We had a colonial game last night,as a sort of preparation for Border Reiver,so I won't go into too much detail of the game,other than to say it was,as usual for a Colonial game,fast and furious and fun.-Paul was British commander,Brian and I were Zulu commanders.
Scenario and table before any movement-not a Zulu in sight-YET!!!
Detail of the British column-they were given a 2 move start,before any Zulus appeared-this was calculated,so that they reached the farm,and deployed prior to the Zulu attack!
British,happily deployed in Farm,awaiting any passing Zulus(correct plural of Zulu is amaZulu)-what is Brian doing??-his left horn attack is just developing.
The right horn is now in position!
And now that the centre is in position,it would be churlish not to attack!!!!!!!!
And attack we certainly did-in grand style,gaining some victories and suffering some defeats!
Final shot,showing the Zulus about to wipe out the garrison!!
There were a few small things that need to be sorted out (no,Brian not that small thing,now put it away,you're frightening the children!!) before we roll the game out for Border Reiver on the 5th September,at Gateshead Stadium.
Roll on Thursday.
How do you begin to describe a game that was fascinating,exciting,tense,colourful,yet friendly and hilarious at the same time?-a Classic, I suppose would,sort of ,describe the game we had last night!
The "usual" scenario and table before any movement-Paul was Austrian commander,Brian was Russian commander,and I was Prussian commander.
We spent the first three moves getting our troops into the required positions,and to me this was a major part of the visual aspect of this game-it was good to see the formations changing from marching columns into line,guns being positioned,reserves posted etc.etc.-great stuff!!
Then,the inevitable first clash!!-I'm not a great fan of early cavalry battles,but Brian pushed onwards with his Dragoons,and I had to respond-this melee went on for the best part of the game,neither of us gaining any advantage,other than tying down our respective flanks.
Brian,not waiting for Paul to get into position,followed his cavalry attack with a massed infantry assault on my steady lines of infantry.Because he had a restricted frontage,due to the cavalry battle,I managed to "out-gun" him,and inflicted fearful casualties on his first line,which wavered and then broke-hurrah!!-this was going to be a "walk in the park"(NOT!!!)
This shot gives a good view of the state of play about move number 6-Paul has just entered the fray,and is attacking my Hanoverians,whilst in the background Brian(or Mr Tenacious,as we call him!) is piling the pressure on my Prussians.
With drums beating and flags flying,Paul is sending his best brigade,supported by cavalry,across the most easily defended crossing place on the stream!!-he got himself bogged down,and his best troops were stuck-hurrah!!(but not before he gave me a bloody nose!!)
In the background you can just see the Austrians beginning their advance on my redoubt-will I be able to stop him????
Whilst the "dynamic duo" have a conflab,my Prussians are tearing the Russian infantry apart!
The action is now spreading across the whole of the battle field,-being out-numbered,I am having to be careful where I put my troops,but everywhere I put them,Paul's guns seem to find them!!-he is causing too much damage!-the bounder!!Note the steady advance in the centre!
Paul and his Austrians are putting the Hanoverians under tremendous pressure,from Gun and volley fire-I needed support,so I put my redoubt defenders into column,and was hit by Paul's guns,marched them across the stream,and was hit by Paul's guns,put them into line,and was hit by Paul's guns-are you getting the picture??-yes,I lost the whole brigade,before they even could fire a shot in anger-woe is me!!
Paul has crossed the stream with his leading infantry,only to be forced into defensive formation,because of my cavalry threat,but he is piling more and more troops into this sector-it can only be a matter of time before I break!!
The action on my left flank is intensifying-I have driven Brian's cavalry back,but a couple of my infantry units are "suffering" and look close to breaking-can I hold on?
Paul's magnificently co-ordinated attack,involving guns cavalry and infantry,has succeeded in capturing the redoubt,and to my cries of "I have been penetrated!" things were looking bad for the Prussians!!(to say the least!!)
But things were about to get a whole lot worse!!-Brian was shot to hell,and his whole command looked as if it was about to run away,however I had to put a Brigadier into my far left regiment to stop it retiring,and the next volley from Brian shot him!!!!-bloody well woe is bloody me!!!
