Invasion 480BC

Last night the "famous five" had an ancients game based on a Persian invasion of Greece.
Paul and I were the Persians and Graham,Brian and Richard were the Greeks.

The top photo shows the scenario etc. the bottom photo shows the layout of the table before any movement.My orders were to hold the beach-head in the far distance,Paul was to take on the whole of the known world!!

For some inexplicable reason,both Graham and Brian have left their respective high ground positions and advanced onto the plain!-Paul had decided on a "Cannae" type move to suck the Greeks in and then hit them on their flanks-this seemed to be working.

Meanwhile,on my flank,I have sent two units of axemen to try and get around Richard's flanks-he didn't take advantage of the fact that he could have got 2 against 1 on each flank-so I didn't tell him!!

By the time Richard decided to advance,his right flank was retreating,and although I have more units than he did,his Rhomphia-armed troops could have chopped me to bits-if he had realised-no questions,no answers!!-war is hell.-Brian is looking grim-he's being out-manoeuvred,and the Spartans are just arriving on Graham's flank.Paul has taken the high ground on his left,so when the Spartans do eventually attack they will,literally,have an uphill task!!-hurrah.

The Spartans begin their attack,only to be met by the Immortals!!-charging down hill!!!-result inevitable!!!!!!! meanwhile on the plain,Graham and Brian's hoplites are putting up a good show,and things look bleak,at the moment,for the Persian centre.

Is that the Spartans retiring?-Yes it is!!Graham has placed his reserve Spartan unit in a bad position and can neither manoeuvre them or support the front liners-his Corinthians are being pushed back too-how is Brian doing?

Well he appears to be making for the exit!!-Graham is looking grim now!-What is happening at the beach head?

Richard is doing quite well,he has managed to push me back,but my victorious flank unit is about to charge him in the rear!!

A couple of good dice throws,and it was all over for Richard! In the background you can see Paul's manoeuvre paying off,and the Greeks everywhere are on the back foot-Success to the Persians-hurrah!!

Another good and exciting game,so roll on Thursday,probably only playing in the morning.

Sudanese Campaign last battle

Yesterday Brian and I had our last campaign battle,in the relief of Khartoum 2,this was a very exciting and tense game,which could have gone either way......

This is the general map-Brian didn't know I had hidden troops though.
My plan was to move my second line of Haddendowah troops across the front of the fort and occupy the central hill,then spring my trap and surround the British-hurrah!!

The race for the hill starts,Brian opened fire on these troops and caused a bit of damage,but didn't stop them-my left hand units started to move forward at the same time,and this stopped Brian's square from moving-hurrah again!!

Nearly there,but coming under intense fire now!-The British are very near to the "ambush" site,I wonder if Brian will send some scouts to see if anything is behind those lovely dunes??

My left hand units couldn't contain themselves any longer and have charged the "square",however they took horrendous casualties on the way in,which would tell once the melee ensued!!

Surprise,surprise!!-now that's not a happy face!!-my hidden troops have exposed themselves!!-now,now,no silly jokes-we must start taking these games more seriously!!
Brian is now in real trouble,but he unlimbered his gatling and artillery and blasted the hell out of these new troops!!

My attack is now in full swing,although my left hand troops are looking thin on the ground!-will weight of numbers tell against British "pluck" and volley fire??

It's looking bleak(or is that black?) for the British-they are being pressed back on all sides!!

Looking more like Custer's last stand than the relief of Khartoum,Brian went behind a palm tree and shot himself!!-it was all over and the Haddendowah were declared the winners!!-What will Queen Vicky say ??

This has been a very enjoyable mini-campaign,loads of laughs,good planning and movement(on a map and on the table)-we were both the winners!!
I have had to call in my IT Technical Support Team(my son Kevin) to sort the bloody computer out,again!! so I can't do a blog about last night's game,with Paul and Brian and myself-Brian and I lost!!-no photo's,they are in Cyber Space somewhere!!
Roll on Sunday-an Ancients game,Greeks and Persians.

"Tommy's Game" 7YW 22.6.2014.

