Marlburian game 8.6.14.

Last night we had an interesting Marlburian game,with myself and Brian on one side and Paul and Graham on the other.

No scenario,just a picture of the troop dsipositions and terrain-Paul and Graham commanded the Irish,Bavarian and Spanish troops whilst Brian and I commanded the Danish and British troops.

This is a shot of the table before any movement,it also shows the preparation that goes into putting on a game-the clip boards,dice,pens,measuring sticks and order sheets,all prepared,all the lads have to do is come along,and play the game-I know,I've got lots of time 'cos I'm retired!!! But it does take alot of work to think up 2 or sometimes 3 scenarios a week,some help would be appreciated sometimes,so come on lads,get your thinking caps on,and help me out!!

Some photo's of the game follow................

These are the early stages of the game,with action along the whole front,Brian trying to get into the village,and Graham trying to get into the hamlet-and a cavalry battle going on in the centre!

These last two photo''s show the closing stages of the game-Graham has successfully taken the hamlet,at bayonet point,and the cavalry is leaving the field in disgrace!!Despite an attack or two,Paul has maintained his hold on the village,and so the Irish/Bavarian alliance was declared the winners!!
We won't be playing on Thursday,due to hospital appointment in morning and World Cup opening match at night.

Seven Years War Painting update

Dave has just completed basing my Austrian Seven Years War figures and I must say they give them the finishing touch..... thank you to Dave!

Some pictures of the three battalions complete with flags and a coat of gloss varnish.

Once the Austrian army is completed I intend to gloss every figure I have..... ancient through to Russian Napoleonic..         a tall order but they look so much better.

Anyway, here are the pictures.

 

I must point out that the command figures are all Dave's work and they are fantastic!

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Pyrrhus vs Rome.

Last night capped my day off just right!!-I'd had an exciting game in the morning and an absolute "corker" of a game with Paul and Brian at night-it's great being retired you know!!
The game last night was a Roman army besieging a town,with a Pyrrhic army coming to relieve it,complete with phalanxes and elephants!!Brian and I were the Roman commanders and Paul was Pyrrhus.

This is Pyrrhus surveying the table before any movement,Brian commanded the troops attacking the town from sea and land,whilst I commanded the Legions.

Brian's attack begins,his catapults,on board the galley,knocked the wall down in three moves!!-my hero!! however the troops using the ladders and towers weren't quite so lucky,and took a bit of a hammering !!

Meanwhile,in the centre,Paul and I have locked horns-my hastati against his peltast types,with the dreaded elephants!-The elephants in the foreground were beaten soundly and had to take morale-luckily they ran amok missing all troops and eventually "fell" off the edge of the world-phew!!

Oh no!! the elephants remaining have pushed my hastati unit facing them,back,and Paul has sent in his horse archers,causing me all kinds of trouble-I wonder how Brian is getting on!!!!

We're in-hurrah,we're out-boo!! swings and roundabouts,still,if nothing else he's a determined man,and kept the pressure on Paul all game-what we need are the marines to land-I'm told they have an exploding "limpet" duck,that Brian is going to stick to the wall with chewing gum!!-the man's mad!

An exchange of lines from the Romans saw the Princepes step forward,whilst Paul has withdrawn his peltasts and the horrible Phalanxes now face me-ooh er!!

Crash!!,my pila hardly dented the shields of the phalangites,but their sarrisas dented my troops!!-this was going to be Titanic(it sank didn't it??)-The remaining elephants have ben killed,and the cavalry battle going on on the left,has been drawn again!(6 draws in total-must be a record!)

My Romans have pushed the Phalanxes back,and my hastati are starting to move to the flanks,this is looking good-what is happening at the town?

The exploding "limpet" duck has done its job,and the marines have stormed into the town-hurrah!!(limpet duck's brother can be seen in front of the galley!!)

The final photo,with the town in Roman hands,and Pyrrhus' centre in a mess,the Romans were declared the winners of this great game-well done to Brian and Paul-this is what I like about wargaming-roll on Sunday,Graham should be with us,and probably a Marlburian game.

As this is the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings,I think it would be fitting if we all said a silent "thankyou" to all the brave men who took part,all those years ago-Peace!!

