far East rules for the first time. The table was nearly all jungle with a road connecting the two deployment areas - except the Japs had a road block between the Dutch (Pete) and their exit point. The Japs got off to a good start and soon contacted some Aussies in the jungle - it took the Japanese squads to sort them out but then the Japs seemed to run out of steam and the second group was mauled by Dutch reinforcements. Things suddenly looked bad for the Japs but they managed to attack some small groups of Dutch engineers and MG teams, reducing the Dutch force morale to zero.

How were the rules?  OK. We only used the "normal" jungle rules so the Dutch and Aussies fought on equal terms in the jungle - the "advanced" rules would have given the Japs an added advantage. As it was, only three of the five Japanese squads and their A/T gun engaged the enemy so they did OK.

Sunday was a first for the club it was the premiere Game of Bolt Action V.3. Howard and Daniel played allies with 1500 points of Normandy '44 British which consisted of a troop of Shermans  and a Firefly, a pair of armoured cars and and a platoon of infantry with supports. Andy and Keith had 1500 points of late war Germans - a platoon of supported infantry, a Tiger 1, a Panzer IV and a Puma armoured car. The  objective was to advance and to force off the table edge as many of the opposing players' units as possible. 

In the game the infantry edged forward and the armour advanced shooting as it went - which presents another dilemma as an armoured unit which fails a test retreats one move straight back, meaning it could go straight if its own table edge  and is gone for good. Armour slugged it out a Sherman and a Firefly were knocked out and the Tiger took a lot of hits, keeping its head down and spent more time rallying. But, by being on the table alone, scared the Allies no end. As time was closing Howard and Dan got a Humber off the table taking the Puma in ambush out drying its passing shot! However, the Allies had took a lot more losses than the Germans, so a draw was called. 

Bolt action V3 plays very well where shooting is calculated very quickly with only 4 modifiers -  BOHICA (Vietnam) has 22 and by the time I got to the last modifier we forgot where we were! Any one thinking of Bolt action V.3 do give it a go, it’s highly recommended.

The American War of Independence was a popular period choice this Sunday. Commands and Colours was one of two games played in which the traumatic events of the late eighteenth century were revisited. Harry and Jon L once again used this venerable board game ( I assume it was the 'Tricorne' variant that was in use) in combination with miniatures from their own collections. I regret to inform readers that an information embargo has been placed on the result of this game but, if it is lifted, I will gladly update this report.

The second Chain of Command game of the day was set in the Soviet Union circa 1943. Charles, with the assistance of Bryan, was in charge of a Russian platoon with fifteen points of support (all the figures and vehicles were from Charles' collection and were making their debut at the club) and was matched against a German force (seven support points) commanded by Graham, Neil W acting as umpire. The Russians were assaulting an objective (scenario six in the CoC book) which was an MG emplacement virtually on the German's table edge. Charles focused on extra firepower with his support choices, opting for a T34/76 and two MMGs whereas Graham preferred static defences (barbed wire and a minefield) plus a sniper team.

The Russians brought on their heavy units quickly and concentrated their fire on the single squad deployed by Graham, which suffered heavy losses (the Germans were handicapped by the fact all cover on the table, except the MG emplacement, was classed as light). The German sniper team took out a couple of targets but on the whole did not have much success and as more Soviet units came into play, the weight of fire on the German positions was simply to much to bear (Graham was also not helped by the fact that most of his dice rolls were truly dismal). Ultimately, German force morale was whittled down to zero and the field belonged to the Russians.

Kings of War - Woe on the Borderlands.

The Halfling scribes have been puzzling how to spin Sunday's drubbing at the hands of Stuart's fine new Order of the Brothermark army, but apart from reflecting that their general threw a lot of 1's - 3's when he needed 4's to hit and wound, there wasn't much they could do to explain the near tabling that they had handed to them.

Little did we know what was in store for us as we lined up against the newcomers who looked a bit like our perennial foes, the Rhordians. We had the flying Captain and the Engineer on our left with the Aeronauts, Ej Grenadiers and the Iron Beast facing off against the Order's elite Knights, the Abyssal Hunt, supported by Villein Skirmisher light cavalry. My Poachers held a wood in the centre, supported by the Troll Gunners and facing a bunch of Ogres in very fancy armour and a Heavy Arbalest. My right was anchored by my Stalwart horde, the saucerous Spearmen, their Wild Runner bows and more Ej Grenadiers. A wall of steel faced them in the shape of a horde of Paladin Monster Slayers and the Oathsworn Guardians backed up by a horde of Villein Bowmen. 

By turn 3 we were pretty pleased with ourselves. The Poachers and Troll Gunners had blown away the Ogre Palace Guards and Ally McSween had knifed the flying Exemplar Hunter in her first proper duel. We had wavered the Villein Skirmishers to bottle up the Knights, the Ej Grenadiers were getting ready to jump over his line and although the Troll Gunners had taken some damage off his very hot Arbalest, they should regenerate those wounds (they didn't). Then it all went to Hel very quickly. The Order's War Wizard fireballed my two Wild Runner chaff in successive turns. The Arbalest blew away my Trolls. One of the Skirmishers absolutely refused to die: even after being devastated on turn 4, it was still fighting on at the end of the game. My Ej Grenadiers bounded over the line, survived a scattered volley from the Bowmen, absolutely failed to take out the Arbalest & the Bowmen nailed them with their second volley. The Abyssal Hunt showed why they have just about every special rule going and slaughtered my Aeronauts and Iron Beast. The Paladins & Oathsworn teamed up against my lonely Stalwarts and ground them into the dirt before doing the same to my Spearspikes and even some Poachers lurking in the woods. Did I mention my dice?

It was all pretty grim, reminding me of the trouble I used to have against Maurice's Knights, except this lot don't waver or miss with their Fury, Elite & Vicious abilities. Also, even though I wasn't hitting very often, the near universal Iron Resolve in the army meant that they shrugged off a lot of the wounds that I did score. Good list design by Stuart. I can't write my way out of this one.

A short postscript from Stuart: -

Not a lot to add to David's report. He was very unlucky with his dice rolling and I was largely very lucky with mine, which is going to make for a bad day at the office. 

Stuart S and Paul B played the second game of the day in which the Revolutionary War was the focus of attention. 'Rebels and Patriots' is one of the Osprey series of wargames rules, many of which are very popular at the club but this particular set has not been played very often in the past. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge of the scenario used, the composition of the forces or the eventual outcome of the game. It seems that this period of conflict is destined to remain a mystery until some intrepid correspondent enlightens us.

Battle report, 6th October Hallow Scout Hut.

Had a great time today with Imperial Guard vs Space Wolves -  thanks to Carl T for a great game. First turn was bad for the Wolves, both Razorbacks in round one and a few grey hunters got taken out, but managed to take out a Leman Russ with the land speeder Typhoons.

Later turns the Wolves' Predator got damaged removing its main weapon and troop numbers started to get whittled down, not getting the dice rolls needed for a decent counterattack. The Guard managed to secure an impressive beach head and managed to remove a lot of Wolves from the fight with coordinated artillery and armour with infantry.

The end result was that the Imperial Guard took victory with a lot of units near the centre. A great game and looking forward to the next.

Ian and Andy have put together some 15mm forces for O Group on the 1941 Eastern Front but kind of got frustrated by the rules themselves. We found them to be a bit slow and bit overly simplistic on the tank warfare side. This game was to trial run WW2 Battlefront rules written by the creators of the Fire and Fury ACW rules. The publication date was 2000, so not exactly new! The rules have lots of free support on the Fire and Fury website but nothing really since halfway through the last decade! For this game, Pete kindly agreed to join our experiment and took control of battalion of Schützen supported by a company of panzers and a platoon of reconnaissance in armoured cars. Ian was in command of a slightly under strength Soviet Rifle battalion supported by a AT company and a light tank company. Andy R attempted to be in control of the rulebook!

We need a bit more time too properly absorb the rules and then to adjust our tactics to make the most of them before we judge them!

I think the main learning was: -

1. The rules did seem to play well and have some interesting nuances, especially the spotting rules and how weapons have different effectiveness at different ranges. Fans of the game also rave about the artillery rules but, to be honest, I got a bit confused about them and I’m sure we didn’t do them full justice.

2. We got through 4.5 turns in the session, that’s probably about the same as we would have managed using O Group but, given the fact only I had read the rules, it seems reasonable to assume that we could complete more turns next time. Also in those 4 turns, there did seem to be some material game progress, as the Germans broke through the first line of Soviet defence, though the latter were far from broken.

3. We never actually got to see the Soviet tanks in action. However, I like the fact that weapons’ effectiveness varies by range. In our game we learnt that means 45mm AT guns are only effective below 20” which is much closer than in O Group, so we’ll need to adapt tactics accordingly next time.

For the actual game, because the players were unfamiliar with the rules they were not able to fully plan their strategies. Ian set up a forward defence line of 2 rifle companies with his AT capability mostly set to the rear and unfortunately out of effective range. Pete set up for classic blitzkreig tactics with Panzers cutting through the defence and the infantry mopping up. Pete was able to break through the Soviet frontline, even pushing them out of a small village (well almost!). However, Ian’s armour was waiting behind the dip of a hill to ambush the advancing Panzers so we’ll never know how that would have worked out….

So overall it was fun trying out some new rules and we tested most aspects of the game albeit we got a bit confused with the Artillery rules for m particular, so back the rule book for me! 

Andy S, Daniel, Howard and Stuart got together to play another game of Lion Rampant. I must thank Stuart for providing the photograph that accompanies this report but, lacking further intelligence on the events of the battle, the result must forever remain shrouded in mystery.

2nd AfghanWar 1879, Anglo-Indian Army v Regular Afghans and Tribesmen using Principles of War rules.

Across the searing plain, through heat-haze and smoke, huge numbers of Afghans were appearing to gather. Some nine regiments of Afghan regular infantry, supported by regular cavalry plus warrior horse and foot, were determined to wipe out the British and Indian troops that had dared to enter their valley. Clive and Billy led the Afghans, rich in numbers, but poor in quality. Keith and John F took a Brigade of Foot each. They were supported by British Hussars and Indian Lancers.

The Afghan skirmishers proved troublesome and it was only when they fell within rifle range that the British/Indians started to exact a toll on the fearless Afghans.: indeed one of Billy’s regiments lost three officers in quick succession. When the Afghans closed, the British line just about held. Meanwhile a reckless cavalry charge resulted in three regular Afghan regiments being totally destroyed and leaving their artillery exposed to the Hussars and Lancers. The British had earlier been thankful that all the Afghan artillery had not been put to full use. 

A second appearance at the club for the Peter Pig rules that simulate large scale (divisional) warfare for the First World War. Gordon supplied all the 10mm figures and terrain and was partnered by Nick in commanding the forces of Austria -Hungary. Ross and Neil W were the opposing Serbian generals. Having learned a few lessons from the first outing of these rules, the players had decided in advance the composition of their armies and we were able to complete the preliminary stages of 'Countdown to Battle', determination of attacker and defender, placement of terrain, deployment and defender's depletions much faster than in the previous game. The Austrians were attacking in a 'Big Push' scenario and the Serbian right wing soon came under significant pressure but the stout Serbian defenders managed to prevent a major breakthrough. The Serbian centre and left also resisted the Austrian attempts to force the issue. At the end of the game, after Gordon and Ross and worked out the rather convoluted calculations to determine the result, it was found the victory points were virtually equal and the outcome of the battle of was a draw.