On the 24th June 2013,a good friend and fellow wargamer,Tommy McLelland died,and I promised his daughter that every year we would stage a wargame in his memory,as close to the date of his death as possible,so last night we played the first of,hopefully, many games to come.

It seems sad that the only photo's we have of Tom are these two blurred images taken in 1997(alongside a very youthful-looking Paul!!)-Tom always gave us at least one massive laugh per game,from continually throwing the wrong dice,to leaning over the table to move his troops and spending the rest of the game with "trees" stuck to his jumper,however the most memorable,to me,was the night we were playing,with a raging blizzard blowing outside-Tommy leant on the garage door,the door swung open,and Tommy tumbled out,only to return a few seconds later looking like a snowman-I honestly thought I was going to die laughing!!
I read somewhere that you only really die when no-one can remember you,well Tommy will be remembered for a long time to come by all of us at Westerhope Wargames Group-RIP.

This shows the troop positions and scenario,Graham and I commanded the Prussians and Dave and Brian commanded the Austro-Russians-Paul was away in Manchester watching Elton John!!

My attack begins,I thought I would advance immediately,with my troops echeloned from the right,and capture Brian's gun and ridge position,before the Austrians arrived (moves 2,3 and 4)-Dave looks too happy.

This is move number 4,and the Austrians are arriving in huge numbers,however Graham is in a good position with excellent troops-this should be a battle and a half!!

Hard pounding!!-Brian and I are getting stuck in,my attack on my right had "stalled" but the left hand regiments are making headway-just out of the picture on the left,a furious cavalry battle is taking place!!

Here it is!! with charge and counter charge,Dragoons and Cuirassiers mixed together,gun batteries being silenced and taken,infantry force into square,this melee lasted the whole of the game-thrilling stuff!!

Whilst Graham's Prussians and Dave's Russians are fire-fighting,Dave has brought his Austrian cavalry across the bridge to threaten our centre(me!!)-this was tense,my horse artillery will have to unlimber and try and stop any cavalry coming my way.

Dave's cavalry are "rampant", Grahams Hussars are fleeing,and my horse battery is masked by them-oh dear!!-Graham's troops,on top the hill,look good,but what is he going to do with them??

My central position is not looking good-most of my infantry have been driven back,and I am piling more and more cavalry into melee,to try and stem Brian's attack-in the background Graham is doing well and has launched a counter-attack against Dave's infantry and cavalry on the flank-hurrah!!

After repulsing a first wave attack by Dave's cavalry,my horse battery was ridden over by his second wave-Graham put in another counter-attack with his reformed Hussars,but they too were beaten in turn!!
At this point our centre was all but beaten,and I was losing the cavalry battle on the left-so it all depended on Graham-come on boy,you can do it!!!

This shows Graham's infantry about to mop up,after having driven the left flank,Austrian cavalry, away,so the flank was secure-we asked for,and got, a draw!!-Fools!!!!
This was a hard fought and thoroughly enjoyable game,played in tremendous spirit-just for you Tommy!!
Well roll on Thursday morning,when Brian and I will resume out campaign-well done to all who took part in this memorable game.

French/Indian Wars 1758

This morning Brian and I were joined by our mate Allan,and we enjoyed a game of Indians vs Rangers.

This is the scenario and basic troop positions,as you can see all the Rangers had to do was relieve the Fort-simple!!!!!

This is the table layout before any movement-I was in charge of the Rangers,whilst Brian and Allan were in charge of the Indians.Allan's French couldn't move until the Indians in canoes arrived on his side of the lake.

Allan's Indians are paddling towards the French camp,once there they could all advance together and attack the fort.

Both Brian and Allan had decided to shoot at my troops in the canoes,and of course, I couldn't shoot back,so took casualties before I even landed!!-In the background Brian's Indians have made contact with my Rangers-I didn't do very well on this flank-in fact I was slaughtered!!!

The settlers in the fort put up a stout defence,for 3 or 4 seconds,then were scalped! leaving a good number of Indians to resist any attempt at relief!!-oh dear!!-never mind the British infantry have arrived,and will give those Indians a jolly good roasting(anyone believing that has never seen me throwing dice!!)

Brian seems to have got rid of my right flank Rangers in this shot-he was rampant,and swept me away,leaving his war parties free to "harry" my other flank.