His whole brigade decided to abandon the field,which exposed the flank of the next brigade,and you can guess the rest-chaos and confusion!
At this point in the game,my Hanoverians,who had been doing very well indeed,decided that enough was enough,and it was then game over!!!
One final photo,with my left in all kinds of trouble,the redoubt captured and my right in preparation for flight(!) I capitulated!!
By any standards this was a great game,full of unexpected(in my case anyway!) twists and turns-well played to Paul and Brian.
Roll on Thursday night-we might just try something different!!
I thought I would share our "gloat" with you all,as this report appeared in this month's Wargames Illustrated-we are pleased that Wayne Bollands enjoyed our game,and gave us a "shout" by name.
Top photo for the "Top" game!
A really nice write up too-although the use of the word "gentlemen" is a bit strong!!!!
This made it all worth while!!
Last night Paul and I had another great Ancients game,with Brian acting as Umpire!
Scenario and table before any movement-Paul was in command of the Greeks and I was Alexander.
We wrote our battle plans out,and we almost "mirror-imaged" each other's plan-My plan was to hold on my right until the left and centre had advanced and beaten the opposition-Paul's plan was to hold on his left until his right and centre had advanced and beaten the opposition!!
The cavalry clash!! Initially I had the best of the melees,but then Paul threw in his reserve cavalry and forced me back,however It wasn't until move number 7 that I was truly beaten-this was long enough for my Hypaspists and central phalanx to advance and give the Greeks hell!!
In a bout of "never seen before dice throwing!!" I won every first round melee-even against the dreaded Spartans-hurrah!!!(however the hurrahs were not to last very long,as the Spartans got their act together and proceeded to tear the phalanx to pieces!!!
This photo shows the initial clash of Hypaspists and phalanx against Greek hoplites-note Paul's "Spartan" t-shirt,and Brian's supressed laughter!-this was spectacular stuff!
Paul has won the cavalry battle on the flank,and is now reforming to threaten my rear,but I am steadily pushing the Athenians back,putting a bit of distance between me and the cavalry.
This is a good overview of the table,showing my central phalanx in all kinds of trouble-Alexander and his Royal body guard are "lurking" hoping for a Spartan unit to expose a flank-they will strike,and Alexander will ride to the temple and win the game-hurrah!!-not so fast!!
A Spartan unit did expose a flank,the Bodyguard did strike,but were held and then beaten!!-bloody Spartans!!!
My right flank phalanx is moving to the far right,hoping to take some pressure off my centre-this worked and Paul massed his Corinthians ready to melee as soon as I had crossed the stream.
And cross the stream they did!!-the power of the pike,once again, proved too much for the Hoplites,and I won all of the first round melees-by this time Alexander had extricated himself from the Bodyguard vs Spartans melee,and proceeded to the Minoan Temple-hurrah!! with no opposition left,Paul had no choice but to give in-another hurrah!!-however the Greeks had given the rest of the Macedonian army a right old "battering",so really a draw would be the proper result-well done to Paul and a big thanks to Brian.
Alexander about to enter the Minoan Temple,and game over-is that a Greek urn?what's a Greek urn?-about 5 Euros a day!!!-I got that one in before Brian does!!
Roll on Sunday,probably a 7YW battle.
As I was leaving my local B&M store the other day,I noticed in the Toy aisle,that they were having a clearance sale,so I had a quick look,and bought the subjects of this blog!!
I,like a lot of other wargamers,am aware that we need to recruit youngsters into the hobby if it is to surive,I am also aware that youngsters seem to like "skirmish-type games" instead of the massive Napoleonics,Ancients etc. games.
I recently read an article on Zombies in wargaming(actually the crew of a Submarine!) fighting some Russian Modern types,so I thought,well, I'll buy these figures just to let the younger element see that they don't have to invest a fortune to start in our fantastic hobby!
There were 15 Zombies and 15 "Responders"(WW2 soldiers!) in the box,the normal price being £1.49,reduced to 50p-I don't mind splashing out at times you know!!