This battle was a 15mm contest between two medieval Ottoman Turk forces commanded by Charles S and Harry and using the popular 'To the Strongest' rules. Each player supplied their own armies. Unfortunately, I have no details on the events of this tussle but as the generals have agreed to fight again at the next St Ambrose meeting, I hope to provide better information then.

On Sunday Stuart S arranged a Bolt Command game of the Western Desert scenario Hunt's Gap in which we had Howard (Monty) defending as 8th Army commander a town and defended line with a gorge in the middle and heights on the flanks. He had Pete and Stuart as his defenders as well. Attacking we had John F (Rommel) as Afrika Korps commander with Daniel, Paul B and Andy S as allied Italian forces who were assaulting with mechanised/lorried infantry and armour as the spearhead.

In the battle the Axis infantry advanced up the heights rolling up on the 8th army defending and dug in. A big minefield up the centre of the table proved to be troublesome getting through it. A great game fought to a draw on a 60 square foot table with never a dull moment to be had. Well done Stu for organising it and creating the right amount of jeopardy that produced a great game.

This was a very impressive 28mm game on a large table with all figures and terrain supplied by Keith. The game was set in Northern Europe towards the end of WWII, Germans vs Allies. Andy W was Keith's opponent but Graham also joined in the fun when he arrived a little later in the day.

Kings of War - The Battle of Hodenburg

We used the All Games Day to play the climax of Maurice's campaign to bring the rebellious Halflings back into his League of Rhordia. Pharaoh Tut joined him to add some novelty mini Mummies to his army and as Russ was going to arrive later, I started with a full army against their vanguards while the rest of their armies filed onto the battlefield over the next few turns. 

The Rhordian and Empire of Dust vanguards were largely missile troops & artillery who easily outranged me, so my Halfings had to put their heads down and trudge forward to close the distance, weathering a storm of cannon, arquebus and arrow fire and losing a few good units on the way in. Once we got there, we were able to get stuck into the missile troops, but by that stage their close combat troops - Knights, Guardians and the dread Shobik - were deploying onto the table and they chewed up my depleted army. Russ arrived by turn 4 to rescue me and we did give him an extra turn to launch his army into close combat since most of the fighting was happening on their side of the table. He got off a series of devastating charges, which pulled the game from a clear Rhordian victory (I had two units left alive on the table) to something a little more respectable: perhaps a truce to bury the dead that Tut hadn't carried off, followed by a grudging admission that it made economic sense for the Halflings to "rejoin" the League. 

No doubt there will be a deal of grumbling amongst the Halfling press and the remote border barons about a "stab in the back" and the odd bit of raiding & rebellion in the future. My thanks to Maurice for motivating and outlining the campaign (& playing the role of the villainous aggressor) and James, Darren, Russ and Simon for taking part in the battles.

'A board game with figures' was on the table as Harry and Jon L got together to fight a 28mm battle of Romans vs Barbarians with figures from their own collections. I think this is the first time that we have seen Commands and Colours played at the club which is surprising, given its popularity and longevity. The system uses hexes and cards and, usually, blocks representing the various units - Harry and John's miniatures looked far nicer. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide information on the outcome of the battle.

This was an attempt to learn some new rules for us that are divisional level WW1 (there are army lists all the way from RJW up to 1920’s). The game took a long while to get started as we were all unfamiliar with the rules and learning. The set up is a novel pre-battle sequence (if not doing an historical scenario) that determines the starting forces, terrain and situation. The game was set in 1914 Austrians v Serbs. The pre-battle sequence led to the Serbs counter attacking in force against the Austrian invaders who were taken by surprise with the ferocity of the Serb assault. 

The Austrians, led by Nick and Gordon, started with a few weak green infantry supported by field artillery and some machine guns, defending a line of hasty defences. The majority of their force had not arrived on the battlefield including their best troops. Stuart M and Neil W commanding the Serbs rapidly advanced across the front preceded by an ineffectual artillery barrage. The Serbian attack was spearheaded by some battle hardened veterans of the Balkan wars on the right flank, in the centre regular troops and on the left flank raw recruits that got bogged down in the Serbian hills.

The green Austrian defenders despite putting up some initial resistance were no match for the veteran Serbs. The Austrians though were at this stage not too concerned as all their best troops were in reserve ready for the counter attack. The Austrian commander though became more and more concerned at the poor staff work of the reserve commander and his inability to bring any troops to the battlefront other than a poor green cavalry regiment. The Austrian centre managed to hold for a short while and an artillery barrage did some damage again in the centre. The Serbian right then centre broke through the lines and the Austrian headquarters was seen fleeing the battlefield not to return. As dusk fell a lone Austrian spotter plane was seen flying over the battlefield sadly by this time the Austrian artillery was out of shells. Approximately 25% of the Austrian army was still in reserve as night fell and the Serbs achieved complete victory driving the Austrians out of Serbia. Overnight a chorus of onto Vienna was heard been sung from the Serbian lines.

In conclusion a very enjoyable game and excellent rules. Would definitely like to try these again. After the game reread the rules and noticed a few things that we did wrong. Also a lot of the pre-game set up can be done before the day which should speed things up.

Chain of Command 

DMZ Vietnam  PoonTang june1969 

This Sunday we were supposed to play the Empress Miniatures BOHICA Vietnam rules but a test game asked to many questions we could not iron them out in a week. So, without further ado, we used the DMZ variant for Chain of Command. Howard had two sections awaiting being relieved by Daniel S coming on from the other end of the table with a platoon of USMC and a M113 APC. Stuart S and Andy S had an undersized platoon of the People's Army of Vietnam each with a length of barbed wire and an ambush with an RPG 7 in store as support. We also used the new jungle rules from the Lardies' Far East Handbook as well. 

The patrol phase was a bit of a failure for the PAVN forces as the commanders were far too reserved in their positioning, causing a lack of shock and awe that the PAVN should excel at. However, the M113 was on the advance and was taken out in quick order, its troops were very lucky and got out intact. A complicated fire fight was initiated and lots of close range shooting took place  and losses were everywhere. By end of the game the USMC had lost its fighting edge but the ANZACS were untouched. It was undecided. whether the PAVN, if they had had time, could have took out the ANZACS. 

The Far East jungle rules definitely make for an evocative game and the DMZ variant is a 44 page freebie, very well written and are a no brainer. BOHICA is a very interesting set of rules - there’s nearly 22 modifiers for shooting alone- how many for Bolt Action? They bought. up lots of questions and I think they definitely need an FAQ and an errata.

Harry and Pete met to fight a battle with a vaguely medieval flavour in 28mm scale. I say 'vaguely' because I understand Dragon Rampant to be a set of rules designed with fantasy in mind, so the period may have been entirely fictitious. It is also quite possible that the generals managed to play two games during the afternoon, though information is lacking on this point.

This 10mm battle was a recreation of the Battle of Warburg, July 1760, in which a British - Hanoverian force commanded by the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick defeated a French army under Louis de Muy (the scenario was lifted from Nick's 'Twilight of the Soldier Kings' Scenario Book 1). Bryan and Wyn were in charge of the attacking British - Hanoverians and Charles and Neil W led the French defenders. The Allies were superior in infantry but had fewer mounted troops than their adversaries. 

The bulk of the French forces were deployed east of Warburg itself, the cavalry closest to the town and more infantry in reserve to the right. The Allies approached the enemy in three lines on the French left with their cavalry positioned on the left wing. The French artillery bombarded at long range to little effect and as the infantry got into range the more concentrated British and Hanoverian formations began to exact a heavy toll on their counterparts. The French cavalry could not get into the battle until it was too late and their infantry reserves were left high and dry. A decisive win for the Allies.

‘Somewhere in the Pacific’ 1944. USMC v Japanese using Rapid Fire Reloaded Rules.

Following on from the beach landing two weeks ago, the US Marines continued their push inland. Their AFVs having been knocked out, it was up to the boots on the ground to pursue the much-reduced Japanese garrison deep into the jungle. Clive and John F took a USMC battalion each, whilst Billy strove to hold these forces at bay with the Japanese. Much smaller in terms of numbers, the Japanese did however have half of their forces hidden from the prying eyes of American aircraft, together with hidden snipers and bunkers.

The Japanese mortars and HMGs inflicted heavy casualties on the Marines as they pressed forwards. Mortar fire from the Americans, in turn caused the defenders a few problems.  It was only when the Japanese launched a Banzai attack that they really ran into problems as they were outflanked and suffered huge casualties.  With over half of the Japanese accounted for the remainder hurried deeper into the jungle to possibly fight another day.

There were two games fought using these popular rules during the course of the afternoon. Both games were training exercises in that many of the players involved had no previous experience of the rules. In the first, Nick D acted as umpire in a 15mm medieval game (using Nick's own figures) in which the opposing generals were Bob and Kevin, both first time players of the game.

Today's Bolt Action game from the German side of the table. It was my fourtth game of Bolt Action and I've enjoyed every one. Good period feel, and even if (as per today) the result is very one sided there's still enough back and forth, and tactical decision making, to keep things interesting. And of course the toy collecting is fun even for a non WW2 player like me.

Judging by the uniforms and buildings, this was an action fought in the early days of operation Bagration, with both sides trying to bust through each other's lines. The Germans suffered early losses on the Western side of the village. They quickly re-established their authority by calling in an artillery strike then sending in a powerful reserve consisting of a Marder, an elite infantry assault team and the company commander himself. The Russian hordes were soon hurled back, but this left me with fewer resources than I'd like to commit to the woods on the eastern side of the table, where I had intended to make my break through. My two rifle companies there were quickly surrounded and cut down, without getting much chance to fight back.

All the above turned out to be academic anyway when it occurred to the Russian commander that he could simply drive all his vehicles through the now vacated centre of the table and crash into the rear of my lines.

Thanks to John L for the game, and for setting up a great looking table.

Yesterday was the last game of our Sealion campaign. The earlier German victories meant that only the Home Guard stood between them and Romford and victory. The main battle centred on an extended firefight between a HG section supported by a Vickers gun and 2 German sections with 3 (!) Mg 34s. The battle was complicated by a BUF sympathiser who proved adept at sniping the Vickers team. When the Vickers team fell back the HG retreated to the buildings from where they almost stopped the German advance. The turning point came when, having shot the second German SL, Andy used 2 (!) CoC dice to avoid a morale check and immediately get the SL back on his feet.

Overall a great series of games, and many thanks to Andy for an enjoyable campaign. 

Only Russ and I made it to Holt this Sunday, so with no Rhordians, Empire of Dust or Abyssal Dwarves to fight, our Halflings beat seven bells out of each other - pillage scenario at 2,300 points. We're practising with our armies for Clash of Kings in Nottingham next month and they were pretty similar. We learned a number of lessons:

1. With the ability to scout forward, getting first turn to unleash a devastating volley against the enemy can pay dividends (Russ).