On my other flank,things were not as bad,but still desperate! I won a couple of melees,but couldn't make any headway against the Indians in the fort-looks bad!!-the situation,not Brian!!

My last companies of Rangers are fleeing,the fort hasn't been relieved(although,what was the point,all the settlers are dead!!) so I was declared the Loser-no hurrahs today!!

This was good game( if you were an Indian!)and produced some lively discussion-well done to Allan and Brian.
We won't be playing tonight,as England take on Uruguay in the World Cup,so come on England,and roll on Sunday,when we will be playing a 7YW game in honour of our good friend Tommy,who sadly died on June 24th 2013.

Romans vs Dacians and Germans 100AD

Last night 5 of us turned up for an Ancients game,which turned out to be a real thriller.
Brian commanded his Germans,I commanded my Dacians,and Paul,Graham and Richard commanded the Romans.

This shows the scenario,and the table layout,before any movement-Richard took charge of the auxilliaries and the fort,whilst Paul and Graham shared the Legion command.

Brian's Germans begin their attack-this was more spectacular than effective for the first 4 or 5 moves,but he eventually wore the defenders down and gained access to the fort-the line of cohorts in the background,however,did a great job and wouldn't let the Germans through!!

Brian's cavalry were supposed to drive the Roman cavalry back,allowing my second line of warbands to sweep round and attack the Romans in the flank-however the German cav. were beaten back,stopping my great plan(?) from working!!!

Meanwhile,on the other flank,I have sent my poor rated Dacian cavalry against Paul's heavies,hoping to inflict a few casualties prior to my elite Sarmatian cavalry smashing the flank,and winning the game-Hurrah(?)

An audacious attack by Graham has caught me flat footed!!-this was a good old fashioned tussle for dominance of the ridge-pila against the two handed falx-who would win?

My elite Sarmatian cavalry are being slaughtered by Paul's combination of his heavy cavalry and a couple of cohorts-woe is me!!

That's Graham in the background,looking very casual-and so he should-the ridge is devoid of my Dacians!! With my right flank in a spot of bother(wargames language for getting beaten!!) and my centre gone,we are beaten!!-However,back at the fort............

Hurrah!! Germans in the fort,but everything else fleeing-oh well there's always another day to fight.
This was a good game,with plenty of excitement on both sides-well done lads!!
Roll on Thursday,Allan is going to make a rare appearance-will probably put on a French-Indian war game.

7 Years War First Battle.

Last night we had out first 7YW battle involving Prussians(who else?) Russians and a few Austrians.
Paul has done some research on the Austrians and I have done some research on the Prussians and Russians,however we disagree on the main items,mainly movement and firing rates!
But for the sake of the game last night we agreed to disagree,and fought what turned out to be quite a good game,for our first attempt-no doubt more will follow!!

This shows the general layout of the terrain,with Prussians on the left and Russians on the right,Paul's newly painted Austrians are behind the hill to the right,but would make a dramatic appearance,and assault the farmhouse!!

Apart from being a good photo of Brian's arm(makes a change from Paul's!!) this is the left of the Prussian line,both sets of Dragoons are attacking each other,whilst the infantry fire-fight it out.

In the centre the Russians are moving forward,combined with a cuirassier attack-this looks horrid!!-for the Prussians!

The Austrians make their attack,and a fine looking bunch they are too!!-my newly painted Hussars are "lurking" in the background,and in the foreground!!

After an initial success against the walls of the farm,the Prussians finally got their fighting "mettle" up and repulsed the Austrians who "retired" (wargaming terminology for ran away!!)

The Russian Hussars,who sadly didn't figure in the battle,but I thought I would take a photo of them anyway!!

This shows the centre in full blaze! a combination of cannister and musket fire saw off all the regiments sent against me! However things were not going too well on my left-Brian's Dragoons beat mine and sent them packing,and his infantry were in the process of giving me a bloody nose!

Bloody nose being given!!-However with the centre and right under Prussian control,and a still uncommitted reserve brigade(!!)I was declared the winner.
This is going to be a very interesting period to fight,full of colour and movement.Roll on Sunday.