"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.