2. Troll Gunner hordes can put out quite a bit of hurt, especially when dug in behind a wall (me).

3. On an evenly matched airmobile flank, getting the first charge in does make the difference (Russ).

4. Troll Gunner Sergeants are better than Ally McSween in a straight fight (Russ).

5. On the other hand, in a more high nerve slug est in the middle of the line, charging first doesn't always pay off (me).

6. But in the end, being in position to grab the objectives on the last turn is the deciding factor (Russ).

So, don't forget to play the damn scenario, Kitcat!

It was a very enjoyable battle, without clock pressure and a good chance to discuss strategies and compare notes.

John F laid on a Pacific game using the Rapid Fire Reloaded rules using 28mm figures. We carried out an island assault with USMC with Gordon and Clive attempting to take the island. Defending were the outnumbered yet very brave Japanese with Stuart S and Andy S in command.  The landing itself was unopposed it was only when the Yanks came of the beach that the shooting started. Firefights were breaking out all over the front with mixed results for both sides. Then the USMC bought their armour up to the front and gallant Stu issued a massed Banzai attack, destroying a Sherman tank and killing lots of Marines but he payed a heavy price himself.

At that, time was called. A great game by John F - a lovely table and figures. Now I have had a chance to go over the rules myself which has made me embrace them for big games. Rapid Fire are good for big games and are a very different set of rules to say Chain of Command or Bolt Action but have a place as a set of rules at the big table.

Well done John again!

Competing political factions met somewhere in the Dark Continent in this post-colonial 15mm scenario. As the faction leaders were Ross and Darren G, I am assuming that the forces involved were representing the armed components of UHFFAFU and WUNKERS. The usual collection of randomly accumulated post war arms and armour were in evidence on both sides. The rules in use were the 'Republic Reloaded' version that came out in 2009.

Gordon and Harry got together to indulge themselves in a mythical encounter in the time of King Arthur. The scale was 28mm and I think I am right in saying that the figures came from each player's collection. I have no details of the conduct of the battle except to say that Gordon was the victor.

More WWII naval action close to the north Norwegian coast in which Bryan and Dan were in charge of a Royal Naval task group and Nick and Neil W were jointly commanding a powerful German raiding force. Both sides had equal points and were allowed only one battleship each. The admirals of the Kriegsmarine decided to split their force, with four destroyers attempting to intercept a similarly sized British flotilla while the Tirpitz operated independently to take on the heavier Royal Naval units led by HMS Queen Elizabeth. The British won the destroyer action, sinking two enemy vessels and crippling a third for comparatively light damage. The Brits also achieved superior concentration of force in the main gunnery battle and inflicted significant damage on the Tirpitz and also the heavy cruiser Lutzow whereas the German gunners only achieved modest hits. A comprehensive victory for the RN.

Match report Flames of war Operation Bagration 1944, the Woolomin Bridge scenario. 

John L was defending as the German (SS) commander with two platoons of infantry and three Pak 40s, all dug in and eight tanks in reserve. I was attacking with 21 T34/85 tanks and supporting infantry and Katyusha rocket artillery. The Soviet tanks pushed up and were degraded by effective anti tank fire. German artillery was also useful in taking out and pinning all the Russian infantry in place. The Russians briefly advanced onto one of the objectives but were shot off the table in quick order.  At that the Soviets were defeated and the Germans held the table.

All in all a good game and thanks for John for his excellent scenery.

Using rules devised by himself, but inspired by Dave Chubb (a long time member of the club who sadly passed away in 2023 - a tribute can be found here), Graham provided all the resources for a 20mm battle set on the western front in late WWII. The forces involved were armoured battle groups from Germany and the United States. Also taking part were Carl, Kevin and Stuart S.

Graham's rules are still a 'work in progress' and the latest version can be viewed here.

This was a great looking 28mm game in which Darren W and Simon were the protagonists. Both players fielded armies with 2300 points with all manner of weird and wonderful figures, creatures and machines on display. My complete ignorance of how the game works prevents were from providing any worthwhile commentary on the outcome of this engagement. I believe the guys are going to do it all over again at the next club meeting.

The most spectacular game on display was this huge recreation of a battle in the  Mahdist War of the late nineteenth century. Billy supplied all of the hundreds of 54mm figures that were deployed on the table. The other generals taking part were Bob, Clive, John F and John H. The rules being used were Tom Penn's well known 'Principles of War' though there may have been some in-house modifications as well. I am reasonably confident in asserting that the forces of the British Empire emerged triumphant from the fray.

Another game of Saga from Daniel and Howard (third time this year by my reckoning). The scale was 28mm and the period medieval and it is entirely possible that the guys managed to get in two games during the afternoon.

Ross supplied all the materials for this 6mm battle set in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Keith and Nick were also taking part. The rules in use were developed several years ago by various club members and are variant on the well-known 'Fire and Fury' set. More information on the rules is available here. 

Unfortunately, I have no information on the course and outcome of this battle. All that I can say is that it looked good and the participants seemed to be enjoying themselves.

This was a 28mm attack and defend scenario in which Bob was in command of a platoon of German troops and Mike and new member James C were jointly controlling a platoon of assaulting Soviet infantry. Bob opted for mainly static defence supports such as barbed wire and a minefield and Mike and James selected a pre-game barrage, a flamethrower team and a T34/75 to assist the infantry in their attack. Neil W was the umpire. Bob quickly got his squads into solid defensive positions and started inflicting losses on the advancing Russians but the red horde pressed on and made full use of their powerful tank to put pressure on the German line. A series of junior leader casualties and unlucky dice rolls saw the German force morale plummet and the defenders were forced to quit the field. 

Today Simon joined us for the first time and brought along his rock-hard Abyssal Dwarves with their three hordes of Obsidian Golems, three Hellfanes and a single unit of Immortal Guard to at least have some Dwarves in the army. Sensing which way the wind would blow, my Halflings joined him against Maurice & James with their Rhordians and Darren's Empire of Dust. I matched up against Maurice's gun line of Cannon, Organ Guns, Arquebusiers and Royal Guard. I was experimenting with hordes of Stalwarts and Troll Gunners to toughen up my line. James led the flower of Rhordian chivalry with their tank alongside Darren's Enslaved Guardians and Mummies against Simon.

Apart from scouting my Poachers up out of inspiring range and promptly losing them when Maurice threw a 12 for their nerve, I was pretty lucky that his shooting was often wide of the mark and I was able to get up to his line with minimal casualties. It was a lot tougher for James and Darren, especially with either their shooting and melee dice rolling poorly or conversely their nerve rolls just missing the target. Simon was giving no chances away, healing off his wounds, absorbing the Knights' charges and grinding them and the Zombies down until the allied army fell apart. At least they did finally get those Immortal Guard and a unit of Golems, but it was gruelling work.

So, lessons were learned about dealing with a Fearless, 17-nerve, defence 6 army; and Simon's commentary was really enlightening, too. He will definitely boost the level of our play and appreciation of the nuances of the game, just at the right time for us, too, with the Clash of Kings tournament to play in September. 

On this table there was a 28mm skirmish game using the ever popular 'Lion Rampant' rules from Osprey. The participants were John F, Paul B and Stuart S. Again, regrettably, I am unable to provide details of the action so this no doubt exciting and enjoyable encounter is lost to the annals of history.

In August 1914, British (Andy W) and German (Stuart M) forces meet in the North Sea after the British (previously out on manoeuvres) react to a German shelling of Sunderland. The German forces were in one force with all their dreadnoughts and battlecruisers (16 capital ships and an armoured cruiser), 2 light cruiser squadrons and 4 torpedo boat flotillas (36 in total). The initial British on table forces were 10 older dreadnoughts, 8 pre dreadnoughts and 2 Iron Duke superdreadnoughts supported by an armoured cruiser squadron and a destroyer flotilla (20 destroyers). 50 nautical miles westward were the 8 British superdreadnoughts and to the south Beatty’s battlecruiser force. The British knew that they had to hold on until the rest of the Grand Fleet arrived and the Germans realised they had an opportunity to defeat part of the British fleet in isolation, possibly balancing the forces in the North Sea.

As the forces tried to scout each other out, the German lighter vessels got too close to the British and received bit of a pasting with Blucher and 2 light cruisers sunk and 3 other light cruisers and Moltke and Von Der Tann taking heavy damage in exchange for light damage to 2 armoured cruisers and 2 dreadnoughts. The German scouting forces broke off just as their torpedo boats engaged for what would be an enduring fight with their British opposite numbers. However, the German battle line was now coming into action. The 2 lines of dreadnoughts battered each other whilst the German torpedo boats finally broke through to put 2 torpedoes into the pre-dreadnought Africa, sinking her. At the end of the game only 4 British destroyers and 12 German torpedo boats (with only 12 torpedoes left between then) were left, 2 British dreadnoughts (Dreadnought and St Vincent) had been sunk. 3 German dreadnoughts (Posen, Westfalen and Prinz Regent Luitpold) and 6 British dreadnoughts (Hercules, Neptune, Superb, Bellerophon, Temeraire and Iron Duke) had been heavily damaged.

However, Warrender and 8 superdreadnoughts were less than 20 nautical miles away. Would the Germans risk closing and finishing off the 6 heavily damaged British capital ships, and wiping out the remaining 7 pre-dreadnoughts? Or would they break off, hoping to avoid having to fight the fresh and most powerful British ships? And did they know that Beatty was between them and home?

Game 4 in the Sealion campaign was, frankly terrifying for the Germans. We started with poor morale and The Home Guard quickly pushed it down to 6, eventually 4. I had an off table HMG which took out the British Bofors gun and I was then able to deploy my flamethrower against the Home Guard - it was intended as an emergency (suicide) weapon against the Bofors gun. This enabled me to bring the British morale down from 8 to 0 and bye bye Home Guard.

 I thought I was going to lose until quite close to the end but the flamethrower and the MG34's overwhelmed the Brits who were very short of automatic weapons. Roll on game 5, I think I did enough damage to win game 5 quickly, and thus the campaign. Roll on Singapore, Hong Kong and the Dutch East Indies! 

On this Sunday, Howard, John F, Kevin T (a member of the club a long time ago but has been away for some time), Stuart S , Andy S and Daniel did a Bolt Action/Chain of Command hybrid game - our first in the Pacific 

Somewhere in the Pacific 1942….We used the map and notes from the new Too Fat Lardies' pint sized campaign 'Driving Charge - Breaking the Jitra Line, 1941'. Stuart, Andy and Dan had an infantry platoon of the Imperial Japanese Army with supports including a Chi Ha tank. In the back field, defending a river and a single bridge, were Howard and his crew with two platoons of USMC and supports. The Japanese advanced fairly quickly sending the tank to try and rush the road and bridge to get a unit off the table. Shooting began fairly quickly with both sides dishing out losses. The tank nearly got to the bridge and Howard ordered the engineers, who were planting charges, to take the tank on - which they duly saw off. Then, some good shooting dice from the USMC reduced the Japanese effectiveness making them regroup and withdraw.