On the back of the pack is an advert for the other figures from the series-with a bit of imagination,I can see some enterprising youngster buying a couple of Dinosaurs and pitting them against the Cavemen!!-and of course the Ninjas and Pirates could produce games of Rival factions against each other.-the sky's the limit!!
Now there's a surprise-Made in China!!-I thought I would give you the Web site just in case any budding skirmishers are reading this.
But now onto the figures, and how I painted them.........
I picked 6 different poses to paint-there are actually 7 American Footballers in the pack!!
As you can see they are made in a ghastly green plastic-the Responders are in a ghastly Blue plastic!!
The figures undercoated,and the fine detail comes out.Now having never seen a Zombie(although I did work in Gateshead for 4 years),I had to decide what colours to use on the flesh and clothes-in the end I just used the colours I had!!!!
Underway! one is painted purple,one green,one grey and the rest ordinary flesh.
I am beginning to enjoy painting these wonderful little models-some of the detail is very good.
Almost finished-some of the poses reminded me of the "dad dancing" I was doing at my son's wedding a couple of weeks ago!!
Yep!! that's me all right-same clothes as well!!
Finished-a bit of "blood" adds a little something I think!!(notice the number 74 on the American Footballer's shirt!)
The finished group pose for a Photo! Actually the more I look at them,I'm reminded of the Westerhope Wargames Group photo!!
Hello Brian!!
What with "Battling Tanks" and "Zombies" I'm losing my street cred.(I don't think I ever had any though!!)
Roll on Thursday-proper wargaming,Ancients-hurrah!!
Last night was a"riot" of a game-it was so fast moving that at times I found it difficult to keep up!!
This was the scenario-Dave was Ackland,Paul was Wellington,I was Napoleon and Brian was Soult-and Brian put in the performance of his life!!
This shows the table before any movement,Paul's command is in the foreground,facing my command.Brian was tasked with capturing the village of "Santa Anna", and a more dogged persistence and tenacious effort can not be imagined-it was superb to watch,great gaming at the best level.Dave was in charge of the Spanish and Portugueses troops,opposing Brian-he also put in a great defence-this was wargaming at its best as far as I am concerned!-All this praise of Dave and Brian can not distract from Paul's wonderful handling of his light dragoons and horse artillery,who put an end to Napoleon's ambitions!!!-I did ok too!
The game commenced with this impressive attack on the village by Brian's Westphalians,supported by artillery and cavalry,Dave countered by reinforcing the village,and sending some Portuguese to assist.
Meanwhile,in the centre,Paul has advanced against my guns and Infantry,we even had a melee,as I tried to stem the "crimson tide".Once I thought that the British were weakened,I put in a counter-attack against the Villa area,but Dave came to Paul's assistance,sending some infantry and cavalry to support him-the swine!!
He looks too happy for a man who has just got all of his officers shot ,by incredible dice throwing from Dave!!-send in another wave of brave Frenchmen,Brian!!-looks like a cavalry battle looming in the far distance.
There they go! By now Brian's command was shrinking fast,but surely one last effort will see the village in French hands.
At last!! the garage reverberated to shouts of "vive l'empereur" as the French stormed into the village-but what of the rest of the battle?????
Well,my counter-attack is faltering under pressure from artillery and volley fire-the Guards have been committed as a last resort-but will it be enough?
The resounding answer is NO!!!!-After a tremendous tussle on my left flank,Paul has forced my infantry into square,beaten my cavalry,and is now moving his light dragoons and horse artillery onto my flank and rear-it's all over for my command-Brian's command,although in the village,is being faced by overwhelming odds,so we had to admit defeat,but as we all know,defeat is not dishonour!!-we put up a good show!!
I really enjoyed this game,so too did the rest of the "lads".
We had a bit of spare time at the end of the game,so I "rolled out" the Battling Tanks,and they seemed to go down well,after a very quick demo.-so who knows??
Roll on Thursday,probably an Ancients involving a Cretan Temple!
Brian has managed to get in touch with the organisers of "Border Reiver" show,and has booked us a table-we now have to decide which period we will fight as a demo. game.
