Napoleonic game 13.9.12.

This morning we had a thrilling and exciting game,including some "magic moments",and an incident involving Brian's plums!!
This is the scenario,Dave and I took the French commands and Paul,Graham and Brian took the Russians.I suppose this was really a straight forward "bash" with both sides attacking each other,but it was areally good game.

This is an overall view of the table with the French on the left and the Russians on the right,a small town filled with Guard units is in the foreground. This shot shows the heavily contested French left flank, and of course the Russian right flank,before any action .The stream was crossable with no deduction,so this area was ripe for attacks.

This shot shows the "move of the game",Paul advanced a unit of Cossacks against my gun battery,which forced my gunners to retire behind the inf. line,thus stopping me from Cannistering the approaching Russian inf.He then retired the Cossacks,leaving me "high and dry".

This is agood indication of the action along the whole length of the board,we had everything including,fire-fights,cavalry melees and infantry melees,good stuff!

This photo shows Dave's attack across the stream with two lines of inf. supported by cavalry and guns,it was to prove an attack too many however,as he was eventually thrown back by "dogged" Russian infantry,and a well placed shot from Brian's gun battery.

Undaunted,Dave launches his left flank cavalry against Graham's cavalry,however Dave was beaten eventually and was forced to retire,exposing his flank.

This shot shows Paul's attack on the town and my infantry line,I managed to stop his first attack,but a second column of grenadiers marched up to the walls and took my Guard inf. on!!

This is either a new "boy band" or a line up for "crime stoppers"

This shows Graham contemplating his victory on his flank,whilst Brian has got his troops deployed in line,behind Graham's "pounded and pummelled" line of infantry.

This is Paul's mass attack on the town,our centre and left flank had gone and we decided that all was lost for the French army.

This is the final photo showing the "gloating" Russian cavalry and the "skulking" French cavalry,never mind ,there's always another day !!

It was good to get us all together,especially as the game was so good,roll on Sunday !!

The Testudo Factory keeps producing!

For this,my third Warrior Miniatures Testudo,I elected to base the figures in three's for ease and quickness of painting,this proved to be a good decision,and enabled me to complete the Testudo in record time.
This first photo shows the figs. stuck onto their bases and painting bases. Another shot showing the three's.ready to be undercoated.

This shot shows the testudo undercoated.

Shields painted and flesh on,in this photo.

All figures painted and ready to be based,in the shot below.

Testudo on its base awaiting flock and rocks etc. to be put on.

All three on the table,this gives a good idea of what they will all look like.

Another angle of all three completed Testudos,only two to go!!

If John at Warrior Miniatures is reading this blog,I would love some feed-back or comments,cheers!!

Battle of the Metaurus 207 BC.played 9.9.12.

We fought this very interesting battle,last night, as a wargame and not an actual re-fight of the battle itself.Paul took the part of Porcius and Livius,Brian was Nero,and I was Hasdrubal. This is the overall view of the table,with Nero in the far right background,facing the Gauls,whilst the Roman centre/left faced my Ligurians,Spanish and Africans,with the cavalry facing each other in the foreground.

These are my Gauls,who were a mixed bag of good and bad fighting points,but were faced with a Legion,supported by Paul's whole back line of Triarii,and a cavalry unit.The Romans obviously meant to beat me on this flank,and of course, they did!! but not until I gave them a bit of a fright by coming down from my hill position and attacking them.

This is my centre/right flank,composed of light and heavy infantry and Elephants,which somehow managed to remain on the board for the whole game and did alot of damage to Paul's cavalry.

This shot is of the Roman centre/left,composed of two combined legions,in their traditional 3 lines.

This is the Roman right flank,commanded by Brian,and consisted of one full legion and a cavalry unit.

The cavalry battle!Paul attacked my cav. from move one,this surprised me,and he was successful until I moved my Elephants over to the flank,to disrupt his cavalry.Feeling desperate,Paul put his command figure into the fray,and he was killed,resulting in his cavalry having to take morale,luckily for me,they failed the test and routed!!This resulted in me being able to move my cavalry onto the exposed Roman flank,causing all kinds of problems.

On my right flank,things were not going according to plan,Brian,in this shot,has launched a furious attack against my Gallic cav. and has backed them up with two units of Princepes,this force won the ensuing melee,and forced me to commit my warbands into a precipitous attack down the hill,not a good thing to do!! they too were beaten,morale was taken,and they took off,dragging the other warbands with them!

This is the clash in the centre,which swung both ways,and I was only saved by my Elephant and cavalry moving onto Paul's exposed flank.