This was a great game and good to see Kevin back at the club.

This was a 10mm game played by Harry and Ewan. Harry has very kindly provided a detailed report of this little known engagement which I have placed on the After Action Reports section of the site, available here. Many thanks, Harry.

The Lardies' WWI rules made another appearance at the club after a bit of a dalliance with the Chain of Command modifications which we used in our previous Great War game. The scenario being played was 'Yashka' from the Lardies' supplement 'From Empire to Revolution'. Andy W and Charles S were in charge of an Austrian platoon located in a trench which stretched right across the table and was protected by barbed wire. Gordon and Neil W commanded a Russian platoon of mainly 'green' troops with orders to take the enemy position. The scale was 28mm.

Two games were played. The first was very short. The Russians failed to destroy any of the wire and omitted to utilise their free move with blinds. The result was that they got shot up pretty badly right from the start and made no progress with the attack. In the second game the Russians were more successful. This time their bombardment produced several gaps in the wire and they also used their blinds more effectively, enabling some of the assaulting squads to make good progress and actually occupy some of the enemy entrenchments. So, overall honours were even.

Had two games of 15mm Xenos Rampant with John H today. The first was reasonably straightforward clash of near-future forces. The only Sci-Fi elements being John's Battle Robots and my Drop Troopers. A win for me but being 15mm the photo I took doesn't do it justice.

The second game was bit more 'out there'. John had the same forces, but this time faced my massed Mechanoids. Martian Tripods and Ravening Scuttlers. Win for John this time.

Two good fun games, of the what used to be called 'Beer & Pretzels' type.

With Maurice, James & Russ on other duties, we had to postpone the campaign's  Battle of Hodenburg. Darren and I instead took a chance to test out our armies for a tournament in Banbury. His Empire of Dust squared off against my Halflings at a reduced 1800 points each and in a tight 50 minutes per side. We randomly chose the Salt the Earth scenario for a very cagey game. We know each other's strengths well and were loathe to give over the advantage. His units are bigger and tougher than mine, but I have more units. 

On my left he placed a horde of Chariots which forced me to commit some of my heavy hitters into woods which bogged them down. It was ironically my light cavalry that did the most damage by shooting at him (until he charged and blew them away). He also ran some flying Carrion down that flank which kept me spinning units around to face them. In the centre his Guardian Archer hordes still pose a question that I haven't found an answer to. On my right I tried to use superior numbers to outflank him and we danced around a wood (and then through it when I lost patience and probably charged too early). Darren was ahead in killing, but ran out of time, leaving me with more objectives. He was winning the battle while I was winning the scenario. A more cerebral game than usual, it will be fun to get the crew back together again for our more rough and ready campaign games. 

This battle was a large scale scenario loosely based on the Battle of Oudenarde (July 1708) using 15mm figures from the vast collection of Keith. The rules in use were a 'quick play' version of those played at the Wargames Holiday Centre, once run by Peter Gilder and based in Yorkshire, which was attended by quite a few club members in the eighties and nineties. Commanding the French we had three 'wing' generals (Andy W, Stuart M and Neil W) and on the Allied side there were Gordon, Mike and Ross in charge. Keith and Nick acted as aides de camp for each side and rules arbiters when questions were raised by the participants. 

Even though the game lasted almost eight hours we were unable to reach a decisive result, mainly due to the sheer size of the scenario and unfamiliarity with the rules. Nevertheless, it was a really enjoyable game. The French had some success in their right centre, routing and driving off many Allied units until being  counter attacked by replacement brigades. The French were also exposed on their right flank and rushed over cavalry reserves as quickly as possible, only to be pretty badly beaten up by the enemy cavalry under the command of Gordon. In the centre and on the left wing the French advanced their troops to a stream and set about defending it resolutely. They came under enormous pressure from the British and Dutch troops but showed no signs of crumbling when night fell. A drawn result seemed a fair conclusion.

Many thanks to Keith for putting on a great game.

Set in Normandy, June 1944, this 28mm scenario (I believe all the figures and terrain were Ian's) was an adaptation of the 'Corridor of Death' scenario that appears in the Too Fat Lardies' campaign booklet 'Kampfgruppe von Luck'. Pete and Charles S were the German officers ordered to attack the British paras (led by Andy R and Ian) who were defending the village of le Bas de Ranville. Regrettably, I am unable to inform you of the outcome of this engagement, although it is possible that one of the participants may issue dispatches.

This game was a 1200pt Imperial Guard vs Space Wolves, game type annihilation and using alpha rules. It was also the first game with Carl T.

At the start it went well for the Wolves as they managed to take out the artillery piece on the first round with cyclone missiles. The Imperial Guard made a great counterattack and took out the an entire unit of long fangs and immobilised the predator annihilator, with fire from the leman russ and a demolisher. Later  in the game the wolves managed to destroy the chimera transport and immobilise and destroy the demolishers main gun. The Guard replied with a solid defensive line and with sustained fire from the heavy support teams and managed to remove several terminators and grey hunters.

John put on an amazing Sealion style game today. He and Andy Scott were the Shabby Hun invaders, escorting a Luftwaffe bomber crew to a Kriegsmarine boat at the far end of the board to the Fallschirmjager gliders. Daniel Scott and myself played the Home Guard, a squad of land girls with shotguns and a lorried section of regular infantry as reinforcements who appeared after the Verger rang the church bells. A small squad of BUF helped the Germans, but were dispatched by the Guard like the traitors they are.

Well done and thanks John.

This 28mm game was played between Darren and Gordon, although I am unable to advise you of who commanded each side.  The mission was intended to be (in the words of  Daren) a "Get Carver" scenario, where the British player had tot link up with a couple of bases of friendly local tribesmen and Lt. Carver then  to escort them back to base. A there and back mission so that it makes an excuse to take the machine gun! Regretfully, I cannot confirm if the young subaltern was successful in his objective but I am sure he firmly upheld the finest traditions of the British Empire in executing his duties.

After a touch of confusion we played Lion Rampant using the raid scenario from the Barons' War Death and Taxes book. Stuart S moderated with John F and Andy S as the forces of good and tax evasion (aka Robin Hood and chums).  Howard and Dan S played the evil sheriff's tax collector robbers. 

A raid was placed on the village of Wimentum, a small hamlet in Nottinghamshire with vast lead reserves. A scuffle ensued and the heroic blacksmith, who had fought in the Crusades, scarpered of the table pretty quickly never to be seen again. After much pillaging and fighting the forces of good lost their courage and conceded, as all good movies place the good guys in jeopardy before the final victory!

All in all a nice set of rules fairly easy to understand with a few nuances here and there. In my view Lions Rampant 2nd Edition is highly recommended and costs only £20.

Ian and Andy R were the protagonists in this 28mm fantasy scenario using Saga rules. This was the first time that the two players has used these rules for such a purpose and so the game was very much an exercise in working out the nuances in order to see if the game mechanism would produce satisfactory results. It would be nice to know if this objective was achieved. However, both players have maintained a strange silence.

There were four players in this 15mm Ancients game - Andy W, Billy, Bob and Neil C. To my untrained eye, the battle looked to be a Carthaginians vs Seleucids encounter, using figures from Andy's collection (although, it is possible that I am entirely mistaken).  Again, information on the course of this engagement is shrouded in mystery so it is impossible for me to let you know of the events or outcome of the contest.

Howard and Daniel were beach defenders with a resistance nest each. There were 17 bunkers and tobruks for John and Stuart S (the US commanders) to take out. We were using a scenario straight from the D Day theatre Book Fox Green Beach.

As landing craft advanced, German big gun shooting was fairly ineffective. As the US hit the beach and could only advance over the beach and the bluffs they were exposed to effective MG fire which actually felt more effective than than the big guns (which is the known Bolt Action fact that a big gun gets one shot and at a 50/50 chance of a hit that can be quite a few misses, whilst MGs deliver lots of dice increasing the chance of success). Off shore naval gun fire blasted away and helped out the advancing beach assault teams. Time was called as the Germans lost their anti tank capability.

All in all a fun game using plenty of not normally used rules, like landing craft, bunkers and beach assaults. My Celotex gave the beach and surrounds a good feel. This raised the resistance nests up, making them look down on the beach.

The first of two Chain of Command games played at the meeting, this one was a 28mm Normandy skirmish in which Dan assumed command of a British platoon and Dave B took charge of a similarly sized German force. Neil W acted as the umpire. The game was a 'patrol' scenario in which each side had a mobile reconnaissance team in support, the Brits fielding a Bren Carrier and the Germans a half-track. 

A striking feature of the game was the very large number of leader casualties suffered by both sides, many of them fatalities, which caused numerous command and control issues for both players. Dave also had an early set back when his half track was immobilised by a well placed PIAT though, fortunately for him, all the team within survived the attack. Dan's recon team in the Bren Carrier also had to abandon their vehicle and head for cover, even though the vehicle itself was undamaged. Both sides' force morale diminished as the fighting wore on but it was Dave who decided their was no point in continuing the fight as the number of command dice at his disposal was reduced to three. A well fought and close run game.

AAR for Dads' Army / Germans #3

The only sensible option for the Nazis was to work down a hedged road to reach the far table edge. Progress was slow until a senior leader took things in hand and lead 2 squads forward. The Home Guard reduced the lead squad from 6 to 3 over a couple of rounds but then they got 3 hits and my 3 saves were 6, 6 and another 6. Dead squad! Oberleutnant Schmidt survived alone and summoned the next squad! 

The Germans then shot their way to victory. Amazingly, although most of the infantry on both sides became casualties no senior leaders were hit during the whole game.  Both sides will need a new platoon for game 4, the Germans have to advance through a fortified village.

This was a 6mm scale game with all the figures coming from Nick's collection. He was also 6the umpire and the other participants were Keith, Ross, Stuart M and Andy W. The scenario on the table was based around the orders of battle of the Union and Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg (fought in July 1863) but the miniature battle was fought on open terrain and over one day instead of three. Unfortunately, no report of the action has got through to your correspondent, I can only assume that all the telegraph wires were damaged beyond repair in the course of the fighting.

Kings of War – 2500 points a side – The Battle for the Haven Crossings

We upped the points for another campaign battle and were rewarded with an epic, brutal game. James commanded the Rhordian left (the Panzer division – Knights and Steam Tanks) while Maurice led the Royal Guardsmen, Arquebusiers, Volley Guns and Pistoliers on their right. Darren’s Empire of Dust came to aid Russ’ Halflings and they intermingled their troops – Skeleton Spearmen, Guardian Archers and Mummies with Jugger Knights, Stalwart heavy infantry, Aeronauts and a Harvester.

The battle started well for the Halfling defenders. The Guardian Archers did a good job taking out the Volley Guns while the Knights manoeuvred for position and the Juggers got off the first charge that routed a regiment of Rhordian Knights. On the other flank the Stalwarts followed up their Winged Captain and crashed into the Pistoliers, but instead of routing them, threw the dreaded double 1!

