Westerhope Wargame Group

Napoleonic head to head,Dave vs Paul,the report.

2012-02-14T14:35:00.011Z

Before I write the report on the battle,a few words on the mechanics and troop numbers,Paul had 10 British regiments of infantry,4 of cavalry,and two gun batteries.Dave who was French had 7 infantry,3 cavalry and two gun batteries.(one of which was located on his far left flank hill).Paul was to come onto the table in two waves (no pun intended) on move number 1 and move number 4,Dave could not move any of his troops from inside the city until move number 4,he did have 2infantry regiments behind gun hill and one behind his central hill-both hidden
This shows Paul's first wave about to land,he elected to have all his cav.3inf. and his horse artillery in the first wave,these troops were to approach the city from his right flank.It took longer than expected for him to get these troops into position due to half moves over the hill and through the woods.

This photo is out of "sync" but shows the dificult route Paul elected to take.

This is move number 4 and shows the French debouching from the city to take up defensive positions between the city and the central hill and woods.

The second wave has landed and is mounting a grand attack on the French centre and left flank hill.This attack was costly to the British and was temporarily halted by an audacious cavalry charge upon the leading column,culminating in arout for the British inf, involved and subsequently for the French cavalry involved!!

This is aview from the French central hill after the British first wave attack had faltered on the left due to a combination of Lancers,Horse artillery fire and well aimed volleys from the troops which Dave had hidden in the woods.

This shows the "audacious" and unexpected,charge of the French dragoons upon the leading British column.

This is a good photo of the main fighting areas on the table,the British are regrouping on their right flank whilst starting to mount an attack on the French right flank.The hidden troops have exposed themselves from behind the hill and the gunners are firing cannister into the leading British infantry.The attacks against this hill cost the British too many casualties in the long run,and possibly cost Paul the game.

This shows the second wave landing on move number 5,their objective was to attack the French central hill and gun hill.

A French counter attack!! This ran into difficulties from British infantry backed up by cavalry,the lancers were successful in a melee with British light dragoons but were asked to take a morale test and failed.

This shows the final stages of the game,Paul is trying to regroup his cavalry in the centre,however his infantry is being "hammered" by musket fire and cannister fire from the gun hill.

Paul and Dave decided,mutually ,that the British were in no fit state to achieve their objective and that they would return the boats to lick their wounds.

This was a tremendous game,played in a good spirit,involving realistic Napoleonic tactics,swift and bold movement,and the elan you would expect from these two very experienced players.
Doesn't dave look serious in these photographs ??

Napoleonic head to head. Dave vs Paul.

2012-02-14T13:35:00.007Z

This game was designed as an attack-defence game with a bit of a difference,a British force was tasked with landing in a bay and attacking a city, which was defended by a French force.The city was supported by two hills,one of which had a gun battery placed on it,and a wood .The British objective was to capture these two hills prior to investing the city.

This shot shows the gun emplacement which dominated the centre of the table.

This shows the centre hill and wood and the city approaches.

This wonderful photograph shows the magnificent city.(some time must have been taken to get this in all its glory)

This is a view from behind the gun emplacement looking towards the bay and landing area.

This is a general view of the whole table taken from the city,showing the rather difficult terrain that the British first wave decided to take towards the city.

The next "blog" will be a report on the game,which turned out to be a classic,not only for the way it was played,but for the time it took,we started playing at approx. 6pm and finally finished at 11pm !! after about 21 moves (I lost count at 19, and I was the referee!

Super Star Celebrities visit WWG.

2012-02-11T14:00:00.007Z

As you can see from the above photo George Clooney and Tom Cruise both "popped" in on our Thursday night Zulu vs British game,of course Paul and I are too modest to notice the similarity !! However the Mrs Coutts had to take this shot before she "swooned"

This shows my Left Horn regiments sweeping towards a pass on the British right flank, guarded by a very nervous troop of NNC.

This is the view from the British central position looking towards the Zulu centre,which is just starting to trundle forward.The Zulu centre was traditionally made up of veteran (old) warriors, and you almost smell the Fiery Jack and hear the wheels of their wheelchairs squeaking ! However it was the old men who proved to be the undoing of the British in the end.

This is the view the Zulu centre had as it moved to the attack,a well defended position with British companies and artillery in support.

This is the left horn in full attack,driving the NNC away and smiling in the face of the British rifles aimed at it !

The Zulu right horn and centre moving forward,the right horn got into a bit of a mess due to a company of Marines c/w Gatling gun and dismounted dragoons and the dreaded 17th lancers. The game was as usual very exciting and the British held their own until the very last move when the Zulus in overwhelming numbers crushed them and washed their spears in blood.

New playing surface.All change

2012-02-07T12:58:00.006Z

This is a view of our new playing surface,and it cost half of what I was going to spend with TSS at York.This is a sort of Astro-Turf, purchased at B&Q,Isuppose it is designed to be laid instead of grass,however at £9.98 per sq.metre, it worked out at just under £60 to cover our 10 by 6 foot table.The benefits I have found so far are that it is seanless,jointless and totally flexible,there's bound to be a drawback like having to cut it in the summer months, or getting rid if moles etc.Paul and I had a game on it on Thursday and found the figures slid easily across it, and of course our hills and river sections look good on it too.( I have actually bought a little bit more to make hills with-they look good as well.)

Here is a shot of the "grass" complete with river sections,palms and a temple.

Here is another photo of some Bavarian,Marlburian, infantry and cavalry passing in front of a farmhouse,just to show how the colour stands out.
Also below is a shot of Dave ,in the snow outside the Vapnartak show on Sunday.It looks quite cold !!!

Finally a shot of my Iron Agehouses and my Windmill,on the painting table,undercoated and hopefully they will be completed by Thursday or Friday.An existing house is shown so I can copy the painting style and colours that I did about a year ago.

Vapnartak 2012

2012-02-07T11:39:00.002Z

After a very chilly and snowy start,Graham,Dave and I arrived at York to find it even chillier and alot more snowy !!
However after eventually getting parked on the roadway,we were greeted in the usual friendly manner by the "boys" on the door,and we started our spending frenzy.
I got off to a good start and spent what I had intended to spend at the Hovels stand; two Iron Age huts and a Windmill later,(as they say in Holland,"you can't have too many windmills",I could relax and enjoy the show.There were some good demo games,and the majority of the participants made time to talk to us and explain what they were doing.The B&B was good with reasonable prices being asked for good quality figs.We bumped into our good pal Chris who was putting on a participation game based on the old TV series of Stingray.never mind Chris,professional help is available on the NHS !!!
Dave started his spending activities by getting some pre-ordered and pre-cut bases for his latest projects,followed swiftly by paints and brushes,and then onto the Reiver Castings sdtand to get some cavalry and infantry for his Great Northern War project.A mention must be made about the guys on the stand,helpful,friendly and most welcoming,a credit to your trade fellas.
Graham got alot of brushes but resisted the "urge" to get a regiment of GNW infantry to paint up to fight alongside Dave's lot.
We left York in minus 3.5 degrees but were soon back in God's country having had a very enjoyable day out,to learn that the Toon had won too!what a day.

The hills are alive !!

2012-01-31T19:21:00.009Z

I decided to create some very simple hills today,using hardboard cut with my new jigsaw.I painted the new hills using poster paint ( very cheap ) The first photoshows my Republican Legions on a long ridge facing a Carthaginian army, we will be playing this game on Thursday night.

This is a shot of the Carthaginians,composed of Spanish,Africans,Elephants and Cavalry, what it doesn't show is the sneaky Celtic warriors "lurking" in an ambush position, in the following photos can you spot where that could be ?

This is a view of the Roman commander surveying his troops from a position called "well out of the way"

Does this look like an ambush position ? NOOOOOOO!!

As you can see the hardboard contours with a couple of trees and a bit of a mountain, look quite effective.

This shows the Romans from another angle showing the contours of the hills.
The photo below shows a hill etc. on the Carthaginian left flank,no ambush trops here though!

Another boring shot of the Legions fronted by "velites", ready and willing to do battle with the invading Carthaginians.

This shows the Roman commabder's HQ hill complete with trees and mountain,obtained from local pet store.

The photo below shows what every self repecting Hannibal would class as a great position for an ambush,if the Roman cavalry on this flank moves forward,then a horde of screaming Celts might,just might, emerge from hiding and give them such a fright!! A typical case of Punic Treachery.

I hope the rest of the group like these hills and contours,they are very flexible and easily stored, and , like the Windmill , will play a very prominent part in every game from now on.

The 25P Windmill.

2012-01-25T18:23:00.009Z

Our last few games with our Marlburian armies have highlighted a serious omission in our buildings and terrain features,ie.Windmills !! So to put things right I decided ,today, to ,make a cheap windmill.I bought a model house from a car boot sale years ago, and have never used it, so I thought I could use the model as the basis for my windmill.

This photo shows the house with glued on "sails" made from card.

This photo shows the sails painted a basic brown,so far so good.

This photo shows the sails painted further to show the "lat" effect.

This photo shows the finished windmill with central pinion painted on.

This final photo shows the windmill "in situ" on top of a high and windy hill with a passing regiment of troops.

I can almost guarantee that this windmill will appear in every wargame we have for the next few weeks, be it Marlburian, Napoleonics, Ancients (!!) etc.

The way we play.

2012-01-24T15:18:00.005Z

The way we play and the "rules" we use are our own house rules,they suit the way we play and the size of games we play.Most of our battles contain approx.300-400 figs. per side and we get through about 10 moves per night and always get a result.we start our Sunday night games at 6.30 and finish at roughly 9.30, having stopped for coffee and biscuits, and to put the world right for 10 mins. or so.Our rules are based on each unit having a Morale score and a Fighting score,being whittled down until we deem it right that the unit must take a morale test,depending on the result the unit will either stand or break...veery simple but we rely on historical knowledge and good common sense most of the time.The above photograph shows our Instruments of Torture.Three dice (all oversize and made of soft rubber so figs. are not damaged) an ordinary average dice,an Officer killed dice and an Artillery dice,complete with Artillery "bounce " dice,used with our Napoleonic and Marlburian games.The sticks are used for all movement measuring , and are sectioned into 4 ,for 1/4,1/2,3/4 and full moves.

As you can see we believe in simplicity and don't get bogged down with charts and complicated mathematics,after all it's a hobby and is supposed to be relaxing not taxing !!!

Isn't Christmas great ?

2012-01-23T15:16:00.008Z

Immortals from Irregular Miniatures.

Eastern Camp Followers from Irregular Miniatures

Another shot of these Eastern "beauties" cooking over open fires.

Obviously I can't get enough of these ladies !

Roman "crowd scene" comprising slaves ,ladies and civilians from Irregular.

Crowd scene plus Western Camp Followers all from Irregular Miniatures.

These little " Vignettes " add a little bit of interest to the wargames table and i enjoyed painting them,all gifts from my kids and my sister.

Newly painted Roman Cavalry.

2012-01-22T15:53:00.009Z

Below are the newly finished Roman Cavalry,supplied by Lancashire Games,they are very big and would not fit in with rest of my 25mm figures,however they are ideal for my Prince August Roman army.The figures themselves were easy to paint,the shields are supplied with embossed emblems,plain and with a central spine.

This is the second unit of Romans I've finished as well as a unit of Gallic cavalry,my next unit will also be Gallic ,followed by another Roman and finally a Gallic one,then I'll be looking for something else to paint !!