Battle of Trinkitat-Sudan.Campaign game

This morning,Brian and I had our third Sudanese Campaign game-Brian had retreated to the town of Trinkitat,after having been beaten in the last game,where he occupied the town,leaving his Egyptian Allies out on a limb in a very vulnerable position!!

This shows the initial layout of terrain and troops-the Gun Boat was no other than the "Good Ship Venus" about to have its Maiden Voyage and Battle.My plan was to attack the town and the camp,and, when I saw where Brian had placed most of his troops,to support the attacks!!

My right flank troops can be seen here attacking the town-Brian had put almost all of his troops in the town,and I could see that this was a mistake,as he couldn't use all his fire-power,so I ordered the Haddendowah,sheltering behind the main ridge,to attack and support as necessary-hurrah!!

The "Venus" open fires-and misses!!-hurrah again!!-what a finely crafted model. In the background you can see the Dervish hordes descending on the Egyptian camp-you could hear their knees knocking from a mile away!!

The cry went up "We're coming to get you!!",and so they did-their orders were to attack the camp and burn it-simple but very effective!!

My first line hits the walls of the town-Brian had,somehow,retired his Camel Corps over the walls!!-exactly how he managed to lift his camels over the walls,left a lot to the imagination!!!
However,I was successful,at first,but the initial fire into my ranks had caused a bit of damage,and I was eventually beaten back!

The Egyptian camp is ablaze,and the next move saw them retiring at a rate of knots,out of the camp-hurrah,hurrah!!

Meanwhile,back at the town,things are not going terribly well!-Brian has actually brought some troops out,and is forming a sort of firing line,trying to stem the flow of Haddendowah central line.
The "Venus" had now got her range and was inflicting casualties on my flank,and driving the troops there,back to their starting positions!!

It's all over!!My central attack has been stopped,I have failed to get into the town,in any significant numbers,and the Dervish hordes are busy "eating" the Egyptians!!-so another victory for the British,who are a little nearer their objective,which is to relieve Khartoum.......
Another good and exciting game,roll on the next one,and roll on tonight,when Paul will be coming along,to play a Greek vs Greek game-possibly on the same terrain!!

Solo Gaming-sad but necessary sometimes!!7YW

With not having a club game on Sunday,I decided to further develop a set of Solo Rules,which have been "buzzing" around in my head for a long time,so on Saturday I had three games with my newly finished 7YW Russians and Prussians,to see how they would work out.
The rules work basically on the throw of a specially designed Morale Dice to see what each losing unit will do,after firing and melee-really good fun,and, more to the point, it worked!!-hurrah
As far as movement was concerned,I used "elasticated movement"ie I just moved the troops to the position I wanted them to be in,then worked out firing/melee,by throwing average dice-very simple,but effective.

Troops moving and forming up where I want them to be,no deductions for changing formation!!

First game layout.Prussians on the left vs Russians in a good defensive position,behind gabions and on top of a hill-village is open,but an howitzer kept the Russians at bay!!

The Prussians are attacking the defensive positions,I gave them plus one onto their dice throw,and it turned out quite even over the game.

Now that's what you call a cavalry melee!!-I decided that I could put as many units into a melee as I wanted,and simply multiplied the number of bases by the dice throw to decide the winner-the Morale Dice is pretty "vicious",but I need a result quickly,and boy did it give a result!!

The cavalry battle is still going on in the background,but the Infantry are fire-fighting prior to going in with the bayonet-this was thrilling stuff-the Russian artillery are "raking" the flanks of the advancing Prussians-I had decided that artillery could pick a different target per move if it liked!!

This was a crucial move in the second game,with both sets of Dragoons facing up to each other,in the ensuing melee,the Russians won,and the Prussians were cut off in the village!!-hurrah.

This was the objective of the third game-a massive redoubt manned by artillery and Guards,the Prussian howitzer did alot of damage to the guns and the Guards,driving them from their position,and giving the Prussians a chance to storm into the redoubt-cracking stuff,and thoroughly enjoyable!!
As a set of quickly "knocked up" rules these worked a treat,and will,no doubt, open up a whole new side of wargaming to me,when I can't find an opponent-which,I hope,will be rare!!

Dave's latest command base

I thought this impressive painting work deserves viewing. Well done Dave!

Some Falkirk photographs from a great show

These are a few taken throughout our Napoleonic War game.