In the Rhordian turn the Steamtanks combined against the Juggers and routed them. Despite their success, the Steamtanks were exposed and mobbed by Mummies, hard-hitting heroes and the Soulsnare but a simply wretched sequence of die rolls saw them shrug off the attacks and hit back hard along with their Knight regiments on the next turn. Other highlights at this time were the mercenary Aeronauts that routed the Halfling Harvester and Maurice’s Arquebusiers who so nearly lived up to their reputation of laughing off devastating charges. 

With consistently high Rout rolls the Rhordians broke the back of the Halfling army and captured a bridgehead across the River Haven. The path to the Halfling capital lies wide open. Next month we’ll have the culmination of the campaign, the Battle of Hodenburg.

Pete and I played game 2 of the German / home guard campaign - most of the Germans from the first game vs the battered remains of the 1st dads army platoon. 

I set off over the open fields to attack the village on the table edge but it didn’t go well. The WI (Women's Institute!) threw lots of command 6’s and got 3 rounds of fire against  my squad - the remains quickly fell back into cover! After that the German meat grinder wore the Brits down and eventually forced them to retire.

The next game looks even harder for the Wehrmacht . . . .

This was a 'playtest' game for my adaptation of the Infamy Rules for Fantasy games, Fantastic Infamy. It saw an Ogre force up against one of Dwarfs. The scenario was a straightforward pitched battle.

Under my own guidance, I thought I would use the superior Ogre speed and aggression to swiftly overwhelm the Dwarfs (commanded by Andy R) before they could get themselves organised and shoot me to pieces with their deadly Crossbows. It spectacularly failed as the elite Dwarf Huscarls cut down my piecemeal attacks with their Great axes. With their big Chief dead, the Ogres were forced to make a hasty retreat back to their caves without hardly a scratch being suffered by their foe.

Most importantly, the rules as far as they are developed seemed to be working well enough, and a good game was had.

This was a spectacular game in 28mm that featured figures and terrain from Keith's extensive collection.  Fire and Fury is a well used set of rules at the club and seems to be the 'go to' gaming system for those interested in fighting American Civil War battles. Andy W and Neil C were the other participants in the battle but, regrettably, I can provide no information on the course and outcome of the game. 

This game was played between Ewan and Harry who were using 10mm figures from their own collections. The battle was a little known episode from the Orclish Civil War. Ewan has very kindly written a very full report on what transpired and you can read it here. Thanks Ewan

Howard and Daniel S continued their dalliance with Saga with an excursion into the Ancient period. This good looking 28mm game featured a Carthaginian force up against an army of Republican Romans. Unfortunately, I have forgotten who commanded each side but I do recall that Daniel told me that Howard's force had been victorious.

Andy S took John Lavender on for a game of Team Yankee playing the 'Escape from Shellerten' scenario. The GSFG-Warpac forces had a tank company of 13 T72s and 9 BMP2s with artillery, AA and artillery in support. John had an British BAOR infantry platoon with an under strength Chieftain tank squadron, 

again with other supports but half of the defenders were in immediate reserve. This was a smaller game than usual for us as John had been out of Team Yankee for a while.

 In the game itself, the Warpac steam roller advanced, shooting as it went. It was countered by the British and there was a steady trade in casualties  A pair of SU25 Frogfoots then came on to the table and took out two tanks in one turn. The BMP2s dismounted their infantry to take the objective. John advanced onto the objective to deny me victory and John took the battle very close but it was great fun and a good learning experience. We’ll done John!

Nick was the umpire (and figure provider) for this 15mm refight of the crucial battle of the Great Northern War, originally fought in July 1709. Gordon and Neil W were jointly in charge of the Russian forces and Ross took the part of the commander of the much smaller Swedish army. In order to replicate the circumstances of the engagement (which involved a night march of the Swedish army in order to attack the Russian camp while avoiding defensive redoubts), Nick had devised an ingenious but complicated scenario which involved the possibility of Swedish units getting lost, Russians failing to wake up and much fumbling in the dark. 

In the early stages of the game, Ross was able to achieve a good deal of surprise, catching many Russian cavalry units unprepared and routing a good number of them. However, as the dawn arrived, more and more Russian units were rousing themselves and cavalry reserves were appearing to the front of the Swedes. By the time the game ended the result was still in the balance but the Russians, with most of their forces now mobilised, now enjoyed a considerable numerical advantage.

Match report The Barons' War first game Sunday 7th April Holt Heath.

Stuart S and Pete took on Wyn and Bryan with a 500 point force for each commander. As a first game, both sides drew their lines and advanced on each other. Stuart took out Bryan's only missile troops in two phases of shooting. A Melee ensued with some odd results - what looked like a defeat for Wyn and Bryan was turned into a victory after they killed Pete's commander and then rounded on Stuart who had such a good start who was like the Robin Hood of Worcestershire.

Notes for first game in the future: -

Rosters - for Barons' War, make sure they are all to hand, printed or written out. Looking in the book sent me mad.

Scenery - make sure all is discussed before kick off what is cover and what s not.

Rules - make sure you have a good grasp on them before you unleash on others.

Here are a few musings from Pete: -

My downtrodden Thegns and Peasants dared to take the field against their betters today. After a good start that saw the mounted Sergants driven off, the mounted Knights rode around the church and caught them between foot and Knights. The rebels were crushed. Great game of Baron's War though 

Yet another appearance of the Saga rules which are gradually becoming the most popular in use at the club. This contest saw Daniel S and Howard using their collections of 28mm medieval figures to fight two games in the course of the afternoon. The second game had a distinctly more wintry feel to it than the first one, though whether this resulted in a significant change in the game play, or was purely an artistic touch, I am unable to say. 

This was a game played with 1:3000 models in which Nick was the commander of a Royal Naval force and Neil W was in charge of the ships of the Kriegsmarine. The scenario was that the Tirpitz, with substantial support, was at loose in the North Atlantic and the British Admiral and his task force had orders to sink the German battleship at all costs. Sea conditions were moderate but visibility was limited and the ships were initially represented on the table by dummy markers which were only revealed as targets became visible to either enemy vessels or spotter planes.

The British capital ships (Hood and Queen Elizabeth) lost no time in engaging their German counterparts (Tirpitz was accompanied by Scharnhorst), while cruisers and destroyers tried to move into position to fire torpedoes. Several smaller ships suffered serious damage and one British destroyer was sunk, however no torpedoes struck the big units. In the gunnery duel, the Queen Elizabeth was badly hit but with the British battleships concentrating on the Tirpitz, it was the German flagship which suffered the heaviest damage. The Tirpitz resolutely remained afloat until the end of the game but the Royal Navy achieved the moral victory.

Somewhere near the German Borderland.

Centurion Dipsus was tasked with destroying one of the Settlements in the land of the great Warlord Sucher. Using the Infamy rules the Roman Column (under the direction of Gordon and Daniel M) ventured into "Barbarian" territory towards their goal. The Germans (under the control of Andy R and Paul B) laid out some potential ambush points along the line of the Roman advance. Abreast of the target farm the main body of German warriors deployed and waited for the Romans while building themselves up with fervour (pep talking by their Leader).

Meanwhile the the main Roman column of Legionaries steadily made its way directly towards towards the objective. Preliminary skirmishing by the cavalry and skirmishers of both sides to the column flank produced little effect other than them occupying each other. The Roman scorpion was quickly nullified by some accurate slinger missilry, and after a brief fisticuffs, the cavalry of both sides pulled back to lick their wounds. They would play little part in the rest of the battle. It was time for the heavier troops to take the initiative. Roman auxiliary emerging from the woods saw off the last of the German cavalry, prompting the German "oathsworn" to appear ahead of them. Combat between them ensued but no breakthrough could be achieved by either side. A battle of attrition followed. In the meantime, the main German Clan warriors had come off their hill, advancing towards the Roman legionaries, crashing into them, all hyped up with maximum fervour. However, the Romans were ready to 'receive' them, braced in dense close-order formation. An initial partial breakthrough by the Germans was contained, and the combat devolved into another slog of attrition.

Unfortunately for the Romans, this left the German foederati, newly emerged from the woods on the Roman flank, to swing into the rear area of the Roman advance. A surprise ambush by some fanatics hidden amongst the foederati, destroyed the already weakened blocking Roman cavalry and sealed the Roman escape route (back to their own table edge).

The game ended here without a definitive result, but the Romans were far short of their objective, had a crashing force morale, and were surrounded. I think at that point, most of the Romans would rather be somewhere else!

It was fun to MC, I hope the guys enjoyed it and maybe got a better appreciation for the potential of Infamy, Infamy!

Darren provided all the resources and acted as umpire for this game in which Bob played the role of the British commander and Keith controlled the Dervish infantry. Fortunately, Darren was able to procure a copy of the Dark Continent Times (Victorian era) which gives a full account of this bloody encounter and which you can read here. Thanks Darren.

This was the first time this year that these Ancient rules have been in used in a game. This one was between Andy GPT and Harry and I suspect that some of Andy's well known modifications were also in play. Unfortunately, I cannot provide information on the outcome of the contest but I will happily correct this omission if one of the protagonists shares the details.

A report of the two battles Andy W and I fought yesterday. Two battles were fought between Nikephorian Byzantines and Italo-Normans using the To the Strongest! rules.

In the first battle, the Normans set up with two strong Knight commands (supported by Sicilian mercenary spearmen) either side of some spearmen. The Byzantines had two cavalry/light horse commands either side of their Skoutatoi, Varangian guards and light infantry javelinmen. The Byzantines came forward cautiously and were then charged by the Norman knights. In the initial charge the Byzantines stood their ground and actually destroyed one unit of knights. The Byzantine bow-armed cavalry then refused to engage where possible and used their bows against the knights, defeating more. The Italian spearmen had not advanced and this gave the opportunity for some Skoutatoi to start flanking the Norman right and this started to roll up this side. On the other flank the Varangian guard moved forward against the Sicilian mercenaries. However, despite being “deep, veteran, extra 2HCW” etc, they were quickly defeated and destroyed. However, their advance permitted the javelinmen to flank some Norman knights and somehow single- handedly destroy them (they then went onto to do the same to the Sicilians who defeated the Varangians). This let the Nikephorian cavalry to now charge the flank of more Knights and this led to the collapse of the Norman army.

In the second battle the Byzantines set up with the infantry on one flank and the cavalry in the centre and the left. The Italo-Normans set up the infantry in the centre and the knights concentrated very deep on their right. The Byzantines came on very quickly to compress the Norman knights and stop them spreading out whilst the infantry slowly started a flanking manoeuvre. The Norman knights charged the advancing Nikephorian cavalry and were luckier this time creating some gaps. However, the Nikephorian tactic of standing back and shooting was having a telling effect on the Normans. Also, the recurring theme of using elite troops with extra advantages has the same result as in the first game as a Norman knight and general were destroyed charging some second line Byzantine cavalry. This led to one Norman command being demoralised. However, the gap that did appear in the Byzantine line did enable one Italo-Norman knight unit, led by their general to get through a gap, push some light cavalry out of the way and let some spearmen flank attack some veteran Skoutatoi who had a general with them. The Skouatoi survived but the general did not. Also, the gap in front of the Norman knights was directly in front of the undefended camp and thinking of booty (and victory points) they went off down the board towards the camp. The Byzantines couldn’t intercept the rampaging knights and despite some desperate Byzantine attacks which almost broke the Normans, the loss of their camp was enough to demoralise the whole Byzantine army.