Game on Thursday 19th January 2012

2012-01-21T19:44:00.007Z

Paul and I played this game on Thursday night.

Itook the part of a Roman Commander
whose task it was to capture a Gallic

Town.This photo shows my troops actually storming into the defences at the end of the game,after a long and very costly assault.

This is my assault against the town itself

which took three cohorts to crack it,the hut,representing the chief's citadel,is on fire due to some good shooting by my bolt throwing machines.Our representation of a Testudo formation can be seen just about to cross the bridge,this is very basic and consists of

painted card covering the fifures.

This is a view from the Gallic side of the board,from behind their defenceslooking over the river at the advancing cohorts.The Roman force consisted of 10 cohorts,3 heavy cavalry one light cavalry unit and one skirmish unit.The Gallic army consisted of 7 Warbands,one light cav. unit and one skirmish unit and three heavy cav. units.

This photo shows my number 1,2,3 and 4 cohorts crossing the river at the start of the game,I hate to admit it but my number one cohort (elite) was very roughly handled and was forced to retire,oh the shame of it!!

All in all this was a great game and Paul ended up the winner,even though i captured the town ,because his heavy cav. beat my heavy cav. so soundly in their first encounter that they were forced to take a morale test, which they failed miserably,to the point that they all turned tail and ran away!!

Paul has shown me how to transfer photo's, all I have to do now is remember what he said,hopefully more reports are on their way.

On Sunday we are refighting Oudenarde 1708, keep watching this space.....

Game Pics

2012-01-21T18:16:00.006Z

Well it has been sometime since I posted anything on the blog and I must blame work for this. Yes I have been blocked from updating during my lunch break at work due to an over zealous filter on our internet access!
To get me back into the swing of things I have dug out these photos of a game we played before Christmas. This was a Spanish Succession game and the scenario was set by Graham. Basically an Allied army positioned between 2 villages was to be attacked by a larger French army. John and I commanded the allies and Graham and Paul the French and Bavarians. The first photo is actually from late in the game and shows my English troops advancing against the French centre after defeating the French assault on the left hand village.

The next photo shows the French and Bavarian attack on the centre of the Allied line.

A view of the attack on the Allied right hand village. John held this village under intense pressure until late in the battle.

Another view of the same attack.

The next two photos show Grahams French cavalry as they sweep round the allied left, only to be isolated and eventually retire.

A general view of the battlefield at the end of the game. Having defeated the French to my front I hae advanced against the French centre and John has sent his cuirassiers to support me. These have just charged into the exposed French right.

On the opposite flank Paul has cleared Johns defenders from the village and disordered the allied centre.

The photo below shows this disorder.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game, which we used to try out our new morale rules and these worked extremely well, given a very realistic outcome. John will post some information on these at a later date.

A final photo of my English. I picked these guys up on Ebay a couple of years ago and they were a bargain at £2 a figure.

Well thats all for now but I do hope that we can start to update more regularly. I follow a number blogs and it can be quite frustrating when updates are few and far between. From a personal point of view, as John has already posted, I have continued to paint my GNW figures and have just started painting some samurai figures. Why? I had them lying in a cupboard and thought I would paint them and sell them. Well now I have painted a few I am not so sure! I am intrigued by the Impetus rules and might give them a go with the Samurai. I have always been interested in Japan and worked there a few years ago (taking the opportunity to visit a few castles!) so this may be a new period for me to try. I will post a few photos soon.

It just remains for me to say a belated happy new year to everyone and I hope the next post will be very soon.

Happy New Year2012,update.

2012-01-17T13:54:00.002Z

Happy New Year everybody, just a short update as to what is happening and what we are all up to.

First of all some really good and exciting news, we have been asked to put on a demonstration game at this year's Border Reiver show which takes place on 1st September at the Gateshead Stadium .We will be staging an Ancients battle involving my new Prince August Legions vs PA Ancient Britons, so should be quite spectacular. We are also "pencilled in" for Smoggycon, lots going on so far !

I have completed my Xmas contingent of Persian Immortals and Western and Eastern camp followers and Roman Civilians, and have started on some Roman and Gallic cavalry which I ordered from Lancashire Games. Imust thank Tom for his very quick turnaround of my order and the friendly service and help he showed me.

Davey is painting everthing that doesn't move at the moment including Tipoo Sultan figs, Great Northern War figs. and SAMURAI !!! what's that all about Dave ??

Graham is still working his way through his Napoleonic's and our pal Michael's Napoleonics, one day he'll finish them all and concentrate on his other projects,ie. WWII,Franco-Prussian and any others he hasn't told us about,-you didn't think we'd forget did you ?

I'm still trying to find out how to transfer photo's onto the Blog, hopefully sometime this week then I'll really be able to go to town with game reports etc.

news update

2011-11-23T17:33:00.002Z

We have recently been experimenting with some new Morale rules which we think reflect what would/could happen when troops are called upon to test their Morale. The whole concept is that all troops start with a Morale Rating of 12 and this is "whittled" away by being shot at,charged,having insecure flanks etc.etc. at any time during the game either side can demand that a unit takes a Morale test,and by a list of positive and negative factors that unit must get back to its original number of 12 or follow a list of retires or routs. IT all sounds quite complicated but our recent "play test" games have shown that it is very fast,very simple , and most of all,very playable and realistic.

As far as the group goes,I am painting some Persian cavalry,bought from Warrior Miniature of Glasgow,who provide a cheap range of figures,give a fantastic mail order service and who will give you a good deal on bulk buy.
I have finished 12 extra heavy cav.12 light cav,12 horse archers,and have started a further 12 heavy cav. which should be finished by this weekend;this of course shows the main benefit of being retired!!

We are going down to "Smoggycon" at middlesbrough on Saturday and hope to get rid of our surplus cash,and ask the organisers if we can put on a demonstration game at next year's show.
Dave is having bother getting onto this blog,he has some photo's of our last "horse and musket" game,devised by Graham,this proved to be one of the most exciting and nail biting games we have had for a long time,congratulations to Graham for that.
Paul has had some bad news in that he is facing redundancy in the new year,we wish him luck and hope he gets another job very quickly.

Two of our "satelite" wargamers,Michael and Chris may be coming to the north east over Xmas and we will of course entertain them to as many games as they would like to play.

News update

2011-10-15T14:56:00.002+01:00

As our thousanda of readers/followers will have noticed,we have not been updating our blog on a regular basis,this of course is all Paul's, Dave's and Graham's fault and has nothing to do with me whatsoever !!!

I was made redundant on the 13th.September, and took the opportunity to RETIRE,and concentrate my whole life to Wargames (nothing new there then) however my wife's idea of retirement and mine seem totally different!! Do we really need to decorate and clean cupboards out when i really need to plan a game for Sunday and paint the new Persians i got from Irregular Miniatures. Ho Hum..

Anyway,Dave is furiosly painting his Tipoo Sultan figs. and his Great Northern War figs.Graham is painting his WW11,Napoleonics,Franco Prussians and God knows what else! and Paul has stopped painting his Austria 7YW figs,however we are sure he'll get the bug again soon,won't you Paul??

Once i can figure out how to transfer photographs from my new digital camers onto the computer and the transfer them onto this blog,we will have some good battle reports with pictures,watch this space.

2011-09-04T15:48:00.010+01:00

Ihave decided that the rivers we normally fight over are just too small,so i ahve painted a rather large version ontoo our board,very simple paint job,blue with green banks and islands,i think it looks very effective and the rest of the "boys" did too. We have had alot of games using the new river and it has proved to be quite an obstacle as well as providing a real challenge.The game you are lloking at was a colonial one based in the Sudan,with british and egyptian forces attacking a "Fuzzie Wuzzie" held town.

These shots are of the River being initially painted,and me trying out various trees etc on it to give different aspects

The river consists of a long bend and an island,and an even longer straight section with an island at the end,as I said before the paint job is very basic,but I'm sure that you'll agree,the finished effect is good.

ROMANI ITE DOMUM

2011-07-07T18:02:00.003+01:00

The Roman commander,Paulus is expecting a relief column bringing supplies of food and much needed reinforcements,to his fort deep in gallic controlled
territory.

Paulus has noticed that the local tribes have become very agitated and threatening over the last few days,and he is worried in case they decide to ambush the relief column-AS IF !!!!!

As is the custom,as soon as the relief column is sighted,Paulus sends out an escort party to see the much needed reinforcements and food, back to the safety (??) of his fort.

Well what could go wrong ?

Over to you Paul(us)

Plancenoit 1815 Part 2

2011-07-06T21:04:00.002+01:00

Here are a few more photos of our Plancenoit inspired game. In the above photo the light cavalry of Domon and Subervie clash with the Prussian cavalry. I commanded the Prussians on this flank and it included 8 regiments of cavalry. However I am not noted for my luck with cavalry! And so it would prove today. I launched my first two brigades against the French and lost in every melee! French Chasseurs driving back my West Prussian dragoons. I was forced to feed in another brigade of light cavalry just to stabilise my position.

In the meantime I advanced a brigade of infantry against Lobau's infantry and a firefight ensued.

On the left flank Paul had two brigades making successive attacks against the Young Guard in Plancenoit while he fed a third through the woods to the south looking to cut the Brussels highway (one of our 'victory conditions'). In this photo you can see the third brigade advancing towards the woods.

The next two photos show the French in square by La Belle Alliance and the Young Guard in the centre of Planenoit.

A shot of the Old Guard Grenadiers

Below is the fight for Plancenoit. In the background John has deployed the Old Guard to counter the Prussians who have advanced through the woods.

On the Northern end of the battlefield John has thrown in the Horse Grenadiers of the Guard, a big powerful unit of 18 figures, and my Silesian hussars can be seen as they are about to bounce off them! Luckily (or skillfully) I have the Brandenburg hussars poised to take them in the flank. Unluckily (or predictably?) these were also chewed up by 'The Gods'. However I had done enough here to nullify the French cavalry and the decision would be made in the centre and left.

Below: the Old Guard firefight with the Prussians in the woods. Our standard infantry units are 24 figures but the Old Guard are 32 figures which makes them stronger in terms of both firepower and morale.

Another view of the fight for Plancenoit and the woods.

The remnants of my cavalry fight on against the French cavalry.

The situation at the end of the game. The Prussians are almost in possession of Plancenoit and Lobau's corps in the centre has broken. Prussian dragoons have almost reached the Brussels road (these were not used against the French cavalry on my right flank). The Old Guard behind Plancenoit and in the woods is strong but will not be able to influence the outcome other than ensuring the road stays open long enough for Napoleon to escape.

All in all this was a very enjoyable game which worked really well. It was nice to get my Napoleonics out of the cabinet and on to the table and it has proved to me one thing . . . I need more Prussians! . . . I really do as we had to use 3 battalions of my Neopolitans who masqueraded as the Prussian 28th and 29th regiments (I believe these were still in their old Berg uniforms during the campaign), tenuous I know! So a brigade of Silesians would be nice, oh and some Schutzen, . . . and some Uhlans . . . . Hmmm.

