Last night,Graham,Brian,Paul and I had a good old fashioned "set-to" involving a mixed Carthaginian army against a republican Roman army.
Paul and I were Romans,Brian and Graham were Carthaginians.........................
Graham has sent his Elephants,skirmishers and cavalry against my legion on my right flank.
Meanwhile,Brian is moving his Celtic contingent against Paul's flank-this is going to get messy!!!
I have managed to get rid of Graham's Elephants,who have rampaged off to the right of the photo,but I am still struggling with his Spaniards.Paul has sent his centre legion forward but they have run into huge things with trunks!-no,not American holidaymakers,Elephants!!!-it's definitely getting messy!
Brian's Celts have attacked across the stream,and are giving Paul's legion a bit of a hard time,and he is piling more warbands forward-are we in trouble???
No!! Paul has driven the Elephant threat away to my flank!!-thanks Paul, but this has relieved the pressure,allowing him to concentrate his forces against Brian-hurrah!!(unless you're Brian!!)
My Triarii are waiting patiently until the rampaging Elephants have passed then they will launch an attack,supported by my heavy cavalry against Graham's flank-piece of cake!!!
The depleted,defeated and disintegrating Carthaginian centre!!But what of Brian's Celts?
They're knackered too-Graham's face says it all-victory to the Romans!!
Well,roll on Thursday!!
I am seriously considering knocking Sunday games on the head,and maybe playing them every other week,but still continuing with the Thursday night games on a weekly basis.
Early last year I saw in one of the many catalogues my wife receives,some cardboard press- out Viking ships,priced at £5.99-too much I remember saying!!-however,later on,June I think,they were selling the same ships at £2.99-a much better price,so I bought 4,on the strength of getting a Viking army to go with them!!
Anyway,it's taken me until now to have a go at making them.On first examining them,it was obvious that,at 16.5 inches long,they were too big for wargaming purposes,so I decided to alter them to a more manageable 8.5 inches,however it meant a lot of alterations and the abandoning of the decks etc.however I have persevered-see what you think............................
This is how they come packaged,from the British Museum,and this is what you get....
Deck,Hulls,sail and even crew!!
These are the component parts I am going to use-I cut down the hull and sail,and used a Bar-B cue skewer for the mast,and Canape Skewers for the oars,with an MDF base for the mini-deck.
I cut "V's" out of the hull to take the oars.
Oars would be positioned like this when that stage happens in the process.
This is how the mast will be stuck through the MDF base,which will then be inserted between the hulls.
The hulls have been glued at both ends(very nautical terms are being used here!!) and the base "jammed" in between them.
This is how it looks prior to the oars being added.................
Oars added to the "Port" side-the same is done to the "Starboard"side,and almost complete.
Taking shape now,I thought that the mast and oars stood out a bit,being just white,so I coated them with Mahogany varnish-what will all four look like??
The Viking "fleet" sailing majestically up my kitchen table....................
All four only took me an afternoon to complete-I hope my Viking Army(not yet ordered!) takes as little time!!
Any comments would be welcome.
Having completed my Norman and Saxon armies,in preparation for a display game at Shildon in October (16th-two days after the actual anniversary!) I decided to put the armies on the board and have a go at recreating the battle.
As there was only three of us,Paul and Brian elected to be the Saxons,under King Harold,and I was to be Duke William commanding the Normans.-what a game it turned out to be!!
The scenario and table before any movement are shown in the two photo's-we played on a light green cloth,as we will play the game at Shildon,and all of the figures are from Warrior Miniatures Saxon and Norman range,apart from a few Norman archers which are from their "El Cid" range.
A splendid line of Norman infantry await the order to advance,closely supported by Knights.
Another view of the Norman line.
An equally splendid line of Saxon Huscarls stand on top of Senlac Hill awaiting the Norman attack.
The attack begins-I ordered the Bretons on my left flank and the "French" on my right to advance quickly,whilst the Normans in the centre were to advance at a much slower pace.
The Bretons cross the brook-I had deliberately made the fighting and morale points low for the flank troops,hoping to simulate them getting beaten in melee,and falling back,hopefully to be chased by the Saxon Fyrd(also stationed on each flank) as per the actual battle-and it worked!
My right flank "French" were first to make contact,cutting into the Fyrd like a knife through butter!!But then the Fyrd fought back and forced a morale test,which the "French" failed and retired(it's good being retired) chased hotly by the Saxons,down into the valley,where the Norman cavalry were waiting-hurrah!!!
A move later and the Bretons have made contact,the same thing happening on this flank as happened on the other-history repeating itself!!
Now the Norman foot have made contact-this was not going to be easy as I had made the Huscarls very high in fighting and morale points,but had earlier caused a few casualties with archery-note I am massing all of my archers in the centre,in readiness to take off furhter casualties.
The Fyrd have chased my "French" troops,and have,themselves,been caught!!-hurrah!!
Meanwhile the central battle goes on,but previous casualties are now telling and the Saxon Huscarls are losing a couple of melees.
