Last night Paul and I had another great Ancients game,with Brian acting as Umpire!
Scenario and table before any movement-Paul was in command of the Greeks and I was Alexander.
We wrote our battle plans out,and we almost "mirror-imaged" each other's plan-My plan was to hold on my right until the left and centre had advanced and beaten the opposition-Paul's plan was to hold on his left until his right and centre had advanced and beaten the opposition!!
The cavalry clash!! Initially I had the best of the melees,but then Paul threw in his reserve cavalry and forced me back,however It wasn't until move number 7 that I was truly beaten-this was long enough for my Hypaspists and central phalanx to advance and give the Greeks hell!!
In a bout of "never seen before dice throwing!!" I won every first round melee-even against the dreaded Spartans-hurrah!!!(however the hurrahs were not to last very long,as the Spartans got their act together and proceeded to tear the phalanx to pieces!!!
This photo shows the initial clash of Hypaspists and phalanx against Greek hoplites-note Paul's "Spartan" t-shirt,and Brian's supressed laughter!-this was spectacular stuff!
Paul has won the cavalry battle on the flank,and is now reforming to threaten my rear,but I am steadily pushing the Athenians back,putting a bit of distance between me and the cavalry.
This is a good overview of the table,showing my central phalanx in all kinds of trouble-Alexander and his Royal body guard are "lurking" hoping for a Spartan unit to expose a flank-they will strike,and Alexander will ride to the temple and win the game-hurrah!!-not so fast!!
A Spartan unit did expose a flank,the Bodyguard did strike,but were held and then beaten!!-bloody Spartans!!!
My right flank phalanx is moving to the far right,hoping to take some pressure off my centre-this worked and Paul massed his Corinthians ready to melee as soon as I had crossed the stream.
And cross the stream they did!!-the power of the pike,once again, proved too much for the Hoplites,and I won all of the first round melees-by this time Alexander had extricated himself from the Bodyguard vs Spartans melee,and proceeded to the Minoan Temple-hurrah!! with no opposition left,Paul had no choice but to give in-another hurrah!!-however the Greeks had given the rest of the Macedonian army a right old "battering",so really a draw would be the proper result-well done to Paul and a big thanks to Brian.
Alexander about to enter the Minoan Temple,and game over-is that a Greek urn?what's a Greek urn?-about 5 Euros a day!!!-I got that one in before Brian does!!
Roll on Sunday,probably a 7YW battle.
As I was leaving my local B&M store the other day,I noticed in the Toy aisle,that they were having a clearance sale,so I had a quick look,and bought the subjects of this blog!!
I,like a lot of other wargamers,am aware that we need to recruit youngsters into the hobby if it is to surive,I am also aware that youngsters seem to like "skirmish-type games" instead of the massive Napoleonics,Ancients etc. games.
I recently read an article on Zombies in wargaming(actually the crew of a Submarine!) fighting some Russian Modern types,so I thought,well, I'll buy these figures just to let the younger element see that they don't have to invest a fortune to start in our fantastic hobby!
There were 15 Zombies and 15 "Responders"(WW2 soldiers!) in the box,the normal price being £1.49,reduced to 50p-I don't mind splashing out at times you know!!
On the back of the pack is an advert for the other figures from the series-with a bit of imagination,I can see some enterprising youngster buying a couple of Dinosaurs and pitting them against the Cavemen!!-and of course the Ninjas and Pirates could produce games of Rival factions against each other.-the sky's the limit!!
Now there's a surprise-Made in China!!-I thought I would give you the Web site just in case any budding skirmishers are reading this.
But now onto the figures, and how I painted them.........
I picked 6 different poses to paint-there are actually 7 American Footballers in the pack!!
As you can see they are made in a ghastly green plastic-the Responders are in a ghastly Blue plastic!!
The figures undercoated,and the fine detail comes out.Now having never seen a Zombie(although I did work in Gateshead for 4 years),I had to decide what colours to use on the flesh and clothes-in the end I just used the colours I had!!!!
Underway! one is painted purple,one green,one grey and the rest ordinary flesh.
I am beginning to enjoy painting these wonderful little models-some of the detail is very good.
Almost finished-some of the poses reminded me of the "dad dancing" I was doing at my son's wedding a couple of weeks ago!!
Yep!! that's me all right-same clothes as well!!
Finished-a bit of "blood" adds a little something I think!!(notice the number 74 on the American Footballer's shirt!)
The finished group pose for a Photo! Actually the more I look at them,I'm reminded of the Westerhope Wargames Group photo!!
Hello Brian!!
What with "Battling Tanks" and "Zombies" I'm losing my street cred.(I don't think I ever had any though!!)
Roll on Thursday-proper wargaming,Ancients-hurrah!!
Last night was a"riot" of a game-it was so fast moving that at times I found it difficult to keep up!!
This was the scenario-Dave was Ackland,Paul was Wellington,I was Napoleon and Brian was Soult-and Brian put in the performance of his life!!
This shows the table before any movement,Paul's command is in the foreground,facing my command.Brian was tasked with capturing the village of "Santa Anna", and a more dogged persistence and tenacious effort can not be imagined-it was superb to watch,great gaming at the best level.Dave was in charge of the Spanish and Portugueses troops,opposing Brian-he also put in a great defence-this was wargaming at its best as far as I am concerned!-All this praise of Dave and Brian can not distract from Paul's wonderful handling of his light dragoons and horse artillery,who put an end to Napoleon's ambitions!!!-I did ok too!