Plancenoit 1815

2011-07-05T21:49:00.003+01:00

On sunday 19th of June we played a game loosely based on the actions around Plancenoit in the afternoon and early evening of the 18th June 1815. The French forces roughly represented the 6th corps under Lobau, Domon and Subervies Light cavalry divisions, the Young Guard in Plancenoit and elements of the Old Guard. In the photo above you can see most of the french deployment area with La Belle Alliance in the foreground and Plancenoit in the distance. The 6th corps and light cavalry is deployed between La Belle Alliance and Plancenoit and the Old Guard elements are drawn up on either side of the Brussels highway, awaiting (in theory), the order to advance against Wellingtons forces to the North.

The second photo shows the table from the South and you can see the Young Guard occupying Plancenoit. Also, to the rear of the Old Guard deployment, some dragoons are seen in disorder trying to rally after the cavalry attacks against Wellingtons centre. On the eastern edge of the table the Prussians can be seen deploying to attack Plancenoit and futher north to attack Lobau.

The Prussian cavalry arrive at Papelotte, held by a token Nassau battalion.

Another view of the French deployment, this time from the north.

And another view showing Lobaus corps in two lines.

Old Vorwarts encourages his men to advance as a battery opens up on the French line.

La Belle Alliance. John mentioned on the phone to me that he had a paper model of this building which he was going to make for the proposed Waterloo game which he and Paul had been planning (more of this to come in the future hopefully). Hang on, I said, I think I have an old Hovels building in my cupboard which I bought years ago and never got round to painting. Well I had a look and I had two of them! I have no idea why I would need two La Belles. Anyway I passed one on to John and he has painted it up and very nice it looks too.

Prussian cavalry deployed for the attack.

The leading Prussian brigade launches the first of many attacks on Plancenoit. While, in the photo below, John (commanding the French) moves his second line in the opposite direction! Hopefully we can get some more photos of the game posted soon as it turned out to be an exciting action which ebbed and flowed from beginning to end. As I have mentioned John commanded the French, and Paul and I (Dave H), commanded the Prussians. Almost all the figures used are Elite Miniatures, apart from a few Connoisseur figures, and are from my collection.

Hail Caesar

2011-07-01T20:30:00.006+01:00

Paul and I had a game last night taken straight from the publication Hail Caesar,Paul commanded a Roman legion complete with auxilliaries and light cavalry, his task was to cross a river ,march down a wooded valley and attack a Gallic village.

My task was simply to stop him.

The game started with Paul sending a tremendous force against a hill just on the other side of the river,with legionaries and aux.inf,the hill was defended by a large warband,our random movement dice was thrown for the barbarians and true to form they charged down at the hapless Romans.

Some unusual dice from me saw the Romans thrown back across the river although they had inflicted some fearsome casualties on the warband with their pila.

Paul had no choice but to reinforce the melee and eventually succeeded in destroying the gauls.

Paul must have thought so far so good,however an advance over the hill triggered two Gallic cavalry units to move out of the woods and begin a slow advance against the Roman invaders.

Paul wisely shoved his archers to the front and began to pepper the cavalry who took a dislike to this treatment and retired back into the woods.

On the other flank an advance by 5 cohorts triggered another little sortie by the biggest warband I had,they came down off a wooded hill,preceded by slingers and archers,straight into contact with the cohorts and some cunningly placed heavy cavalry,and bounced like a rubber ball!!

Having now beaten all the forward units of the barbarians,Paul consolidated his lines and advanced on the village,the last of my troops who just happened to be elite,emerged from the village ,and by a miracle of good dice throws were onto the Legion before they knew what hit them,well that was for the first round of melee, the second and third round saw them beaten and surrounded by superior numbers,

I had to hold my hands up in surrender and graciously gave in.

This was an excellent and exciting game,Paul did take some photos,and i hope he has time to post
them soon,there's always a next time!!!!

Great Northern War WIP

2011-06-21T12:29:00.003+01:00

I managed to get a few photos of the Uppland regiment which I finished painting last month. I am quite pleased with them and I think they are an acceptable wargame standard. The figures are Musketeer Miniatures and they are very easy to paint with nice raised detail and a clean finish.

I still have to add the pikes but Musketeer had none in stock, and still don't, so I will probably order some from Front Rank. I have the flags, which are by Little Big Men, and will fit them when I do the pikes.

Also I have been thinking about basing all my Great Northern War and Mahratta war figures on hard board bases, as John has been doing, so these bases are just temporary and mean I can store the figures safely.

The above figure was a spare one I had and I have painted him in the uniform of the Queen Dowagers Life Regiment. I will probably paint a couple of garrison regiments in the future and this regiment has a particularly nice combination of uniform colours and flags. I have another 24 figure regiment to paint in Karpus but at the moment I have been painting more of the Mahratta figures as I want to complete my first Brigade of Mahratta regulars.

Our ex pat Chris popped in on Sunday to say hi and presented me with a Tiger mortar and crew (thank you Chris!) so I will endeavour to paint this up in the coming week. The figures are by Redoubt and (hopefully) they will look the business when painted.

Talking of Sunday, we played a game based on the Prussian attacks on Napoleons right flank at Waterloo (well it was the anniversary on Saturday!) and Paul took loads of photos, so either myself or Paul will post an AAR soon. We used my Napoleonic figures which was nice as they have been sitting in their display cabinet at home for far too long. Hopefully it wont take us as long to post the pictures!

Winter Quarters.

2011-06-03T20:26:00.012+01:00

This game was played on monday 30th May,and was basically an attack/defence scenario.A British army under Marlborough aka John,is fortifying a winter camp when a large Franco/Irish/Bavarian army arrives on the scene intent on capturing the camp and denying it to the British and their allies,the Austrians and Prussians.
The game started with Dave and his Austro/Prussians marching onto the board and Graham with his Bavarians attempting to cross the river and stop him from assisting John who was defending the camp from a massive attack from Paul who commanded the French and Irish.

The photographs show the initial positions of the troops and are intended to be "eye candy" only,the full battle report will be posted by Paul later on .

This photo showw the Austrians arriving.

The hustle and bustle in the camp.

This shows the hotly contested river crossing and bridge.

Paul decided to arrange his guns into a "grand battery" to demolish the gabion walls of the camp,and they did!!

French right flank cavalry and infantry.

Another shot of the French contingent.

This photo shows the distance the Austrians were from the camp.The Prussians arrived much later from the same direction.This was a very exciting game which was a near run thing.The attacker had 16 foot, 5horse and 6 guns against the defenders 12 foot 4 horse and 5 guns,approx.800 figs. on the board and the game lasted 18 moves taking about 3 hours.

Great Northern War

2011-05-23T02:04:00.003+01:00

As I mentioned in my previous post I have now succumbed and purchased some Great Northern War figures from Musketeer Miniatures. The GNW is something which has fascinated me for many years but was poorly represented in the 25-30mm market. There seems to be a rising interest in this period now with both new figures and some interesting books available. My starting point was The Battle of Poltava by Angus Konstam, an Osprey title which I bought a few (maybe 15?) years ago. Then more recently I got a copy of Peter Englunds book on Poltava and as a result I resolved to start collecting figures for this period. Luckily the Musketeer Miniatures range has been expanded recently after a couple of years of stagnation.

After buying a couple of regiments of figures I purchased the above book. This is an excellent reference work on the Swedish uniforms and organisation. The only slight criticism I have is that the quality of the illustrations are a little dissappointing. Having said that there is more than enough information in this book to recreate the entire Swedish army of the GNW! I highly recommend it and I intend to purchase the follow up volume when I begin building my Russian forces.
Anyway below are a few of the figures I have already painted, in fact the first regiment is almost complete. This is the Uppland regiment, one of the Indelta formations. My painting doesnt really do justice to the figures but I still think you can see the quality of them in these photos.

NCO of the Uppland Regiment.

Uppland officer.

Musketeer.

And rear view.

Grenadier.

And again a rear view.

I hope to have the regiment based and with their flag attached by the end of this week. I am on night shift at the moment which leaves me with little time to devote to wargaming and quite honestly leaves me just too tired. Once this regiment is complete I must choose whether to complete the second one ( the Vastmanland), or get some more of my Maharattas done. I will see how the mood takes me!

Oh and of course the Vauban stuff needs completing too . . . .

New Terrain Pieces

2011-05-22T22:32:00.003+01:00

While I was helping out with picking up some stuff from the wholesalers I came across these two pieces in the aquarium section.
Now being a wargamer I immediately saw their wargaming potential! I have it in mind to use them as jungle terrain for my Maharatta project, although I am sure John will think of a few more scenarios in which they can be utilised.

I have pictured them with a couple of my Maharatta figures (Redoubt) to give an idea of the scale.

As you can see they are fairly substantial and require no further work!

I really like them and I will keep an eye out for any others next time I am there. Especially considering I paid £4.50 for the two.

I have also posted a couple of pics of my first complete Maharatta regular battalion. This project is a slow burner (as I am a slow painter lol). However I am chipping away and I have another 16 regulars primed and ready to go and these will complete the Red turban battalion.

In addition to these I have about 20 almost complete sepoys sitting in my painting box. Why can't I concentrate on one thing at a time?! In the next couple of weeks I hope to get these progressed but, as John has mentioned in his post preceeding mine, I have been a little diverted by the Vauban fortifications and a recent purchase of some Great Northern War figures from Musketeer Miniatures.

I have almost completed the first regiment (Uppland). This period has been one which I have wanted to do for a long time and I have been waiting for the right figures to be produced. Now that Bill at Musketeer Miniatures has started to expand his range I have given in to temptation.

I will post some pics of these later tonight hopefully.

Followers

2011-05-21T18:10:00.005+01:00

Hi to everyone who follows our little blog,we have neglected the blog over the last few weeks but , thanks to Paul , I have now been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century and intend to do a weekly round up of what each member of our group is doing.

For example I have been re-basing everyone of my Ancient armies,
2 Imperial Roman legions.
1 Eastern Roman legion
3 Republican Roman legions
1 Carthaginian army
1 Macedonian army
1 Indian army
1 Persian army
1 Greek hoplite army
1 Spartan army
1 Gallic army
1 German army

They are all now based on 3" x 3" hardbord bases containing 6 or 8 figures per unit, all armies contain at least 300 or 400 figures, so i have had my work cut out but the end result looks good.( photos to follow, if Paul remembers his camera !! )

Paul has been busy finishing his 7YW Austrians, Dave has been busy painting some Great Northern War figs. as well as continuing with his Sepoys and building the Great Wall of China ( well if it gets any bigger that's what his Vauban defences will look like !) Graham is furiously painting his new garden shed , as well as Napoleonic Brunswickers and Saxons and keeps promising to complete his vast WW2 collection , we all think WW3 will have broken out before we actually see these however!!

I will attempt to explain our Wargaming Philosophy and an overview of our very simplistic rules in the next blog, if you are a follower, please take time to comment on what we are doing, and tell a friend about our blog.

Work in Progress ( Vauban fortifications)

2011-05-17T21:04:00.003+01:00

After far too many months I have revisited my Vauban fortification project. I posted in October last year showing the Ravelin which I have completed and I thought it was about time I pushed on and finished this project. So I have now started work on constructing the two Bastions which will form the main part of the defensive works. As with the Ravelin I have not bought any materials other than wood glue. I intend to build this as cheaply as possible! I have used a sheet of hardboard left over from lining the shed in the garden and some off cuts of chip board from an old set of drawers which I was replacing. Here is how I have got on so far.
The base board for the Bastion with cut outs at the rear to allow the curtain walls to abutt snuggly (thats the theory!).

The upper level of the bastion again from hardboard.