Any lessons? Sending in elite crack units with every possible advantage against less capable troops is a guaranteed means of losing them!

This 28mm game saw a welcome return to the club by Andy Sh who, with the help of Bryan, took command of a Russian platoon whose task was to assault a German defensive position and drive the enemy from the field.  Graham was in charge of the German troops and Neil W was his assistant. Andy chose an extra squad, a BA24 armoured car and a T34/76 as his support options, Graham also picked an additional squad (green troops) together with some minefields and barbed wire defences. 

The Russians made their main effort on the right flank, deploying two squads with support from the armoured car and the tank. Graham suffered from a succession of poor dice rolls (we've all been there), resulting in heavy losses among officers and other ranks, which rapidly reduced his force morale to a dangerously low level. He made strenuous efforts to reposition his resources to meet the threats but ran out of time before this could be accomplished. So the Russians achieved a comprehensive victory.

From Harry: - First time playing for Neil,  first time in two or three years for me and it's a quite an intricate ruleset, so really a practice game (and indeed we did make a couple of large errors in rules interpretation). The game involved a prolonged shooting phase before the lines got to grips, and surprisingly the Greeks probably had the better of it, with their scruffy little light horse units routing my Parthian horse archers on one wing and my feared Persian cavalry on the other (which included my commander). My immortals in the centre wasted the day loosing off arrows against a solitary unit of Cretan bow skirmishers - eventually routing them but it took all day.

When the slow moving Hoplites did manage to get into contact they routed my right wing (the same one that had lost its commander). On my left they only just managed to get into contact by the end of the day, having taken heavy losses thanks to our over generous interpretation of the rules for shooting at chargers. In the centre there was too much terrain for the Hoplites to make any progress and I duly spent the day skulking behind it and using Neil's skirmishers for target practice.

We were both impressed by the rules and hope to play some more games in the near future.

From Neil: - Super rules - some real depth to them and a very balanced and nuanced game. I think once we have got to grips with the “overwatch” concepts and counter charges and defensive fire they will bed down as a good solid set.  Damage can vary which adds risk. The delta between their circumstances/“critical number” and a cohesion role can produce different results so it’s not boring attrition but contact but a bit more exciting.  Skirmishers and lights are modelled well. They do just disperse when contacted by heavies. Different weapons are modelled well - having longer ranges but the effectiveness drops off considerably - point blank javelins or slingshot can be withering. 

Command and control is quite balanced - there is not the whole wing bogs down on an an unlucky card effect of To the Strongest - rather initiative is important and the order that wings get to move but everyone moves. You can double move etc and do more but at the risk of disruption to a unit rather than non-movement if other units in the same command so it is a good puzzle but less “gamey” and more simulation.

I am quite taken with them and we had a good 4 hours which shot past - very engaging. Thanks to Harry and thanks to Nick for the figure lend to allow us to play a grand battle.

An encore for the game that was played at Holt Heath earlier in the month, Ross once again supplied the figures and scenery for a New World encounter between the Spanish and the Incas using the 'Conflict at the World's End' rules. This time his opponent was Billy. I think they managed to get two games played during the afternoon and that honours were even at the end but I am unable to confirm or deny this assertion.

From Pete: - Today, Andy and I played the first scenario from the Chain of Command 'Home Front' mini campaign, in which the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) tried to stop the Wehrmacht advance.

The the local cricket team made up almost half of the platoon, supported by farm workers and their wives. Just stopping an advance might seem a simple task, but it proved well beyond the LDV who, despite inflicting some casualties including the mortar team, and petrol bombing the armoured car, took significant casualties themselves.

Whether they will be capable of regrouping enough to play any further part in the campaign remains to be seen.

From Andy: - The Germans had it easy today but I think there’s trouble ahead. The next game looks far harder for the Wehrmacht.

This game was a fine looking medieval clash in 28mm featuring the figures of Andy GPT and Andy P, who was making his first appearance at the club (welcome Andy, we hope there will be many more). I am afraid that the information I have on this game is very scanty although I remember that Andy P ruefully admitted to me that things had not gone as well as he hoped. Further information would be deeply appreciated.

We managed to get two games in of Strength and Honour on Sunday. The battle was Vercellae part of the Cimbrian war 101BC (aka Raudine Plain)

The king of the Cimbri, Boioix, has invaded northern Italy and Marius has come to help his consular colleague Catalus who had been withdrawing from the Cimbrians. The two armies met of a dusty plain  Due to this dust the Roman army, normally well disciplined with their movement, aren't allowed to move at the speed they want and move the full distance rolled on the dice, so their battle line can be broken. This is how the Cimbrian warbands operate normally.

The first battle saw me (the Cimbri) take on Andrew (the Romans). I placed my elite and veteran warbands on my right wing and my cavalry on my left wing with my regular warbands in the centre. The Romans had their cavalry facing mine but their better legions in the centre and raw legions on either flank. On my left my cavalry became stuck in combat with the Roman cavalry who had the better of the fighting, pushing my cavalry back. But it was my infantry being able to break the Roman raw legions causing enough morale cards to force them over their break break point to win the first game.

For the second battle we swapped sides. This time I placed my Roman cavalry on my left flank next to my better Legions, my raw legions on my right flank and I was going to try and avoid combat with them. The Cimbri matched me with their better warbands on their right flank facing my better legions. These better troops would remain in battle for the majority of the game and it wasn't until my raw legions rode their luck and were able to rout some normal warbands that the Romans could claim victory as the Cimbri morale cards accumulated.

So it was one victory each for the Cimbri and Romans, showing that the battle could certainly go either way.

The Eldar and Space Wolves met again for a bitterly contested struggle in a 'countryside' setting including some iconic jungle terrain and ruined church from the early 2000s.  Although significant differences in both army lists since last time, the results were similar.  The Space Wolves lost most of a Grey Hunter squad and all three of their bikes, in exchange for nearly all of the Eldar disappearing!  

There was, however, a nail-biting climax as the Striking Scorpions holding the church objective decided their best option was an aggressive defence.  The six Scorpions charged the fifteen strong Bloodclaw pack and killed all but three of them until finally the Exarch succumbed under a rain of blows!  For the rest of our lives among the 40K-IV die-hards, the big question remains: was it worth it for the Exarch to strike last with a powerfist? 

Kings of War - Battle of the Southern Plains

Maurice, Darren, Russ, and I met at Holt for our biggest game yet at 2300 points in the second battle of Maurice’s campaign. Russ fielded (and I advised) an all-Halfling army that added an Iron Beast and hordes of Spearspikes and Juggers to the usual crew of Poachers, aerial troops and heroes. Maurice left his artillery behind in favour of his Steam Tank (that used the stats from the Dwarven Golloch’s Fury) while Darren fielded flying Carrion and the Soul Snare for the first time in his allied contingent (obviously to replace the losses the Rhordians had suffered in our previous game). 

Highlights of the battle were the murderous shooting of the Poachers on the Halfling left and the devastating charges of the Jugger Knights on their right. From the other side of the table, there were cheers for the incredible durability of the Mummies, Skeleton troops and Arquebusiers in the face of heavy attacks, the frightening magic of the Soul Snare and the grand exploits of the Steam Tank that shot bits off several Halfling units before crushing a regiment of Spearspikes with nary a scrape to its armour. 

It was an absorbing, brutal, hard-fought game that ended in a winning draw for the Halfling defenders. They have blunted the initial Rhordian thrusts from the north, and now the south, towards their capital. We will now take a break from the campaign for a couple of months before the story continues. 

Romans and Celts bumbling through the glade...Harry and I had an entertaining exploration of Infamy! Infamy!

Three war bands of Celts deployed early onto the table. Their hapless leader failed to generate any fervour and they sat out the entire game on the side lines. Opposing them a small but potent force of Romans. Having missed their target entirely with their first volley the Roman archers managed to kill five of the six Celtic slingers with their second shot. The supporting Auxiliaries got swiftly drawn out of the game chasing some marauding mounted skirmishes to their left flank and took no farther part in the battle.

On their right a squad of Romans got over excited and charged into the hills in an attempt to reach the slovenly Celtic warbands. This left their flank exposed to an ambush by two elite units of Celts who promptly routed them and the force C-in-C. Finding themselves exposed in the middle of the Roman ranks, the Celtic Nobles then ploughed into a second unit of Romans before they could reorganise. The Romans were subsequently pushed back with heavy casualties. Finally without any fervour the slovenly Celtic warbands began to amble forward threatening the last stranded group of legionnaires. Deciding the game was up the Romans  called it a day leaving the Celts to feast on  warm beer and roast boar in peace.

A good game with some extreme positive and negative dice roles on both sides that could have taken the game either way and which demonstrated that two complete novices can play a swift game of Infamy! Infamy!

I used a set of rules first published in Miniature Wargames back in 1997 which utilises a card-driven system for individual aircraft on bombing missions over various parts of Western Europe. The idea of Sunday's game was to scale-up the system to take squadrons of Lancasters on similar missions.

Nick took one squadron (16 aircraft) and John a second squadron (19 aircraft). They fly across 6 'zones' towards their target. These include North Sea, Enemy Coast, Holland, North Germany, etc.  They need to negotiate various potential hazards such as flak, enemy fighters, mid-air collisions and navigational errors. On the return flight they face similar problems, together with possibly running short of fuel and having to ditch.

After our first 'op' we had lost 8 aircraft out of 36. There were similar losses on the second 'op'. Crews were expected to fly 2 lots of 30 missions each, before they were stood down. No wonder only 10% of aircrews completed their tours.

This was the second appearance of Graham's prototype WWII battalion sized rules, the first was at the end of last year. Graham supplied all the 10mm figures and vehicles and acted as referee while Bryan took control of the attacking British force and Neil W was in charge of the defending Germans. The scenario took place in the Western Desert with Axis troops well dug in and protected by a minefield but the British had a 2:1 advantage in material and men. 

The Brits concentrated their efforts on the German left flank, using combined arms and fire support to blast through the German defences. The defending commander rapidly switched resources form the German right to repel the assault but sheer weight of numbers, combined with some accurate anti-tank fire, proved too much and the British were able to force their opponents to withdraw. 

The rules Graham has designed are loosely based on 'Spearhead' and make full  use of blinds, spotting, active and dummy minefields and a simple command and control mechanism. A single D20 is all that is required and both participants soon got the hang of the rules and agreed that they gave an enjoyable game. I think that there are one or two small tweaks that Graham would like to make but I am hoping that he will be placing his rules on this site in the very near future.