This shows my right flank,with my cavalry about to destroy the Fyrd.But what of the other flank?
With my Infantry in dis-array,I thought a quick cavalry charge would discomfort the Fyrd still on the hill-wrong!! they stood and drove the cavalry back-this isn't in the script!!!
My archers are now in place,I will order the infantry to retire(it's good being retired) and let the archers do their work,then charge home with the bulk of the cavalry-job's a good'un!!
My central infantry are retiring in this shot-the archers managed to just get enough casualties off the Huscarls to force them into testing morale,and the end two units failed-hurrah!!-time for a cavalry assault upon the hill.
One last photo-the cavalry are just about to deliver the "coup de grace" upon the Saxons.
This was a great game,full of excitement,colour and tension,and the gaming outcome mirrored the historical outcome,which was very gratifying.Well done to Paul and Brian,and roll on Sunday,probably an Ancients game,if I can come up with a scenario!
Last night 4 of us had a really interesting game/exercise,as described in the previous blog.
We decided that Graham,Brian and Paul would be co-commanders of the American forces and that I would "command" the Iraqi forces ie. turn over the cards and throw whatever dice were required-as it turned out nearly all of the Iraqi firing was done by "Stevie Wonder"!!!
Top photo is an American Tank,and bottom photo is an Iraqi Tank-all vehicles and figures are bought from the Pound Shop,and painted to my usual high standard(Hmmmmm!!)-Brian has informed me that the tanks are probably based on the Russian T62(of course I knew that!!!)
The whole "exercise" was to get the commanders to come up with a detailed plan of attack and write precise orders for each of their units-the discussions were great to sit and listen to-each commander having his own thoughts of how to rescue the imprisoned "General"-Eventually a compromise was reached,and the game started,with a Helicopter surveillance run over the Iraqi left flank,which discovered a mortar crew and a heavy machine gun position,which it must be said were quickly "dealt with".
This shows the flank about to be "dealt with"-I had no control over where the Iraqi troops were,so when we turned over the cards,we both had a laugh(or not !!)
The Americans decided to launch a "bombing run" with one of their planes,against my right flank,this prompted me to "reveal" the village troops,which turned out to be an A/T gun,a Tank and an infantry squad,who just happened to have a "blowpipe" unit,who then fired at the passing aircraft,and missed!!!
With the Americans massing their forces on the Iraqi left,their A/T gun opened up at effective range,and although it hit a tank,did very little damage!-the tank fired back,and destroyed the gun!!!
On the Iraqi right,a tank emerges from cover,in an attempt to draw some American troops from the left-however(!!) an air strike was ordered,and this held the tank up for a couple of moves,but fortunately the bomb missed,and eventually the tank "rumbled" forward on it's lonely,but doomed mission.
Having successfully wiped out the A/T gun and the Tank in the village,the American commanders ordered an infantry attack,which took a few casualties,but over-ran the defenders!
This shows the fight for the village,with American tanks supporting the infantry assault,but what of the Iraqi Tank,whose mission it was to draw away American troops????
Can you spot it?-well so did the Americans!!-they poured shit,shot and shell into that poor little tank,reducing it to scrap metal within one move!!!
Basically,game over,however to teach the Americans a lesson,for not having a contingency plan to cover this event,I drove the captured General away in an APC!!-they should,of course,have seen that this could happen,and attacked the Iraqi right flank,as well as the left,to close any escape route-hurrah!!
This was a wonderful exercise in communication,planning and specific order writing-we can only improve,but well done lads.
Roll on Thursday!!
Last night I had planned a rather "involved" game based on an Iraqi vs Americans scenario,unfortunately Paul couldn't make it,and as it would take two American commanders and a referee(me!) Brian and I decided to call it off and wait until Sunday,when maybe two teams could face the challenge.
I will print the info. that the American commanders will be given,and write a full report of what happened on Monday,after Sunday's games.
This is the scenario,the "chipping" is not as far fetched as it sounds,I am reliably informed that "Special Forces" around the world do this for location purposes.
This is the info that the American commanders will be given-no troops will be on the board at the start of the game.The Iraqi troops are in various locations,randomly laid cards,face down,showing Tanks,Infantry,Artillery etc.etc. will be put in the Village and Scrub/Rocks locations,so no one knows what is where,until the cards are turned,ie. when "spotted" by the Americans-sound complicated,but can be managed by me as referee(I hope!!)
The map,showing defensive locations and village-all American troops must come onto the board from point"X"-the objective being to make base-to-base contact with the building where the "General" is imprisoned-easy!!!
A general(pardon the pun!) view of the table from the American entry point.
A more detailed view of the village,and buildings where the "General" is housed.
I always try to give the "boys" an interesting and testing game,but hosting two games a week does take a toll on the old grey matter,and quite frankly I'm running out of ideas-thinking of two scenarios,terrain,balancing forces,providing order sheets,points,pens,clip boards,measuring sticks,dice and figures,is getting tiresome!!-I need some help!!-so come on "boys" get your thinking caps on and come up with a couple of games to give me a rest.
However,roll on Sunday!!