The two lengths of retrieved chip board which will form the wall supports.

I have glued and tacked the wall supports to the base after sawing them to (approximately) the right length and adding angled cuts.

The suppoting walls glued and tacked into position. As you can see the construction is fairly rough but all this will be covered by card and Tetrion eventually.

The upper floor is now glued and tacked on top of the walls.

A side view of the basic construction (with one of my dogs looking on :) ). My next step will be to add card to get the angled wall surface and to add the top of the battlement. Hopefully this will progress in the next couple of days. I just need to find some more offcuts of wood!

What's been happening lately?

2011-05-07T23:01:00.000+01:00

Sorry to have neglected this for so long but I think we've all been swallowed up with commitments lately.

I will post some of our pictures during the latest games, we are still playing which is a great comfort for our loved ones as it gets us out of their hair at least once a week. (Or month in David's case).

Here are a few pics of my latest venture with these lovely figures from Front Rank Seven Years War Austrians. I decided last year to go into this period in 28mm, mainly because of the great games we have had previously using John's brilliant 40mm semi flats. The only problem is they are getting old as we all are and we're much more ham fisted now than ever before................. yes I know it's mainly me!

So I bought three battalions last year and they are nearly finished. However, I've another five battalions as well as cavalry and guns so this summer will get them on the board. John is working on the Prussian opposition.

I've started with an Hungarian Brigade.

Waterloo

As we approach the anniversary of the battle this year we thought we would revisit the battle again to re fight it.

As a group we have fought this battle under many variations. Initially taking parts of the battle as a re- enactment, namely Hougement to La Haye Saint as well as D'Erlon's assault. We also re fought the entire battle in 6mm scale a long time ago and this was something that has caught my imagination for a long time. Why could we not use 25mm figures and have the battle re fought on a Brigade scale?

So I began the process with John and we think we have a solution to the logistics. We hope that the result will be spectacular and represent the Allied and French Corps down to battalion and cavalry regimental level.

We have play tested some rules to make having 33 battalions per Corps manageble and quick. I'll post some pictures of this Sundays game where we hope to test the game play.

Mahratta Update (It's been a while!)

2011-03-15T18:18:00.004Z

Well it has been a while since we last posted and I wish we had a good excuse! Just the usual stuff about everyday life getting in the way (blah blah blah). I personally have not played a huge amount of games since Christmas but I know the lads have played almost weekly and Paul has some pics from those games, so hopefully he will be posting these soon.

Any way I have been plodding on slowly with my Mahratta Wars project and here are a few pics to prove it. All figures are Redoubt Miniatures but I was interested to see that Eureka in Australia are to release a range of Mysoreans which will cover Tipoo Sultan and Haidar Ali. I am not sure whether these figures are compatible with the Redoubt ones but I may request a few samples to see them in the flesh. Above is the first Matchlock Irregular that I have painted and I am pleased with the way he has come out. I intend to have 2 or 3 units (each of 24 figures) to support the regular battalions. As with the regulars I will be using a simple uniting colour scheme. These units will be distinguished by their coat colour (Blue above) and will have different sash and turban clours within the unit to give them a more irregular appearance.

I have added another artillery crew, this time in blue turbans. Redoubt also do artillery just in loin cloths which I will mix in with the next set of crews that I paint.

Another view of the artillery. Elite Mininiatures 12pdr guns from my Napoleonic collection.

Next is my British Army command base. This has Wellesley and 2 staff officers (sold as a set by Redoubt).

I have painted the mounted staff officer as Lieutenant Blakiston of the Engineers, one of Wellesleys most trusted officers.

Finally a unit of Mahratta cavalry. These semi-regular guys have a common sash and turban colour for ease of identification on the wargames table.

I still have to add the lances and a standard. All standards are to be ordered from The Virtual Armchair General who has a complete range for the 2nd Mahratta War.

Again I will finish the bases off when I have decided exactly how I wish them to look! Maybe I am just putting the job off!

I have a number of EIC sepoys on the painting table which are nearing completion so I will post them up soon(ish).

Finally I would just like to mention that one of our number (Graham) got married at the weekend so congratulations to him! It was a great day from what I can remember!

New figures added to John's collection

2011-01-03T19:34:00.000Z

Here are some of John's completed units that have rolled off the paint board.

Cannot wait to gfet them involved and attacked ha ha... well you do need them blooded.

A nice scots clan no doubt looking for some poor English to pick on!

Now how intimidating are these guys?

Hope to get some game photos on here soon

Hope you have all had a great New Year

2nd Mahratta War

2010-10-27T21:15:00.003+01:00

As I mentioned in a previous post I have become interested in the wars against Mysore and The Mahratta Confederacy 1799 - 1807 ish. I have therefore embarked on building forces to represent both these kingdoms and the British and East India Company troops who fought them. Looking around for suitable 28mm figures I came across the range by Redoubt Enterprises. They are, in my mind, lovely figures, nicely sculpted and full of character. I have posted a few photos to show my efforts so far. My painting doesnt do them justice but I have yet to see any other painted examples anywhere. On top of this the Redoubt website only has line drawings of a few of the figures, so it wass a leap of faith when I made my initial purchase (would I like them or not?). Well I do like them, very very much!

The first photos show some of the sepoys I have painted. These have green or orange facings and will be expanded into units of 24 figures. I hope to base my initial forces on the order of battle of Assaye.

To this I will add other troops and types to give my British some variety (and to stop me getting bored!).

Initially I will be raising Mahratta forces but I intend to use them as Mysore troops also, with a few variations. I have opted to keep it simple in terms of painting and organisation. All regular Mahratta battalions will be in white with Turban and sash in a uniform colour. This will give ease of identification on the table and also will look quite appealing.

As you can see by the photos I have based the figures painted so far but have not flocked the bases. I am still undecided on the final finish of these.

I have completed one artillery crew so far. The Mahrattas had a lot of artillery attached to their regular battalions and I will have one gun model per unit. The good news is that I will not have to paint any guns for them as I intend to use my French Napoleonic cannon.

There will be lots of cavalry to paint and I have the first unit sitting in the box waiting to get started, they are beautiful figures. Also I intend to add a couple of irregular match-lock battalions.

Well thats how far I have got so far. I will update as I progress. Thanks for looking!

Peninsular trouble

2010-10-27T00:00:00.000+01:00

Penninsular Poser

Hi , Dave and I have decided to make a conscious effort to post more games reviews and painting items. Given that my painting is abysmal and positively geological in the time it takes in getting finished I had better type some of the games up!

John and I came up with the terrain one night and we thought it offered potential for a multitude of differing period scenarios. (I actually mainly lumped the terrain about as John used his knack for creating a testing and interesting combination of valleys, stream/river crossing points to ensure opponents have challenges rather than just wading into each other.)

The scenario was that the French were tasked with marching along the main road (lower left) and had to exit the battlefield via the far road route beyond the old hill fort (top right of pic). The river had a bridge, ford and was crossable either side of the bridge, but with a movement restriction on the ford side and without any movement restriction towards the source (lower right in the pic).

I was in command of two brigades of infantry with accompanying cavalry, foot and horse batteries.

Graham commanded the second column with the 3rd Inf brigade and 2 battalions of Guard with Napoleon himself no less!

I was faced by the wooded hill with battery and a British battalion. Lt cav guarded the valley. The old fort had been repaired a gun protruded from the ramparts infantry was observed on the far wooded hill.

My 1st were shaken out into mixed order and art /cav covered both flanks as the assault began.

My 2nd formed column on the right & marched into the right hand valley, cleared the far right hill. Combined horse art and light cavalry brushed aside the protecting British cavalry.

John, commanding the defending British battery had two further battalions emerge from the woods and they fired a tremendous volley into my 1st Brigade.

The rebuff of two battalions of this brigade was not a major setback as guns & the threat of the French 2nd Brg had John retiring onto his supporting Scots lining the river.

The first hill was secure!

Meanwhile, Graham's long column was

held up over the ford by his dragoons encountering

British Lt cav and horse art with an Inf Brg on the hill over the river.

It took the Cuirassiers to help out but the action grew hotter with a hard fire fight to control the heights.

His 3rd Inf formed for assault and the Guards marched around the rear of them to outflank and race for the exit.

The game ended with my 1st & 2nd Brgs redeployment from right to centre where they controlled the bridge

area & pinned John's reserves as the Guards hooked far left to overpower

John's heavy cav/horse artillery.

A brilliant defense by John had thrown us off balance a few times and slowed the progress of the columns.

The next game will again feature the same terrain with differing problems posed. Hopefully it will not be as long to publish.

Work in Progress

2010-10-15T02:01:00.002+01:00

I eventually go time to finish the ravelin which I started in April. If you view my post from the 29th April you will see it at the halfway stage. Actually this was finished about a month ago but our official photographer, Paul, has had the photos until now. Anyway here is the finished model. It will eventually form part of a more extensive Vauban fortification.

I am quite pleased with the result of my first ever scratch built model and now I must find the time to start construction on the two bastions. As you may recall I have the gateway already (another scratch built model purchased from Phil Olley).

I have gone for a pretty rough hewn effect (more to do with my limited modelling skills than a design decision!). This will form the defences of a small fortress or town rather than the more grand defences of Lille and such like.

A view from the attackers perspective (Paul getting creative).

I hope to finish at least one bastion this month and will post pictures as and when I do. My time is torn between finishing the fortifications and building up my new project: The 2nd Mahratta war and the campaign against Tipoo Sultan. More on this when I have some photos. . . .

Macedonians v Persians

2010-09-02T02:11:00.010+01:00

Well once again we have had a lull in activity on the blog. The summer holidays have meant that it has been a while since our last game. John is on holiday now so no games for another two weeks! We did have a very big 40mm game a couple of weeks ago ( SYW Prince August ), with over a thousand figures on the table, and Paul is promising to do a write up on it. Come on Paul!
Anyway I found these pictures of an Ancients battle we fought a few months ago. I had already posted some photos of the initial dispositions at the time and promised a write up but failed to deliver. So here is a very belated account, written from my perspective. Any inaccuracies are honest and purely due to my fuzzy memory!
The battle was between a Macedonian army led by Alexander (me) and his general Parmenio (Paul) and the Persians led by their Great King Darius (John). The photo above shows the initial dispositions. The main terrain features were a low ridge between the armies with a ruined temple at one end and, on the Macedonian right and Persian left, a slightly higher hill which seperated the enemies.
As i have said before a picture paints a thousand words so here goes a run down of the action.
The Macedonian left wing commanded by Parmenio. Alexanders plan was to seize the central wing and hold with his left wing while attacking the Persian left centre with his Companions and right wing phalanx.

The Persian centre infantry.

The Persian left wing cavalry. John would send this powerful force forward and half would swing out left to attempt to outflank the Macedonian right wing.

The Macedonian phalanx with Thracians screening.

The right wing cavalry. Two units of Companions led by Alexander himself (Red and Blue). My plan was to swing out wide as if to out flank the Persian right wing then direct these diagonally at the Persian left centre infantry while a unit of Hypaspists advanced rapidly to block Johns left wing cavalry.

The armies advance to contact. In the right bottom corner is the Hypaspist unit.

The Persian left wing advances on to the hill.

The centre left infantry. The target for my Companions.

On the centre ridge Parmenio has advanced quickly with his Agrianians and skirmishes with Scythian cavlary and Persian archers.