Ross provided all the resources for this sixteenth century action situated in the New World. The other players involved were Bob, Neil C and Pete. The setting was the Spanish conquest of the Inca nation and the rules in use were Irregular Wars 'Conflict at the World's End' which is intended as a fast play set for small actions, and is driven by chance cards. Ross was hopeful that more than one battle could be fought in the course of the afternoon but as this was the first try-out of the rules I am not sure if this objective was achieved. However, the reports I received on the day indicated that the superior technology and organisation of the Conquistadors had been too much for the indigenous population to withstand. 

I laid on a game of Team Yankee taking first contact encounter straight from the novel.

Stu as American was holding a wooded hill with an open plain with a small farm and village to his front. A cavalry formation of M3 Bradleys were retreating through Stu’s lines when the recon vanguard came through. Stu killed the recon vanguard off in quick order. Then the motor rifle battalion turned up and the Bradleys were no more !!

Stu kept his armour in ambush. Then, as Daniel S and Mike's GSFG tanks advanced, he opened fire with fairly devastating effect. Daniel's SU25 Frogfoots turned up and killed two Abrams tanks with good shooting (and dice). Then his artillery put a barrage on three Abrams tanks.  A poor defence roll vs the top armour killed off two more Abrams tanks. 

Daniel pushed some of the armour into the village which really hamstrung the armour for lack of targets and rear armour wasn’t good and resulted in more casualties. Then Stu moved his armour of the hill to sweep before him with mixed results. The artillery in the woods took some effective fire on the rear of Stu’s T72s.  At that, the GSFG forces called time as they were spent. Captain Surridge was facing court martial but, like Uncle Albert,  there was a war on 

A fun Game with a few notes to take -

Artillery on top armour with a chance of success of defeating it.

Tanks entering built up areas and floundering.

Warsaw Pact using artillery on table which in some formations was doctrine typically used to defeat ATGM teams.

What I definitely don’t like in Team Yankee is the command distances from each other which needs scaling up - it ends up in car park wars and the scale which I can live with. After playing Challenger (by Tabletop Games) back in the 80s it’s all a balance of rules over playability. I must admit there’s plenty of other rules out there to try out - I will one day.

This was a very nice looking game in 28mm scale and featured a small action in the French and Indian war of the mid seventeenth century. The participants were Paul B, mark and Henrik and the well-known Lardies' rules were in play once again. I believe that all the figures were supplied by Henrik from his own collection and they looked superb. Regrettably, I am unable to provide details of the course of the game itself or who the winners were.

It's been a long time but, at last, this famous set of rules has made an appearance at the club. Ewan and Jon (making his first visit to the club) laid on a very impressive looking scenario set in a mixture of  ruined concrete structures and jungle. Ewan has very kindly produced a detailed account of the action which deserves its own page on the site, so please enjoy it here. 

More 28mm First World War action with a set of Lardies' rules but this time it was the modifications to the standard Chain of Command WW2 set, detailed in the "Play the Game" supplement to the Mud and the Blood rules, that were in play. Gordon (who kindly supplied all the kit) and Charles commanded an attacking Russian platoon with generous support (including an armoured car) against an Austrian force, led by Bryan and Neil W, who were occupying a trench.

In the opening moves a Russian squad was broken by intense fire from the trench but the armoured car, firing machine guns from two turrets, started to inflict heavy casualties on the Austrians. Then, in a bold stroke, a Russian squad assaulted enemy troops in trees to the right of the trench and scored a remarkable success in the ensuing close combat. More Russian squads then deployed in the same location and began to rake the trench with fire. When the Russian commanders introduced another MMG to the centre of the table, the Austrian leaders decided they could no longer hold the position and their troops made a swift exit.

An excellent display of 28mm English Civil War figures was the outstanding feature of this seventeenth century encounter, all from the fair hand of Keith. The Pike and Shotte rules are on offshoot of the well known Black Powder set developed by Warlord games but, to the best of my knowledge, have not appeared at the club for several years. Including Keith, the participants in the game were Billy, Jon P and Nick. Unfortunately, I have no information on the course of the battle.

Daniel and Howard played a couple of games using these popular medieval skirmish rules during the course of the afternoon with a fine collection of 28mm figures and terrain on the table. I would like to think that after the two contests honours were even but this assumption has not been verified.

Myself, Dave K and Darren W fought a game of TtS Wars of the Roses, in 28mm. This was a practice run for the participation game we will be running at Hammerhead, recreating the battle of Tewkesbury. Being a practice run it was fought on an open board, free of terrain and was mainly an opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the rules, the unit types and to throw some ideas around.

Anyway the Yorkists were soundly beaten, despite some minor successes early on from their artillery, in which the Lancastrians were entirely lacking. Once the lines started to close the heavy armour of the Yorkist men at arms was slowly but surely picked apart by the Lancastrian longbows and billmen (bills causing a minus factor on saving throws). The Yorkists also suffered a series of failed activation rolls, in contrast to the historical battle where it was certain Lancastrian commanders who were slow to get moving!

The one element we did include from the historical battle was the arrival of the Yorkist cavalry ambush, timed to arrive 1.5 hours into the game. However, by that point the Yorkists were too far gone for it to make any difference.

The second game of To the Strongest was fought between Andy W and Neil C. This 15mm tussle featured Carthaginian and Seleucid armies from Andy's own collection fighting on a suitably parched and barren Middle-Eastern type surface. The battle was the usual closely fought affair but Neil seemed to be resigned to defeat when I spoke to him near close of play. It is, of course, perfectly possible that a late master stroke reversed his fortunes but I am unable to comment on the likelihood of this occurence.

The battle for Portefields Farm and a return to  1938 Worcester with a Very British Civil War. The Severn Riverside Wharf Labours Federation SRWLF attempt to stop a BUF flying column from entering the city down the Tolladine Road. The good people of the Tolladine Militia came out from their newly built council homes to help throw back the men in black. 

Nice to get the collection back in the table Peter James supplied the BUF black shorts with a fine array of armour…

I forgot the SRWLF appeared in the source book so nice to get them back on the table.

This 28mm contest was a "dry run" of the display game the club will be exhibiting at the West Midlands Military Show (Alumwell) in March. Andy S, Keith, Howard, Daniel and Stuart S took part in a 28mm recreation of Operation Compass, the successful British assault on Italian forces defending Libya and Cyrenaica which took place in late 1940, early 1941. The rules are basically Bolt Action but with a twist of Chain of Command thrown in. The game looked great and I'm sure the lads are going to do us proud at Aldersley Leisure Village next month.

Kings of War -  The Battle of Ferchester

This Sunday we kicked off the first battle of Maurice's campaign, a meeting engagement on the north eastern border of the Shire between the forces of Hetronburg under Duke Maximilian Weiss and the Shire troops of Aeron Cadwallader. We fielded slightly larger armies at 1750 points. The Kingdoms of Men army commanded by Maurice and Darren was a fair spread of Knights on their right, Pistoleers and Halberdiers to the left, Royal Guard heavy infantry, Arquebusiers and artillery in the centre. Russ provided the Halflings this time with his superbly painted army that had several types of units that have never been seen at the club. In addition to Braves, a Harvester, Aeronauts and an Engineer in our centre, we also had Poacher light archers, Forest Troll Gunners and Jugger knights on our right in wooded terrain while the new mounted Rifles and gastromantic Spearspikes formation, backed up by some Ej Grenadiers and winged Captain holding a hill to our left opposite the main force of Knights.

The Halflings dashed forward trying to pick off the enemy artillery but with little success. Likewise, the Pistoleers cantered through the woods & loosed off a desultory volley at the Juggers at extreme range. The Knights held back so the Rifles started taking pot shots at them. Finally, the cannon showed everyone how to shoot properly and the Pistoleers spotted the Poachers' open flank and charged in. Fortunately for the Halflings, the Poachers just held on and the next turn the Pistoleers were smashed by Trolls, Juggers and a Halfling Captain. In the centre, the Harvester destroyed a unit of Guardsmen with a flank charge and the Aeronauts slammed into the flank of some Knights, but only wavered them.

 On our left, the Captain and Ej Grenadiers skipped over the advancing Knights while the Rifles foolhardily charged both them and the Arquebusiers. Predictably the Rifles failed to waver their opponents and they paid for it against the knights but managed to hold against the Arquebusiers. The Duke's artillery lit up the skies and absolutely shredded the Aeronauts. Fortunately the Harvester survived a tough test to keep the Halfling centre hanging by a thread while both flanks were getting decidedly interesting. 

At this point Maurice had to leave, but we had had a fine game. It was a pleasure having Russ join us with his fine new army and I look forward to next month when we up the points to 2300 a side. 

Darren provided all the figures and equipment for this scenario which represented a little-known incident in the Mahdist War at the end of the nineteenth century. Tom D was his opponent. Darren has produced a nineteenth century version of that well known organ of repute, the Dark Continent Times, in which a full account of this short but brutal engagement is given and you can read it here. 

This time Andy W (Russians) and Stuart M (Swedes) fought the 'what if' battle of Horki in 1708. While this battle never happened in reality it could very easily have been fought. The Swedes had invaded Russia and driven them back. The Russians then took up a 'last stand' defensive position ay Horki to defend the approaches to Moscow. The Swedes were close by but were running short of supplies, they were expecting a supply train to arrive. So in reality they waited for these to arrive and then moved south when they did not come. But at the time it was argued that a victory at Horki could bring access to Moscow and maybe even win the war. So the battle used the actual Russian army and positions at the time being attacked by the nearby Swedish army at that time.

The very outnumbered Swedes formed in 3 isolated groups. Infantry in the centre and two strong cavalry forces attacking each of the Russian flanks. The Russians had a similar set up but were a continuous line in defensive position and there were lots of them. On the Swedish left the cavalry attack there went well. Their units were individually better than the Russians and while the Russians had more units they couldn't use them because of the terrain. Here the Swedes made steady progress and would secure victory. On the other flank the Swedes were also enjoying some success but it was flawed. Using a gap in the line the Russian light horse broke through and caused havoc. The light horse and the intervention of some of the Russian infantry meant the Swedes progress was limited and the issue was still in doubt. Meanwhile the Swedish infantry in the centre advanced cautiously and then the Russian light horse from their right intervened. This brought confusion as the Swedish foot tried to counter the light horse. Then the waiting Russian infantry abandoned their defensive position and moved to the attack. Under heavy artillery fire and attacked from all sides by Russian light horse and infantry the Swedish infantry was doomed.

We had to finish before a final result but the game was close and could have gone either way. I think we will do it again sometime to see if what could happen. 

This was a second run of the WWI Lardies' rules that made their debut at the club last month. Once again Gordon provided all the resources for this 28mm scenario and also commanded the Austrian forces. Neil W and Charles were jointly in charge of the Russian troops. At the start of the game the Russians were in occupation of a trench and their task was to leave the protective cover and get to the opposite table edge. The Austrians, originally deployed in a line of trees were expected to repel the anticipated attack and then take possession of the vacated trench. 