This is our new member,Brian, looking very pleased with himself,having given my Gallic contingent a right old beating!

This shows the aftermath of the "Gallic Departure" Brians legion and supporting troops rushing over the stream and taking my hill,thus exposing my left flank.

This is the final photo,showing the Carthaginians winning in the centre,and forcing Paul to move troops to protect his flank.

We decide that a "draw" was a fair result,and I was happy with that,we all enjoyed the game,roll on Thursday.

Napoleonic game 6.9.12.

Last night we had a Napoleonic game,and were joined by Brian,who we met at Border Reiver show.I was in charge of a combined Anglo-Portuguese army,which was supported by a few units of Spanish on move number 3.Paul was General Delaborde,in charge of a French division,and Dave was General Masena,in charge of another French division.
The scenario had a few twists and turns attached to it,including limited shots for the gun batteries,poor morale status for the Poruguese and Westphalians,and a roving "Guerrilla" band!
The shot below shows Paul's first assault on my position on the Right flank,his infantry is being cannistered,however this didn't deter his attack too much. This is Paul assaulting the town (which was the whole objective of the game),he was driven back by my "raw" port. infantry.

This photo shows my right flank,just as Dave's horse artillery battery is giving my light dragoons a "whiff of grapeshot"-they didn't like it much, and took off into the blue,never to be seen again!!

This shot is taken from the French side of the board and shows the furious fire-fight on the British right flank.

Another shot showing the combined forces of Masena and Delaborde
shooting the hell out of my British and Portuguese,note Paul's infantry getting ready to attack the town.

Although Brian hadn't played our rules before,he bravely took command of the allies left flank,and this shot shows his advance onto the flank of the French attacking the town.

This shows my troops behind the town,being forced back by sheer weight of numbers,in the background you can see a regiment of Portuguese "retiring" from the town,luckily I had another regiment in place to stem the French tide.( for a while!!)

This is Brian's finest hour,his Spanish horse artillery battery is just about to open fire on a French (Swiss) square whilst his light dragoons have over-run a gun battery.

This is the END.French troops entering the town,after a furious melee,my right flank had collapsed and I had nothing left to fight with.Well done to Dave and Paul,for a good battle plan,and well done to Brian for not giving up hope while my battle plan unravelled before his eyes.

Again, a good solid game,everyone enjoyed the fight,roll on Sunday,we hope to see Brian again then.

Ceremonial burning of the "Dippert-stick" 2.9.12.

I apologise in advance for the following photographs,that only club members will appreciate.I burnt one of our measuring sticks ( called,in the club,"dipperty-sticks") this morning,whilst playing "Colonel Bogey" on my harmonica!!
The first photo shows the stick being prepared for sacrifice in my barbeque. This photo shows the stick,having just been lit!

This is the stick fully alight!!

Nearly done!!

Done and now destroyed forever,I will suggest to the rest of the members that we play for the "Ashes" once per year!!!!!!!!!!

Border Reiver Show.1.9.12.

Having just got back from the Border Reiver show at Gateshead Stadium,I thought I would give a little review of how the show went.
We put on an Ancients demonstration game (Romans vs Britons) which was well received judging by the number of people who stopped at our table for a chat.We got some good comments and were asked some interesting questions,about the figures,our rules,the way we play etc. etc.
The venue was very good,good lighting,lots of space,easy parking,the only "downer" was the lack of refreshments (although there was a mobile food van in the car park,which disappeared at 11.30 !!) The photo above shows the legions poised to attack.

Above are Allan and Dave cuddling!! This was before the game started and the venue opened.

This is a typical shot during the whole session,Graham is showing the Prince August figures and information to an interested gamer,we seemed to be talking during the whole of the day,which was good and showed alot of people that you don't need expensive rules and figures to have a good,free-flowing and interesting game.

This is an overall shot of our table with Dave explaing the "finer" points of the way we play.

This photo shows the game at about move number 6,the Legions and the Britons have "clashed",this attracted alot of interest,and gamers were actually coming from their own games to see what was happening.

This shot shows Dave contemplating his moves as his side of the board was the scene of my only victory! An interested gamer looks on and asks questions.

This photo was taken by Paul, just to show that I do exist !!I always seem to be behind the camera (looking at my face I can see why!!)

We all enjoyed the show and talking to so many interested people,not only other wargamers,but members of the non-wargaming community and traders.

A real let-down was that Prince August had "promised" to send me some "flyers" and marketing material,but they didn't!! I think this was a marketing opportunity missed,but hey what do I know?

Our thanks to Rob and all the other organisers for their great effort,we are looking forward to next year already!!