Darius throws in more cavalry and elephants to dislodge them while Parmenio advances with his Hypaspist unit on to the ridge.

The Hypaspists have successfully blocked two of Darius left wing cavalry units and the Companions wheel in to attack the Persian centre. This attack would break into the infantry with a fifty fifty chance (odds or evens). I had the Red Companions following the Blue in case they failed to break in.

Aview from the Persian lines. The other two Persian left wing cavalry units are off to the left out of picture having to avoid the palm grove on the hill.

On the Persian right wing the Greek mercenaries advance.

The fight for the ridge. The Agrianians are under severe pressure but they are doing there job tying up Persian troops and blunting the attack of the elephants.

Evens! The Blue Companions break into the Persian infantry.

A view of the action along the line. The Red Companions have wheeled away as they are not needed. In the centre Alexander has ridden to Parmenio's cavalry to lead them in exploiting the break through.

Macedonian peltasts engage the Persian centre as the phalanx moves up.

Alexander assumes command of the left wing cavalry.

Follow me! is Alexanders order. The cavalry are led by a third unit of Companions.

On the right a critical moment as the Persian left wing ouflanking cavalry threaten to charge into the exposed phalanx.

On the Macedonian left wing the phalanx advances to crush the Greek mercenaries.

The right wing Hypaspists are finall y defeated by the Persian cavalry. In the background the Blue Companions slaughter the Persian infantry.

A general view of the battle at the same point in time.

Darius despatches his Red Cataphracts to counter the Blue Companions.

On the ridge the Agrianians are finally overcome but the Persians are disordered and depleted.

Viewed from behind the Persian centre Alexander can be seen leading his cavalry to exploit his breakthrough.

The phalanx crashes into the Persian centre which wavers under the attack.

The Red Cataphracts advance to engage the Blue Companions who are still mopping up the Persian infantry while Alexander pushes through the gap with the Brown Companions in the foreground.

Alexander drops off the two units of Allied Greek cavalry to shore up the right wing and attack the disordered Persian cavalry while he leads his Brown Companions on his mission - to kill Darius!

The Persian left wing cavalry finally launches its attack and collides with the disordered Hypaspists. In the foreground the Greek cavalry charges the reforming Persian cavalry. In the background (by the dice!) the Red Companions prepare to snuff out the Persian flank attack.

The Macedonians hold the central ridge.

The left wing Macedonian phalanx coninues its advance. Part of the unit is slowed by the slopes of the ridge by the temple.

Darius (in his chariot) witnesses the destruction of his centre.

The high water mark of the Persian flank attack as the Macedonian cavalry close in on their flank and rear.

In the distance Darius can be seen as he turns his chariot and flees the battlefield.

Alexander leads his Companions after his quarry.

Darius executes a hand break turn in his chariot as his centre crumbles.

Darius and his body guard flee as Alexander approaches. The Persian infantry in the centre have melted away.

Darius leaves the field of battle.

A view of the battlefield at the end of the game. Parmenio can be seen with his Generals at right centre after his cool handling of the left wing in classic Parmenio style.

This was a hugely enjoyable game of the kind which remind you just why you wargame. It felt historically "right", it could have been won by either side, and all 3 of us had smiles on our faces (even Darius!) when it was finished. John must once again be credited with setting up (its a set up!) a nicely balanced game, as he almost invariably does. I just hope he doesn't mind the bias in my report! Once again thanks for looking and I hope it was enjoyable to read about a very very enjoyable game.

Napoleonic Battle

2010-08-09T01:43:00.006+01:00

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts in the last month, I have been very busy at work and have suffered from a bout of flu in the last 2 weeks. Well thats my excuses dealt with, I am not sure what John and Pauls are! Anyway I have little in the way of new games to report (as I have not been able to attend for a while) but I have been busy painting and progressing my Vauban fortifications. Hopefully I can post a couple of pics of this in the next week or so when our official photographer (Paul) is available. I have however been able to dig out the pics from the last game I participated in. This was a Napoleonic bash which gave me a second chance to get my Russians on the board and also a couple of new units from Grahams ever growing Austrian army.
The scenario was fairly straight forward, a village at one end of the table held by Austrians and attacked by a small but potent force of Russians (commanded by John). Reinforcements for the Russians would arrive at the opposite end of the table (commanded by myself) and Austrian reserves would arrive in the rear of the village (commanded by Graham). Paul would command the initial Austrian forces positioned in and around the village. Johns grenadiers prepare to assault the village supported by artillery.

The Austrian defenders.

Another view of the defenders. These troops are about to be assaulted by the Russian grenadiers.

Austrian cavalry stationed (lurking?) to the rear of the village.

A general view of the dispositions.

Looking torwards the village from where the Russian reinforcements will arrive.

Austrian reserves enter the table behind the village. These troops will advance to take up position in the open ground beyond the village.

The Russian grenadiers storm over the bridge into the village.

Looking up the table. The attacks on the village are pressed home while, in the distance the heads of the Russian reserve columns can be seen.

The Russian reserves advance towards the idiots, sorry the village (the village idiots?).

A view of the Russian columns.

The Austrian reserves, having advanced past the village, fall back (scuttle?) on seeing the Russian reserves.

The Russian attacks on the village fail and the commander requests additional troops from the reserves. I send him another 4 battalions for the meat grinder.

The Russians advance while the Austrians form their defensive line.

The Austrian defence in depth.

The Austrian high command, Paul (on the left) and Graham. The Russians I have sent to reinforce John can be seen beyond the bridge. They would arrive in time to throw back an audacious counter-attack from the village by Paul.

The Russians form up to counter the attack by Paul. Ahead of them can be seen the remants of Johns grenadiers.

Pauls attack is thrown back but it was a close run thing! The Austrians in the village were now a spent force and, although the Austrian reserves were presenting a solid front against the Russian right wing, their position became untenable with the loss of the village. A narrow and bloody victory to the Russians. At least thats my recollection of events! Hope you enjoyed the pictures and, as usual, any comments or suggestions are very welcome.

Modern battle

2010-07-05T00:10:00.000+01:00

Somewhere in the Balkans

We occasionally enter the world of modern warfare and treat these games as tactical exercises which usually involve hidden forces awaiting the advance of the opposition.

The game involved the advance along the length of the board by David and Graham's troops. They had mechanised columns with some air support and were restricted by terrain to using only the bridges for the heavy armour. The terrain was rolling and a village dominated the exit from the first bridge, situated on the ridge above the river.

Surely this would just entail a simple deployment exercise from one end of the table across to exit over the second bridge? You'd think they were expecting trouble!

This is the view of the table from the exit position, the dominant village at the far end of the board with the approach route in the upper right corner.

No sign of any arriving troops, or anyone else for that matter!

Hold on .... is that a farmer and his cattle north of the bridge?

The invading forces have arrived. The locals have been warned ..... flee and take what you can with you. The local taxi has obviously broken down, with no time to repair it, the owner has abandoned it.

APC's head an armoured column, fully alerted to any hostile motion.

Will this be another fruitless day?

The figures and vehicles are all plastic and are our usual minimal cost purchases from Pound shops and other bargain bags. (See £30 army blog).

A bit of imagination and a nice paint job (well done again John) works really well.

Once again movement is done with our usual measuring sticks and the game is covered by our usual rules base upon number of bases/points when firing multiplied by an average dice. (2,3,3,4,4,5).

We don't have complicated tank/aircraft rules as we prefer to resolve them by a simple roll to hit/miss followed by damage inflicted against a points value. Hit it hard enough and it is out of action! ............Simples

I will leave you at the point that Graham

has sent his infantry across the river on

foot exploring the open fields, led

by his Officer.

Will that be wise? BANG!

He drops.... now his squad are stalled.

What to do ?

Note the Hit/miss dice. Sponge covered, hence no damage to paint ...

David has sent his APC and dismounted

infantry up the steep slopes from the river

as well as over the bridge to scout the village approaches. Oh he'll never fall for the

exploding car booby trap will he?

An RPG missile takes out the lead APC.

In inauspicious start .......... game on!

To be continued ............

Ready Painted Russians

2010-06-30T20:25:00.002+01:00

Someone asked a while back to see some more of the Russians that I bought from Reinforcements By Post in Bangladesh. Well here are a few shots of them in a game we played last Sunday. Sorry for the slow response but this was the first time they had appeared on the table for a few months!

I bought 10 battalions, each of 24 figures, for the very reasonable sum of £314. This included the cost of the figures and postage and packaging.

The figures are Old Glory 2nd Edition. I think all in all I bagged myself a bargain. 240 nicely painted Napoleonic 25mm figures for about £1.30 each! On top of this the sevice from Neil was friendly and prompt and he even found time to email me about wargaming in general. I thoroughly recommend his ready painted units.

The Russian masses emerge from the woods in the game from last Sunday. I will post a few more photos from this game and give an account of the action, hopefully tomorrow.

£30 Wargame Productions

2010-06-14T23:17:00.002+01:00

£30 Wargame Productions

The Battle of Calais 1365

(continued)

I left the English standing motionless on the higher ground, calmly awaiting the approach of their arch foes, the pride of France nobility.

They did not have long to wait! Preceded by deadly crossbow armed mercenaries, the heavily armoured foot knights begin their advance along with spearmen.

Menacingly, the mounted nobles, the French elite are standing their ground. They are not located in the centre as in earlier days. They are on the left wing and are faced by Henry's mounted arm.

(NB Note the new terrain boards)

The battle is joined on the right flank first.

The French, led by their covering crossbow men advance in numbers. Slowly they close upon the enemy and hope to swamp the fewer numbers of longbow armed archers.

Spearmen from Normandie and Brittany advance (Dave, we had to get that one in!! Brittany spears? Oh dear!)

The English loose huge volleys of arrows and decimate the advancing enemy.

Steel plate is no protection against this weapon. The targeted men at arms fall.

The battles clash on the right as the French centre and left wing infantry close to contact.

As men at arms clash an English knight John of Kent rides forth and issues a challenge to the French commander Guy De Lac. Mortal combat will ensue and no quarter is expected.

Combatants draw apart, a halt as the cry goes out ....... their leaders offer combat to the death!

The battle is short and violent ........... despite a ferocious attack and some telling blows upon the French champion, he cannot make up in effort for outright battle craft.

A deadly blow fells him!

Guy raises his arm and the French surge forward.

The battle now rages all along the lines, both wings engaged as the infantry struggle for supremacy.

Then the ground itself shakes beneath the hoofs of thousands of mounted knights.

This will decide the fate of Kings. Spears splinter against shields. Men fall never to rise.

Despite fearsome losses to arrows Guy rallies his right wing and although fewer than the English, he inflicts a major set back upon them and they are pushed back over the hill.

In the centre, a French battle aimed at the King's camp closes. Arrows fail to halt them and Henry's bodyguard march to match them. The fighting is bloody and the tired French are bundled back down the slopes, ushered on their way by move volleys of arrows.

Who will land the telling blow to seal a glorious victory?

Slowly the tide turns against the English on the flanks. The battles, after initial success as they roll down the slopes into the enemies, are held then beaten. Will the noblemen rescue honour for Louis?

Alas it is not to be ...... a rout !! Sauve qui peut!

The French pursue and the field is theirs.

All in all a great game and from starting at 19:10hrs we were all finished at 21:15hrs.

Time for a coffee, biscuits and recriminations..

ha ha. The dice throwing is everything.