The Russians immediately deployed two squads in the trench and began to exchange fire with enemy troops appearing through the trees. 'Blinds' were then moved forward by the Russian commanders but were soon spotted and the units were forced to deploy in the open, resulting in heavy losses, and driving them back into the trench. From there the Russians began to pour fire onto the Austrians in the trees who were also very wary of moving forward into the assault. The superior Russian numbers began to tell and the Austrian squads suffered heavy shock and casualties. The Austrian commander indicated that he would withdraw, but as neither side had achieved their objectives, the result was indecisive.

Late Romans: Andras

Saxons: Harry

Myself and Andras played an innovative mini - campaign consisting of a game of SAGA followed by To the Strongest, with the winner of the first game allowed to draw a random strategy card for the second.

The SAGA game consisted of a quicksilver Saxon raid on a Roman supply depot.  Roman defensive drill was no match for the ferocity of the Saxon battleboard and the guard detail was quickly swept off its objective, having taken heavy losses. However, it turns out that this raid was merely a diversionary tactic by the wily Saxon commander, who had used the confusion to insert an assassin into the Roman camp (the strategy card I drew enabled me to attempt to assassinate the Roman governor)

For the main battle the by now thoroughly intimidated Romans were bottled up by the Saxons in a grim rough, rocky, and marshy terrain.  However their confidence grew as the onrushing Saxon hordes started tumbling before volleys of arrows loosed by Roman rear rank archers, and were badly battered by the time they reached the Roman lines. The Saxons were also entirely deficient in cavalry, leaving them defenceless against a flanking manoeuvre.  Luckily for them, however, the Roman cavalry had witnessed the earlier destruction of the guard detail and were understandably slow to move from their starting position.

No conclusion had therefore been reached by the time darkness fell, and both sides withdrew.

The Roman governor survived to enjoy his dinner, having raced around the battlefield too much for the assassin to get close to him, although minus the vintage wine he usually took with it.

Thanks to Andras for a great pair of games.

Pete and I played again but with 750 points instead of 500.  Norman the Norman brought some axe men to the table with some reorganised foot and Harold Hairy Breeks brought 2 extra units of cheap Bondi Archers, each with a junior leader.  Once again the mounted Milites lured the berserkers forward and fought an unopposed round of melee, but now they had learnt to "regroup" after the melee, moving back out of the berserkers charge range. This was bad news for the berserkers but the Vikings used their extra command options to shoot 2 rounds of archery rather than the normal 1 and the Normans suffered considerable attrition and finally folded due to the losses inflicted. At this point Harold once again led his forces off the rear of the table rather than chasing the few remaining Normans, having thrown another 2 for morale followed by a 1 when he stopped to think again.  There must be a really good beerhall behind my table edge!

The game was again slowed by deliberations over the rules but we're getting there. Pete seemed to throw better morale dice than me but my shooting dice were better than his. This meant that the Norman units survived 1or 2 rounds of shooting but eventually suffered too much attrition. There wasn't much hand to hand combat this time so it was a very different game.  I need to recheck my maths as I'm wondering if my force had more leadership than allowed - I don't know if I can actually come up with a legal 1000 point Viking force, 750 might be about as big as vikings get given the constraints on "abilities" and "command groups" 

John F laid on another classic - the Axis airborne invasion of Crete. Billy and Andy S took charge of the defenders, a mix of British Greek and civilian defenders of mixed numbers and quality. Stu S and Dan S led the invaders who were very lightly armed and whose dotted deployment gave them a tactical complication. John was the umpire. The scenario being played was that the airfield was crawling with Germans and the allies had to effectively evict them as a matter of urgency and take the airfield back  and to deny yet more German reinforcements arriving.

The engagement kicked off with small unit firefights all over the place. The allies eventually were being out reinforced by the Germans and by the game end the writing was on the wall for the defenders.

As usual' John produced an amazing table with well painted  miniatures and model DFS 230 gliders as well. Rapid fire rules were in use and these are ideal for big table battles. So, all in all, well done to John.

There is not much I can tell you about this game, unfortunately, as no photographs were taken and no after-action report written (the illustration is from an 1812 Napoleonic game played at the end of 2023). What I can say is that the game was another try-out of Nick's latest set of Twilight rules, Gordon, Bryan, Charles and Nick were the participants and the scenario was a recreation of the hard-fought Peninsular War battle of Talavera in July 1809. If further information becomes available, I will share it with you.

This game featured Gauls, led by Harry versus Polybian Romans, commanded by Chas.

On the flanks Harry's barbarian light chariots barely rose to the level of a nuisance against Chas' Roman and Italian cavalry, while in the centre the infantry didn't really get to grips, both having to manoeuvre around a tricky marsh. However, the Gauls had the best of what clashes did take place.

The game didn't really reach a conclusion.

Pete (Norman the Norman) and I (Harold Hairybreeks) played our first game of "Baron's War" rules. We used 500 points so the Normans had 3 units of foot and unit of horse and a mobile C in C. The Vikings had a unit of Berserkers, a unit of "Hirdmen" (Huscarls) with the C in C and Raven banner, and a unit of bow. The table was fairly cluttered - it is a skirmish game - but most of the action took place around an enclosure in the centre of the table.

The Berserkers are obliged to move towards the nearest enemy so Pete cunningly lured them forward and charged his mounted milites at them. The milites fought a round of unopposed combat but only killed 1 Viking - the next turn saw the berserkers rout the milites as although they only won the melee 3 casualties to 2, that's 60% on the knights but only 25% on the Vikings. In the centre the Hirdmen beat off some foot Milites who routed, mainly due to poor dice throw.  In the next round the Berserkers charged and routed Norman the Norman and the Hirdmen and the archers combined to leave the second foot milite unit very unhappy. So this looks like a walk over for the Vikings but after 2 rounds of melee the Hirdmen took a morale test and threw a 2 on a D10 - even with the C in C present that's a fail, so the Vikings stopped to regroup and the Normans skulked away to recover, rather than being persued off the table.

What did I think of the rules?  With 500 points the Vikings seemed very constrained by the army list but chatting after the game I had some ideas to work around that, and we're playing 750 points next time. The Berserkers are incredibly lethal and immune to morale tests but a wily opponent could probably learn to deal with them. Although losing your leader or the Raven banner would be bad news, the rules didn't really explain how that might happen and there were a few other moot points during the game. All in all a fun, if short game. We're playing a Holt next time, but I think a "come and play" session at an event would be useful to clarify the rules. Thanks as ever to Pete. 

Stuart S and Andy S teamed up and combined Stuart's non-famous Cinderella Gang of cowboys and Andy’s law men led by Walker, Texas Ranger (great great great granddad of Andy S).

In the mostly peaceful town of Sweet Grass, Ugly Billy Bob had a date with the gallows. Pete and Daniel had two mobs of desperados who wanted to free their gang member so proceeded to shoot their way into the town. Daniel got off some cracking dead-eye shots, getting a perfect 20 a few times. Then the good guys got going and then eventually drove Daniel's gang off the table after an extensive shoot out. This left Pete isolated and he was ganged up on quite quickly and so Pete performed. a retreat with his survivors. The gang member was then hanged and had his date with the gallows. 

Dead Man’s Hand, from Great Escape Games, is a nice evocative set of rules driven by the initiative system of using playing cards. Other cards are also used to chrome up or play down the opposition . A gang is made up of roughly six to eight figures, so our whole game had about thirty figures in total on the table.

This was a great game enjoyed by all.

Andy W and Stuart M got together to fight a 15mm battle (the figures were from Andy's collection) using the 'To The Strongest' rules which are now the most popular set of  Ancient rules in use at the club. The scenario in play was a Carthaginian force against an army from the Seleucid Empire, each consisting of 130 - 160 points according to the army lists. Two battles were fought during the afternoon. Stuart won the first but I am unable to shed light on the outcome of the second battle as they were still fighting it when I departed.

This game was played in memory of Dave Chubb who passed away in October 2023 and who used to run these games frequently several years ago (for an account of what they were like, please see Dave's tribute page here). The baton has now passed to Ross, who provided all the resources for the game and also acted as umpire. Nick, Neil C and Phil were joined by Chris (aka Fred), an old friend of Dave's who had previously played this game, and they were the US commanders. The rules in use were 'Bodycount' in which the umpire controls all the Vietnamese forces. The game included the usual plethora of recorded messages, sound effects and music from the 1960's and all the players thoroughly entered into the spirit of the game - I spotted Neil C sporting a steel helmet at one point. Unfortunately I am unable to confirm who the winners were but, on reflection, it hardly matters.

Darren brought 1500 points of his Empire of Dust army to the club today so I joined him (makes a change from constantly fighting him) against Maurice & James with their 'shooty' Rhordians - two Volley Guns, a regiment and two troops of Arquebusiers, two regiments of Foot Guard and three regiments of Knights. We had two regiments of Skeleton Spearmen, two troops of Archers, two regiments of Mummies, a regiment of Chariots led by a Pharaoh and High Priest and supported by a Monolith and the Idol of Shobik. The Rhordians deployed in a long gunline bolstered by guardsmen with the knights making up a right flank hammer. We deployed with spears and bows on either flank, the mummies and the monolith in the centre, the chariots in reserve and Shobik on the left, facing the knights.

The Rhordian gun line stayed put while the knights swept down on us. Our archers engaged the volley guns with mixed results before the left flank troop was obliterated by knights. He was avenged by chariots & mummies being surged into those knights. The Rhordian's shooting dice were decidedly sub-par, which hurt them a lot because that was their main chance to make headway against the tough mummies and the generally high nerve and fearless EoD units. The one time it came good was knocking seven wounds off the chariots, but they still got a charge in against a second unit of knights who were held up by the spearmen. Those knights did finish off the mauled chariots, but once again had mummies surging into their flank to break them. On the other flank the EoD infantry weathered the missile fire and started getting stuck into the guardsmen and arquebusiers. With that flank crumbling, on the other Shobik got the better of his knightly opponents and the Rhordians decided the leave the deserts and go back to thumping Halflings. Or bring a Steam Tank next time.

It was an interesting game, seeing the effect of the Surge spell that allowed charges that normally wouldn't succeed as well as Shobik and the Monolith in action. It would be fun to see some other new armies in action. Get painting, chaps._._,_._

One of the few Lardies' games that has not (to the best of my knowledge) yet been played at the club is "Thorough the Mud and the Blood", a simulation of platoon-sized actions in the Great War. This omission was corrected today. Gordon provided all the figures and terrain in this 28mm battle and also acted as umpire. Bryan played the role of the Austrian commander whose troops were defending a trench line while Charles S and Neil W were jointly in charge of a force of attacking Russians. The rules use the familiar Lardie mechanism of drawing cards to initiate actions or events. 

In the game, Charles and Neil deployed their first platoon directly onto the table, advancing through a of line of trees into largely open ground in front of the Austrian positions. The Russian infantry bravely moved forward, inflicting some losses on the well dug in enemy, but as more Austrians arrived in the trench and also brought forward a heavy machine gun, Russian casualties mounted and some sections were forced back. The Russians introduced their support platoon, which included a Maxim MG but when this was lost the Russian commanders threw in the towel.

The umpire chided the Tsarist officers for attacking en masse and failing to use tactical movement and supporting fire. Their reply was that was what they thought Russians did and were only following standard practice.