Border Reiver Show 19th Sept 26

 We decided to head to the Sudan for our game at the second show of the year at Nissan's Sports and Social.

Its a really nice venue, staff and great with lovely catering upstairs highly recommended.

A good choice of venue!

Our game shows a British and Egyptian column deep in hostile territory. 

What could possibly go wrong?

The square is formed. 

Heading towards a village and hopefully a well. Could those be figures in cover of that wadi?

Where? It's clear visibility all the way to the village, shimmering in the heat haze.

The peace is shattered, groups of Mardists erupt from the ground. Heading straight for me!

A scary view..  sorry I meant Andy and Dave

Graham was occupied for most of the day 

chatting to our knowledgeable audience

We had some lovely interactions with those attending the show.

Of course, the Gardiner was overrun.. 

Now it's getting serious 

 British regulars load, fire repeat. A clash on the square's left corner is dealt with comfortably.

How so the Egyptian right face?

Not so well. Potted at by Mardists with captured rifles then assailed by an attack from cover they are locked in hand to hand fighting

Best cover the face with the reserve company. 

This going to be close

Our geometry went askew

Not broken but dented, severely.

Left face of the square.. rear ranks turn about !

You lot facing to the front.. Best turn about too

Gulp.

You may have heard of divine providence, prayers answered or of other comments such as

 jammy chap!

If someone places their Amir in a melee it's just rude not to kill them. That's what I say 

 

The sand of the desert is sodden red,

Red with the wreck of a square that broke

The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead

And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

The river of death has brimmed his banks,

And England's far, and Honour a name,

But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks,

"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

Club heating solved!

 For a long time now we have had to rely on very expensive gas heaters to warm my garage(club room!) which really meant that unless the temperature was "decent" we played at Dave's house,causing him to come up with games,scenarios etc.he doesn't mind but it isn't fair,so what to do????

Well,I have had a double socket fitted in the garage,bought two electric fan heaters, and a new extension cable, positioned them at each end of the garage,and to my amazement-the system works,ie. we have heat,and I can again start to host games during the winter months!

The wonders of modern technology-a double socket-wow!!

Fan heater-steady base and ready to go!

New extension cable,with "hidden" wire(so no one trips over it.................)

No wires showing( no trip hazard-H and S is very important!)

Newest heater,on a firm base,and ready to go-hurrah!!-hopefully I will be able to start and host games again next week.

WWI solo game.

Last night I had another very enjoyable game,using my WWI armies,whilst "perfecting" my solo rules.

The scenario revolved around an attack by British and French troops against a well dug in German force.I mixed things up a bit by introducing a couple of planes,one British and one German,The British planes had to "find" the German defences,whilst the German plane had to prevent any such observations!

The "dog-fight" that followed was awsome!!-the German plane took too many hits and had to retire(its good being retired!) but the British plane also had to return to base to report its findings..............

The German positions are as the map-A joint war council was held and the plan of attacks is shown on the map-all was set for a great game.

Forward gun position and defensive line-this will be a hard nut to crack!!

After an initial bombardment,the troops advance.It must be said that the German artillery was much more accurate than the Allied guns!

As the British "plod" towards their objective,the French are nearing their goal,as are the British troops attacking the German left flank-casualties were mounting on the French,and I wondered if they could make it.

"Plodding" onwards,but taking horrendous casualties.

A quick fire-fight,then the order to charge was given...............................

At 'em boys(allez!)-this was a real tussle,and although the Germans had the advantage of the defences,the French dice throwing was superb(moi!) and the defences were breached-hurrah!

The Germans have been forced back(I refuse to say retired!) and the centre has been won-on the right flank the British have also won and are in a position to out-flank the town!

Come on the "Tommies"

The plan worked out well for the French and right flank British troops,the left had to keep going and it would be just a matter of time before the Germans facing them would have to retire(oh no not again!!)

I enjoyed the planning of this game,as well as the playing-more to come,but not WWI for a while.

La Grande Armee gets "blooded"

 My WW1 French army took on a well placed German army guarding the HQ of General Kluck-it was bloody!!

The table set-up.French plan was to advance slowly frontally whilst the flanks would be attacked by swiftly moving columns of infantry,supported by artillery fire-what could possibly go wrong??

The German HQ,c/w defenders-artillery,machine guns and infantry.

French advance,columns outstripping the central force-all is going to plan.

The French attack begins(excuse "smoke" it is just to indicate which units are firing!)-both sides suffered casualties but not enough to deter the French-hurrah!

The order to charge is just about to be given-oh dear!!

Contact!!-go on boys(garcons?) give 'em the bayonet(they do not like it up 'em!)

The defences have been breached,but only in this one place-all along the rest of the line,the French were beaten!!

The French have been thrown out and forced to retire(its good being retired!)

Kluck is gloating-however he is in for a nasty shock-the British are on their way to support the French complete with a new fangled contraption in the way of a flying machine!!

Another interesting game-I'm getting into this period!

Battle of Mons 1914(World War John)

 Having finished my WW1 Germans and British,and "knocked" together some very basic rules,I thought I would have a game based very loosely on the Battle of Mons  1914.

The Germans had to cross the Mons-Conde canal,being held by the British,via two bridges,the resulting game was another solo "hit".

The German attack begins,in column,as if on a parade ground!

With the combinesd firepower of the British rifles and machine guns,plus a little pounding from artillery,it became quite clear that the Germans stood very little chance of crossing the canal!

The Germans still in column,as per orders,get to the bridges,whilst their colleagues line the bank of the canal and open fire on the British.

A heavy exchange of rifle fire ,but with the British under cover(actually "dug-in") the Germans are suffering!

Doomed to fail-a German column advances to be met with two machine guns and concentrated rifle fire-they were knocked to bits and had to retire(its good being retired!)

The failed attempt!! What was the German cinc(Kluck!) thinking of?

Final shots! Historically this went very well,so well in fact that I'm going to refight it again!

Following on from that game,it became apparent that I needed some French troops,if I was going to refight some of the early battles involving the British and French......................

Eh,voila!!! a French army painted in double quick time-lets see how they perform.