Hope you are inspired to mooch in cheap shops and take advantage of some bargains. Happy gaming.

2010-06-13T23:22:00.002+01:00

£30 Wargame Productions Present

The Battle of Calais 1365

An English army, intent upon invading France, has landed in Calais & sets up camp.

The French under Louis, respond by marching to Calais and set up their own camp, intent on driving the English under Henry, back to England.

...................................

The above scenario was the setting for our battle tonight as John and I fought this vivid period battle. The reference to the £30 in the title reflects the cost of the entire number of figures in both armies as well as the trees and camp tents.

We have used these figures at one of our local shows and it aptly demonstrates that our hobby need not be out of the reach of any one's pocket. We feel it is so important that we show that you don't have to have either small numbers of expensive metal figures or deep pockets to have a viable and visually stunning wargames battle.

The figures are readily available in pound shops and with a touch of paint and a base were ready for titanic clashes.

Both armies were facing each other and we knew there were no subtle manoeuvres going to happen this evening.

Longbows vs crossbow ......

spearmen and knights on foot .......

nobles of the land on emblazoned horse.

The assembled French host (pic) moves in serried ranks

against their smaller in number yet deadly armed foes.

The battle commenced as the French

army marched forwards,

their foes standing on

their ridge, their camp defended

by those fearsome

archers.

Who prevailed? ..................... to be continued

The Battle of Unterglau Part two

2010-05-28T04:06:00.005+01:00

As promised here is the second half of the Battle of Unterglau. We left the action with the Franco-Bavarian army stalemated on both flanks (and throwing shocking dice!). I had just launched the Bavarians in the centre and Graham had aimed his cavalry at the English centre battery. So what happened? Well a picture paints a thousand words, so here is the action. On the right my Irish are forced back to the stream and their supports.

The Bavarians attack in the centre.

John and Paul counter Grahams cavalry attack with English dragoons while the Foot Guards maintain a heavy fire!

The attack on the left flank grinds on. Notice the steepness of the ridge. Here the casualties were beginning to tell on the Dutch and Pauls usually phenomenal dice throwing began to let him down.

Another view of the left flank attack. Grahams first line has been repulsed but his second line is fresh and includes a regiment of French Guards.

The cavalry clash in the centre. The English dragoons have repulsed a regiment of Bavarian cuirassiers but are then hit while disordered by French/Spanish cavalry (in green).

On the right my Irish are in disorder but so are Johns infantry and I push a regiment of cavalry across the stream to drive them off (in yellow).

John counters with his Austrian cuirassiers.

The Bavarians assault the village as the Irish reform.

Regiment Clare advance over the bridge to support the attack.

A general view of the left wing.

The Spanish Almanza Cavalry have driven off the English dragoons but are about to be charged by Dutch cavalry.

The battle rages for the village after the first assualt by the Bavarians has been defeated. The Irish will launch the next attack.

Inside the village just before the Irish attack. To the left can be seen the cavalry outflanking the Allied left after disposing of the Austrian cuirassiers.

The Dutch cavalry hit the Almanza regiment in this view of the battle in the centre.

The Irish storm the village and push the Austrians and Walloons back (hooray!). Eugene arrives to rally the troops.

The Irish push on through the village.

The (victorious?) French sweep round the village and the Allied left flank.

At this stage we called it a day having completed 17 moves! Then the debate followed (ha ha).

Who had won? The Allied right flank was shattered but their centre (the English) was unbroken and strong. The left around the village hung in the balance. I had forced my way in but could I hold it? I thought I could but at the same time John was poised to counter-attack with a fresh unit of Walloons (but they had low morale). In the end I think we agreed it was a narrow French victory . . . . . didn't we guys? ha ha.

And yes the Wloframmsdorf cuirassiers didn't take a single hit! Thats a victory in my eyes!

Hope you have enjoyed and will continue to do so! As usual any comments or questions are very welcome and all will be answered.

Featured figures in Prince August Web site

2010-05-27T20:47:00.001+01:00

Ancients features on Prince August Website

John has pointed out that he has had an article published on the Prince August web pages featuring his mighty Roman legions and barbarian war bands.

They have some great pictures and close ups.

You can find the article via the link

http://www.princeaugust.ie/

Go into useful links on the toolbar and click on the Collectors Galleries.

The item is under:

"Roman War Legions battling Barbarians by John Coutts NEW"

Hope this is of use

Regards Paul

Still gaming after decades ha ! ha !

2010-05-26T23:53:00.001+01:00

Our local paper published an old article from its back issues and we'd like to share it with you.

John was interviewed many moons ago and the flattering photograph shows the young man we can nearly remember .................

Without his innovation and flare for inventive scenarios and set ups (as most games seem to be!), we wouldn't be the group of people we are now.

Oh dear this sounds like a eulogy ....... he's really still alive, kicking and still cannot throw a good dice score for toffee ........

The article is self explanatory and I hope you enjoy the read.

The figures are Seven Years War semi flats by Prince August. These figures have been regularly gamed and still look as great now as they did when first cast. We have taken these figures to many shows in the past to universal praise. Mostly along the lines of ".........they look like proper toy soldiers".

There are in excess of 1000 of these fantastic figures,

Russian, French, British, Austrian and Prussians all

complete armies including their own artillery

and cavalry, both light and horse.

And here are the same figures today .......... definitely a great investment well done Prince August!

Prussian infantry storm a defended position

Red coated British advance

All of these pictures were from the same game.

The Battle of Unterglau - The Action

2010-05-24T02:53:00.009+01:00

The Franco/Bavarian plan (yes we had a plan!) was for the left wing to attack the ridge to its front and draw in as many of the enemy reserves as possible. We did not expect this attack to break through given the strength of the Dutch position but we hoped a vigorous attack would tie up enemy reserves. Meanwhile on the right I would attack the village with the Irish brigade again hoping that this would draw reserves from the Allied centre. The massed ranks of Bavarians in our own centre would then sweep forward break the enemy centre and isolate both wings. A simple plan (always the best type), what could possibly go wrong?!

Graham launches his attack against the Dutch on the ridge.

The Lyons regiment take casualties. This shows our dead bases. Paul spent the evening happily passing them out "bring out your dead!"

Toulouse engage the Dutch Guards

2 Bns of Bavarians supported the attack and engaged the English Foot Guards.
Dutch infantry await the French advance atop the ridge.

On the right I began my advance with the Irish but I have to admit I was having an off day! As my lead regiments crossed the stream John sallied out with his Austrians and Walloon troops (Walloonese?). My attack stalled but I pushed my last infantry regiment over the bridge into the rear of Johns Walloons and his position was precarious!

But then I fumbled it! As you can see from the photo I had outflanked his right and was poised to cross the river with 2 cavalry regiments in support. What I should have done now was to push my outflanking infantry into the village and wheeled my squadrons into his flank. . . . but I didn't . . no I halted my infantry and wheeled them right and the opportunity was lost. . . Doh!!
John rushed a reserve regiment of Walloons into the village and secured it.
The situation now was that both the right wing and Left wing attacks had stalled. What could we do?
Graham decide to move his cavalry against the vunerable English battery in the centre of the Allied line and Paul countered with an advance by Hays dragoons.

Grahams cavalry aim for the guns.

And Pauls cavalry move to counter them.

As the wing attacks went in I thought I had spotted an opportunity to hit the Allied left centre held by an Austrian Battalion and a battery of guns in position between the village and a small open wood.

The Bavarians advance against the Austrian battalion and John moves his dragoons through the wood to threaten them.Bavarian cuirassiers support the advance (being careful not to get shot at!)

Meanwhile on the Allied right the first wave of French attacks have been driven off.

So at the mid-point of the battle (coffee time) the Franco-Bavarian plan had become rather unhinged. Both wings halted and one (the right wing) in some disorder, and the central reserve committed earlier than planned. The Allied commanders had rather big smiles on their faces and Paul was still dishing out dead figures to us! On top of this our dice throwing had been appalling. We use average dice for firing and melee (more like below average dice!) and all we seemed to throw were twos and the occasional three. It probably wasn't as bad as that but it seemed so at the time! Surely the second half (after coffee and biscuits) would see a resurgence in the French fortunes? I will reveal all next time. Hope you enjoyed so far!

The Battle of Untergalu 1704

2010-05-21T19:51:00.005+01:00

On Sunday we had a very interesting Marlburian battle, a ficticious encounter set in 1704 ( it is not the Unterglau near Blenheim!). This was an attack/defence game with the French commanded by myself and Graham and the Allies by John and Paul. We had John to thank for coming up with the scenario, in fact he comes up with about 95% of our games, and as usual it provided some interesting tactical problems. Below is the scenario presented to us by John.

Basically the Allies held a line running the length of the table and were ensconced in a village and behind numerous hedges and stone walls. They were slightly inferior in numbers, having 13Bns to the French 16 Bns and 4 Cavalry Rgts to the French (and Bavarian) 5 Rgts. What Graham and I did not know was that John had also downgraded the morale of his Walloon Bns. This would have been useful knowledge to have as events turned out. Below are some pics of the initial set up (its a set up!)

The Allied centre held by the English with the 1st Foot Guards on the right by the bridge.

The Franco-Bavarian centre 6Bns of Bavarians plus 2Rgts of Bavarian Curassiers. My new unit of Wolframmsdorf curassiers are between the 1st and 2nd infantry lines (I managed to avoid them taking any casualties at all!)

The French right wing consisted of 4Bns of the Irish brigade and 2 Rgts of cavalry (I commanded this wing)

The French left commanded by Graham - 6Bns of French infantry and a Regt of cavalry.

So much for the initial dispositions, I will describe the battle next time. Thanks for looking!

Bavarian Cuirassiers

2010-05-18T18:06:00.004+01:00

On Sunday we had a very interesting Marlburian battle and I will be writing a (unbiased!) report in the next day or two, time permitting. Until then I have posted a couple of pics of my now completed Bavarian cuirassiers. I have just started to paint my own figures after 25 years in the hobby, apart from a dabble or two in the dark distant past. Surprisingly I have quite enjoyed it and I am reasonably pleased with the results. They may not win any painting awards but I can say I wont be ashamed to field them in a battle! The figures are Front Rank and represent the Wolframmsdorf cuirassiers.

2010-05-14T18:58:00.000+01:00

Napoleonic Game

Hope these pictures give a taste of some of the other games we have recently played.

These feature some of my Russians and John's French figures. They may be old but they have provided many years of "Toy soldier" gaming.

Hope you enjoy......

Looks chilly!

Thankfully the heaters work well when the snow backdrop is deployed.... must be psychological?

You may be able to make out our dice and measuring sticks...... John had these made decades ago after many chips in paint work exasperated him next thing we were removing all tape measures from the box. Very simple as seen by the sales of bits of wood at shows everywhere with felt tip pen marked on it! We may not have been first but we like them. The dice are soft hence no damage to figures from the casino rollers... don't we all enjoy trying to get an officer kill that way ... be honest!

View from the Russian battery position under serious assault from a French Brigade

Thank you for your kind comments

Paul

Random photos

2010-05-03T23:46:00.000+01:00

John has recently painted some

terrain items which no doubt

will have Roman, Napoleonic

or Sudanese battling for their control!

Both sides of an Egyptian gateway.

Germanic/Gallic tribe attack on Roman marching camp

2010-05-03T23:30:00.001+01:00

Imperial Legion awaits relief column

"Following a successful campaign on which the barbarian hordes of the lower Rhine had melted away in front of the Emperor's finest, all had seemed restored to the Peace of Rome.

How wrong could they have been as at first routine patrols were harassed, then foraging parties had to increase their numbers to keep bands of marauding natives at bay?

The Roman Legion was eventually forced to depend upon its baggage supplies, stores that were not to be used unless in dire emergency. Well, besieged in it's own marching camp certainly fitted that scenario!

Did the party of cavalry that had been dispatched from camp manage to reach the Legions to the south? Their only hope was that a forced march would bring a break in the enemy lines. Combined they could crush the foe."

This game was played last night Sunday 2nd May with Paul and John commanding their own Legions.

Graham was in command of a large contingent of warrior bands who had been shadowing the relief force northwards and was joined by Chris (who had really travelled north for the bank holiday weekend) who commanded masses of Suebi and Lemovii warriors (nine warbands and cavalry), aiming to assault the camp and prevent Paul's Legion from a sally out and linking with the relief column led by John.

(Photo)

The terrain had the camp at the far north of the table (10' by 6') on a bluff overlooking

a river. A dense screen of trees obscured the

view south over an open plain, the direction

the relief column would come from.

The masses of Suebi and Lemovii warriors are gathered opposite the Roman camp. The foraging Romans hadn't have time to destroy the bridge over the river, a mistake that may have consequences later.

(Photo)

John marched his Legion (ten cohorts) in column northwards,

with a screen of cavalry (three) and light auxiliary troops consisting of archers and slingers protecting his exposed left flank.

As he approached the plain, a line of hills

and a river covered his left on the approach with more hills beyond.

All is quiet ...........but for how long?

And what of the war bands gathering to annihilate their sworn enemies?

Graham commanded nine war bands led by noble warriors of high morale. Backed up by light archer and slinger units and light cavalry.

They have been awaiting this opportunity to bring these invaders to battle in favourable terrain and are not going to miss the chance to massacre another two legions!

Remember arrogant Varrus? Those following will suffer his fate!

Despite great efforts to reach the battlefield two chariot units and three noble cavalry units were delayed in their journey and arrived on the western edge of the plain. The battle had already been joined.

The storm was unleashed and opposite the camp the Suebi rushed onwards. Paulus had marched out to oppose the attack, his auxiliary archers having time for only a hasty volley before they moved back through the lines and entered the camp.

The gates being firmly secured behind them the five cohorts on the hill top had a stark choice, defeat the barbarian or perish under the palisade!

Machine bolt throwers unleashed death at the massed war bands and added to the confusion as the Suebi struggled to keep impetus crossing the river. Ahead of them stood the cohorts at the crest of the hill. Waiting to charge downhill and begin the life or death struggle.

The bridge allowed easy passage though and one unit reached the crest of the hill first............ only to be met with a volley of pila and a cohort crashing into them.

But these warriors are of high morale and possessed their

own heavy iron throwing spear..... the clash is brutal and
the cohort, despite charging downhill is recoiled!

This is a huge shock to the Commander watching
from the ramparts...

This is not going to be easy! Paulus has to act and the remaining five cohorts held in reserve debouch from the rear gates and march to envelope the enemy who are gaining the upper hand over their comrades. All is cast into the lap of the gods!
Despite the support being sent, several cohorts suffer considerable casualties.

But what of the relief column?

Graham has the progress of the rear of the legion halted, they must face the threat of these noble led war bands who glide over the steep hills and cross the river with ease. Skirmishing ahead of the sword armed infantry archers and slingers sting the opposing screen and force them away. The heavily armoured legionnaires stoically await the onrush. A crash and the titanic struggle ensues... no quarter given as the battle sways in the balance. As both the rear of the column and the camp legion is embroiled in melee what of the plain?.

John has had to deploy three cohorts to bar a foray by Chris's Lemovii tribes south over the river and his advance guard of cavalry and two cohorts are transfixed by Graham's four war bands and the
late arriving chariots and noble cavalry.

How can this be vital gap be held?

Oh divine intervention!!

Paulus had long ago in the early hours of the day

sent his remaining cavalry units into the forest

south of his camp. Those enemy arriving late

upon the plain had by their delay ignored

the tree lines.

Why should they feel threatened in their own territory?

Patiently waiting until they had passed by the Roman
commander unleashed with horse into the rear of
the enemy cavalry and chariots.

Confusion reigned !

The battle hung in the balance.

Despite setbacks on all positions the legion cohorts pushed back their foes.....

On the plain the Roman cavalry held on just enough to take the impulse out of the assault.

At the rear of the column John was able to repulse

Graham's valiant assault then march north to assist

the central melee.

The Lemovii were tumbled back over the river and

Paulus unleashed his reserve cohorts,

carefully husbanded for this moment and marched onto the plain.

Sensing the reverse in fortunes the Germanic and Gallic warriors gradually relinquished ground, battered but not routed.

Some other pic s of the game for close ups..

Our game was fought over 3 hours which included posh biscuits (thanks Chris) and coffee when we discussed the game and put the world to rights! Oh we are diverse!

The game featured in excess of 800 figures and the moves were fast and well coordinated.

Hope everyone enjoys the write up and please give us your views.

A big thanks to Chris who had to

drive over 100 miles home following

the game and yes Dave you do

need a note from your Mam

for missing out again!

Napoleonic Game

2010-04-29T09:45:00.005+01:00

I found some photos of a recent Napoleonic game we had so I thought I would post them. It was a fairly straight forward bash wit the Allies (Russia, Austria and Prussia) attacking a strong French force defending two farms. The game was really an excuse to get some new troops on the table, the 10battalions of Russians I had recently bought ready painted from Reinforcements By Post and some of Grahams Front Rank Austrians (painted by himself). Graham and myself commanded the Allies and John and Paul the French. On the right flank Graham moves to the attack with his lovely Austrians in the foreground.

Graham launches his Dragoons in a death or Glory charge (can you guess which one?). Shades of Balaklava! "Guns to the right of them. . . "

On the French right the steady (ha ha)Neapolitans prepare for the Russian attack.

The Prussians on the left flank (Elite Miniatures)

Another shot of Grahams Austrians (he is currently painting hussars- cant wait to see them)

Grahams death or glory charge comes up against French cuirassiers!

The Russian and prussians storm into the Farm on the left flank.The Neapolitans counter-attack with the support of light cavalry.Prussian hussars about to drive off some chasseurs. They were then counter - attacked by Horse Grenadiers of the Guard wit predictable results!

By the end of the game the French still held the farm on their left but had lost the other to the Russians. However the Russians did not have the strength to push on further and the Allies withdrew to lick their wounds. Just a word on the figures : the majority are Elite Miniatures from my collection, except the new Russians which are Old Glory 2nd Edition. The Austrians are from Grahams collection and are all Front Rank. Hope you enjoyed!

2010-04-27T12:51:00.005+01:00

Thought i would try again with a couple of the previous photos so you can view them a little larger (hopefully it works) Figures are 25mm from various manufacturers and are from Johns collection. The ancients we play include Persians, Macedonians, Spartans/Greeks, Romans (Imperial and Republican), Celts, Germans and Gauls, oh and Indians! John can correct me if I have missed any out! We are having a Roman v Barbarian game on Sunday with a visit from one of our ex-pats Chris, but I may have to miss the game. Hi Chris, I am not avoiding you honest!

Macedonians v Persians

2010-04-26T12:46:00.007+01:00

Last night we had a cracking battle between a Macedonian army led by myself as Alexander and Paul as Parmenio (as he is the oldest!). Facing us on his own was John as the great King Darius. The battle was exciting and a near run thing at times. All the elements were there, Alexander charging at the head of his Companions, the phalanx crushing Persian infantry, Elephants crushing the Macedonians, and Darius turning tail and running! (but not before he gave us a few scares!) I am hoping Paul will post an atmospheric account of the battle at some point but until then here are a few photos of the armies poised for battle. Hope you enjoy!

Above is Parmenio and the left flank cavalry and phalanx.A view of the Persian centre infantry
The Persian left wing cavalry screened by archers and slingers
Alexander at the head of his Companions on the right flank.

Work in Progress

2010-04-26T06:52:00.003+01:00

Some time ago I purchased this gatehouse from a certain Mr Phil Olley with a view to adding to it primarily for our Spanish Succession games. I have now made a start on the first of the Vauban fotifications.
The first phase is the ravelin which I knocked together from some bits of wood off cuts and hardboard left over from building my new shed (nothing goes to waste!). I then covered the outer faces in card to get the sloping effect. its a bit stylised but I am quite pleased with the result. Next I will hopefully cover it in tetrion and add a bit of brickwork detail just like the gatehouse. I hope to add 2 bastions and some wall sections plus something to represent the glacis. The fortifications will extend over one corner of the table and will be used as a backdrop or an integral part of future games. Any modelling tips would be greatly appreciated!

Two new legions raised- John's been busy

2010-04-08T23:40:00.001+01:00

John's been very painting lately .............

very industrious and the following pictures demonstrate how we aim to have large numbers of troops in order to recreate major battle that have a degree of authenticity to them.

We are not content to limit our options because of Rules stating only X elements per side.

Try real size legions and opponents with numbers on their side.

Well done to Prince August for the great figures.

Oh and now for the pics !!

Board is 10 feet by 6 feet for scale

Two legions on right with a few cavalry units and skirmishers.

On left are Gallic warbands and chariots......

Ten cohorts per legion 18 figures per cohort except for the First Cohort which is double strength at 36 figures!

Gallic chariots

Nice Legion Commander

Gallic Chieftan

2010-04-05T00:50:00.001+01:00

Our game on Sunday 4th April 2010

A large War of the Spanish Succession

The whole team turned out including our friend Chris who joins us on holidays

Punic Wars Our Latest battle

2010-04-02T00:16:00.000+01:00

This battle was played on Sunday 21st March. Usual suspects of three with one AWOL but he had a note!

Set in the undulating hills at the exit to the Alpine passes.

Graham and myself commanded the passes with three legions. Simple really ... stop the Ogre!

Hannibal, (John) ... leading the Carthaginian invaders over the Alps and southwards. His aim? Smash the arch enemy and take the infernal City........ thus ending the war his father could not!

Imagine .......... if Hannibal had not outwitted his Roman foes?
Not able to hide his audatious approach to the northern extent of the enemies fledgling empire, he must debouch from the high passes and confront his rivals frontally.
His march has debilitated his army yet he can still assemble a formidable confederation of troops.
Gallic warriors lured onwards for promised spoils of Rome, old tales of their sacking told by elders through the generations, fearsome Numidians, Spaniards, impressive African heavy infantry and of course...........his surviving elephants.

Having been better informed of the "One Eyed Git's" intentions, the Roman Legions await the approach unafraid, preparing to defend their City at the passes. They have even managed to position a scorpion.

Both major exits from the passes are blocked by a Legion. A third Legion links their positions extending the Roman lines across central plain.

Pic.. shows Graham's deep ranks of the legion on the left flank, his right flank covered by heavy cavalry. Note the steep hills on the enemy's left hemming them in.

No sublety here on this flank ....... bludgeon tactics are called for.

....and did they drive foward ! .... led by Libyan spearmen they crashed into the Roman Auxilliary infantry. The stuggle commenced.

Across on the opposite flank the main Carthaginian

horde surges out from the passes. Fronted by

Numidian horsemen and masses of light infantry. They moved across swiftly over the rolling hills while the main columns filed through the pass onto the expanse of the plain. Spanish cavalry then elephants followed by Spanish heavy infantry, armed with their own version of a pilum, the soliferrum.

On the hills and in front of the main lines, the skirmishers clash. Initial encounters are won by the skilled and ferocious Numidian light horsemen, driving back the Roman velites.

As the attack developed the Triarii were ordered to move onto the weakened right to hold the low ridge. Here they could allow the supporting two cavalry units to act offensively when ordered. Oh dear is this move too early.... only time will tell!

Meanwhile in the centre the third Legion patiently stands. Faced by a long low ridge they link both flanks anad may have to support either flank if required, but they are aware of the impotance of maiintaining the centre also.

The left flank continues to be a blood bath. The Roman Auxiliary line has thrown the Libyan assault back upon its supporting troops. Their task done, they move to the rear and the Hastati march forward. Will they need to be called upon again? They think not and look forward to a rest.

Heavy cavalry moves on the open flank of the infantry, protecting the open flanks.

The results of these melees may be crucial in wearing down the enemy on this flank.

The Roman's weakness in cavalry lets then down again. SLowly but surely the horsemen are forced backwards, exposing the Roman infantry flank. Can this be exploited?

In the centre are the first signs of trouble approaching. The Legion quickly realise that they will not be moving to assist either flank in a hurry! Celts.......... lots of them!!! Great!

Both Hastati lines now charge forward, centre and left. Volleys of Pila are hurled, armour penetrated and shields pinned on bodies. The front ranks of the Carthaginians drop under the lethal shower. The Roman primary weapon causes the charge to falter and become fragmented. Second rank warriors trip over the dead and wounded.... before they can recover swords are drawn and they are smashed into by the Roman scutum. Now the work begins!

Not all is going well for the Legions though. On the far right, the scorpion and its protective auxilliary infantry are scattered by the onrushing Numidian light cavalry and Spanish light infantry. Only just, do the Triarii form on the hill and bar their progress. A hedge of spears probing and deterring their assault. But these elite light troops are supported by Spanish regular infantry and these troops drive onwards up the hill together with Celtic heavy cavalry. Now the Roman heavy cavalry can lead forward.

On the valley floor the Hastati await the forming lines of war elephants. Will they resist?

The opposing lines charge, elephants v pila, cavalry vs cavalry.

After a titanic clash the elephants are routed, forced back in confusion and in panic back through the files of heavy infantry still debouching from the pass. The Celtic cavalry fare no better, with the impetus of the Roman charge downhill from the hill crest giving the decisive edge.

A respite now on the right. The second Roman cavalry unit pins large numbers of Spanish infantry upon a hill, they dare not cross the low land to their front and expose their flank to the horsemen.

In the centre, despite hurling large numbers into the melee, the Hastati not only manage to hold the ground, they slowly push their foes back up the slope and attain the cress of the ridge.

A final push is expected and more Spanish regular infantry form up. However, they are hit as the recover from the passage of the routing elephants. They hurl their soliferrum but its a ragged volley. Despite using the pila aginst the elephants the Hastati rush through the heavy iron javelin volley to inflict a crushing blow on the Spanish. But they are veterans and regain their ground. Number begin to increase as the Hastati are checked.

They are finshed and retire behind the Principes.

Its coming to the decisive part of the battle now and Hannibal must break through now or never!

The left flank sees the progress of the Legion unchecked , grinding down the assaults of the elephants and then Africal regulars. Only the Carthaginian cavalry is breaking though. The gap is almost open and the Roman cavalry is exhausted. One more effort and the rear of the enemy lines lie exposed and vunerable.

Except ..........those redoubtable Auxilliary infantry, composted after resting from their melee in the opening phase of the battle, hurl themselves on the triumphant enemy cavalry. Realing from the flank assault, they recoil, and head back towards the safety of the lines.

With the centre having absorbed all of the Celtic warriors in the melee against the Hastati, they are stalled. The Principes stand ready, confident and imposing. They cannot force through.

On the right flank, despite a steady flow of additional cavalry and infantry, Hannibal cannot form them quickly enough to catch the Roman lines whilst they are dissordered. By the time they are ready for battle there exit from the passes are oppsed by reformed Legions.

The options are bleak. Retire to the highs of the passes?

Again our game was played from about 18:00 hrs until 21:30hrs. About 13 moves and a result. Great is your Roman! But next time?

Hope our action inspires you ....... please feel free to comment or enquire

Who we are

2010-03-28T22:05:00.000+01:00

Just in case you wonder who we are I've added a pic.

John, Graham, Paul and Dave

2010-03-17T13:14:00.002Z

I forgot to add that the flags carried by my new Russians are from the Warflag site, total cost £0, so these guys have come cheap. It is a great site though and is ideal for those of us who cannot afford the more expensive (although beautiful) flags on the market.

And yes I am aware they are 1797 pattern! I just liked the colours!

2010-03-17T12:58:00.002Z

A few notes on the photos that Paul has just posted.
Top photo shows the Wolframsdorff Cuirassiers painted by myself.
These are Front Rank figures and are probably the best Spanish Succession range on the
market. I will be adding another 3 figures to the regiment, including a trumpeter, and also
providing a standard for the ensign.

Middle photo shows Prussian Dragoons intheir brave (suicidal?) charge against French cuirassiers. All the cavalry are Elite Miniatures in my collection, painted by Graham.
The Austrians loitering in the background are Front Rank figures, again painted by Graham,
but this time for his own collection.

The bottom photo shows a recent purchase for my collection. These are part of 10 battalions which I bought from Reinforcements By Post. They are Old Glory 2nd edition and blend in nicely with our Front Rank and Elite stuff. These were an absolute bargain, not only are they very nicely painted but they cost about £1.30 each including the cost of the figure, the painting and the postage from Bangladesh! I could not be happier with them.

Some game photos and figures

2010-03-16T22:02:00.000Z

Just a selection of recent games and some of our talented members skills at daubing colour onto metals :)

Zulus! 21/02/10

2010-02-23T22:52:00.000Z

Zululand invaded !

The scenario...... Our intrepid British commanders, Eason at the head of the long column, has crossed the frontier river. Following at a tardy rate, Halliday is bringing up the rear of the column, herding the supplies and artillery train onwards.

What could go wrong?

Cross the border drift.... march a few miles and camp for the night ... and a brew!

Durnford (pictured) has the rear/left flank covered, a mixed Company of Rifles and Marines are flung out to the left flank and our reliable allies of the NNC are up front scaring off any snooping Zulus.

Of course they are!

However .........

The massed regiments of Impi InDuna Coutts had other ideas.

Poised, waiting to strike, their foes crawl forward at an agonising pace, the red coated invaders are stretched out across the entire front of the impi....

Arrayed in their Zulu battle formation, horns flung out, chest and loins, they are a hidden menace behind the line of low hills and bush/trees (pictured right), these warriors fear no one !

The trap is sprung!
The NNC at the head of the column stroll along ..... it's been a long day.

A rush ..... screams .... fear grips their hearts.
they take the obvious decision in the face of the left horn advance, flee !
A mob now .... no resistance offered they run seeking a way to safety.
Crash ..... volleys of rifle fire from the Imperial troops bar their escape route. Safely lining the stone walls of the enclosure they are calmly loading and firing, ready for the onslaught.
Bodies tumble, tearing holes in the mob ......
friendly or not, they're on their own. A slaughter!

Now the Rifles & Marines are stung into action with some unusually accurate rifle fire from the low hills ...

where did they get those rifles from?

The RHA unlimber and fire into the flanks of the Zulus closing on Durnford scouts to the rear.

Gosh they're moving fast.... when was the last time they'd fired for real? Lack of practice ... it shows!

The right horn does not slow at all.

Durnford is magnificent as his troop sting the right horn into following him ... as RHA shells whizz over their pursuers heads.

Dismount ... fire ... mount up .. retire ... dismount ..fire
but the Zulus still press forward .. closing ever nearer.
They are caught attempting to mount up, his troopers are swamped by two regiments of the right horn. Not many will escape this day.

But the encounter has caused a major delay in their progress onto the river and the farm buildings beyond.

Regiments of the chest roll over the low hills and
close on the settlement ....
the skirmishing Company now leaving the open
velt to their foes.

Halliday wakes up to the right horn threat !

No time to lose now. He has to be across the swollen river soon as his infantry cannot be delayed by those wagons.
The drovers are panicking .....

As the men increase their pace to the double they cross the river at the same time as the supplies and cattle.
Animals to the rear .. over with those wagons !
They line the river banks and man the barricade..
... just in time though.

The RHA focuses their fire on the impi warriors waiting to clear Durford's final melee.

Meanwhile the left horn is shattered with volleys from the Companies holding the low hill and wagon line ... those who survive the devastating fire grapple with the red line.

bayonet v assegai

It's too much for the exhausted zulu youths.

A repulse which will have repercussions later in the day.

While the flanks are secure for now the

chest hurls itself against the walls.....

Multiple attacks wither under the fire of massed volleys.

Then a glimmer of hope for the impi... the walls are reached, red coats fall, all hangs on this decisive moment.

The warriors held in reserve position themselves to bolster the attack upon the walls.

Disaster for the Zulus at the wall.

Those troops who routed the left horn can now bring their fire to halt any expected support from the loins of the impi.

Mounted troopers round their flanks and they hesitate.

Not broken but the impetus has gone in the centre.

It rests with the right horn attack now.

Volley fire cannot halt their progress as

the banks of the river are reached.

The attack hangs in the balance ...

Fix bayonets........ Charge!

Unexpected, violent and perfectly timed.

Younghusband leads his Company in a classic counter to tumbble the zulu back.

Barring for some small groups of warriors breaking around the side of the enclosure, the attackers are broken.

The action was fast and the moves took us from 18:30 until 21:30, including tea and biscuits!

Zulu game 21/02/10

2010-02-22T22:45:00.001Z

Here was our long overdue foray into Zululand. British interlopers Eason (head of the column) and Halliday (bringing up the rear at a tardy pace) were crossing the shallow drift near a handy collection of buildings.

The impis of Coutts, arrayed in typical formation began encircling and coralling the British into a tight formation around the buildings.

(Pic shows the chest and loins of the Zulu impi)

Despite some brave delaying tactics by Durnford at the rear of the column his NNC were obliterated! The column leading scouts fled at first sight of their ferocious opponents and were massacred within rifle shot of a watching red coated Company manning the stone walled compound.

Introducing real gaming

2010-02-22T22:17:00.000Z

Westerhope Wargames Group are based in the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne.

We wargame historically covering hugely diverse periods from Alexander the Great, Roman Republic & Imperial through to Horse and Musket wars. ECW, Wars of the Spanish Succession, 7 Years War, Napoleonic and ACW through to Colonial Zulu and Sudanese scenarios. Oh and we can queeze in some modern if time is pressing!

We game weekly in battles of typically 500 figures per side on a 10' by 6' table. Big games to task your command skills.

We believe knowledge is more important that learning Rules, hence we use our own. We aim to achieve a result in a fast moving battle that will be completed in 3-4 hours.
One set of rules fits all...... too good to be true, trust me it's true.

Interested or wish to comment?

Contact us to ask or view some of our recent games..................