The game commenced with this impressive attack on the village by Brian's Westphalians,supported by artillery and cavalry,Dave countered by reinforcing the village,and sending some Portuguese to assist.
Meanwhile,in the centre,Paul has advanced against my guns and Infantry,we even had a melee,as I tried to stem the "crimson tide".Once I thought that the British were weakened,I put in a counter-attack against the Villa area,but Dave came to Paul's assistance,sending some infantry and cavalry to support him-the swine!!
He looks too happy for a man who has just got all of his officers shot ,by incredible dice throwing from Dave!!-send in another wave of brave Frenchmen,Brian!!-looks like a cavalry battle looming in the far distance.
There they go! By now Brian's command was shrinking fast,but surely one last effort will see the village in French hands.
At last!! the garage reverberated to shouts of "vive l'empereur" as the French stormed into the village-but what of the rest of the battle?????
Well,my counter-attack is faltering under pressure from artillery and volley fire-the Guards have been committed as a last resort-but will it be enough?
The resounding answer is NO!!!!-After a tremendous tussle on my left flank,Paul has forced my infantry into square,beaten my cavalry,and is now moving his light dragoons and horse artillery onto my flank and rear-it's all over for my command-Brian's command,although in the village,is being faced by overwhelming odds,so we had to admit defeat,but as we all know,defeat is not dishonour!!-we put up a good show!!
I really enjoyed this game,so too did the rest of the "lads".
We had a bit of spare time at the end of the game,so I "rolled out" the Battling Tanks,and they seemed to go down well,after a very quick demo.-so who knows??
Roll on Thursday,probably an Ancients involving a Cretan Temple!
Brian has managed to get in touch with the organisers of "Border Reiver" show,and has booked us a table-we now have to decide which period we will fight as a demo. game.
Is this taking Wargaming to a new level,or just plain silly?
I have been toying(excuse the pun!) with buying these Battling Tanks,for a few months now,since seeing them in a catalogue,but the price of £50 plus £5 p&p put me off-I'm a P.O.P.(poor old pensioner) you know! However my lovely wife went onto "Amazon" and found the very same Tanks for £32 including p&p!!-so I bought them,and will have to live on bread and jam for the next few weeks!!
The Battling Tanks,c/w controllers-they operate on an infra-red system and radio control-as I'm not a WW2 buff I don't know what type of tanks they're supposed to be,but as they are very well detailed,I assume they are taken from historical types.
After I had deciphered the Chinese version of English(see above!) the instructions were simple,and once the batteries had been fully charged,I was ready to go!!
This shows both tanks on my 10x6 table-loads of room to move about-I put a couple of obstacles on the table to see if I could manoeuvre around them-and with a bit of practice I did-however to turn right you use the left hand lever,and vice versa(very confusing for a man of my age!!)
Both tanks are about 11inches long including the gun barrel-the large red light on top of the tank is your aiming point,and the smaller red light are your "life" indicators,which automatically go out if you're hit-clever these Chinese!!
The tanks in action!-because Paul couldn't make it last night,I had to control both ,but I defy anyone not to enjoy this type of action.When the gun fires it makes a realistic noise,and when the "cannon" fire the noise is a comforting "ratatat" noise-hilarious!!-even more hilarious is the "Ahhhhh!! noise made by the tank that is hit-I was bad laughing by the time I had finished.
These are the "life" indicators-once three lives are lost you can't fire the gun,but the turret still revolves and you can fire the cannon.After four lives are lost the tank is "dead.-great fun.
With forward and reverse,360 degree rotating turret,gun and cannon fire,with sound effects-these are worth the money.I can't see me switching to Battling Tanks full time,but for a good,fun evening on a long winter night,I can see great potential-all I have to do now is convince the rest of the club!!
So I'm off to "super enjoy the emulational fight of the tanks!"
Paul has returned from Crete,bringing with him some wargaming "goodies"..........
He is so enamoured with the Greek style that he has re-decorated his front room to look like this!!!!
This is Paul and his wife,Janet,outside their new- look house,I can only say what a lovely pair.(of statues that is!!)-Paul also provided the "Gods"-Zeus and Aphrodite(??)I'm sure that this temple and Gods will appear in many wargames to come-a big thanks to Paul,and of course,welcome home!
Well now,onto last night's battle,using plastic figures for all of the infantry,and gunners,but metal for the cavalry.
Scenario and initial dispositions-I was British,Paul was Danish-this was,as can be seen,a very small game for us,but I had to "ease" Paul back into the wargaming scene,very gently after his Cretan adventure!
On move number one I put my right hand brigade into column as a feint,hoping that Paul would move troops to his left to counter them,I would then turn them back into line and "sweep" across the stream,thus winning the game!!-no bloody chance!!
While his gunners were doing untold damage to my troops,Paul,sneakily,moved some infantry across the bridge and assaulted my left hand brigade-the swine!!
Meanwhile,a cavalry battle was developing on my far right flank,which,after a long hard -fought struggle,I won(this was my only success of the night!)
Take that!!(not the boy band!!) a well aimed shot at Paul's out-flanking infantry,gave them a bit of a shock,but his dice throwing saved them and they fought on-will I never learn?
On my left flank,the "brigade" of 3 is now down to 1!!-thanks to great artillery and volley fire-looks like the end of my "Army".
With gaps appearing along my whole line,and troops "retiring"(running away!!) the British were declared the losers and to cries of...........
I had to admit defeat(of course I deliberately let Paul win because it was his first game back after his holiday!!!!!!!!)
I put my defeat down to being exhausted,having been walking in the Cheviot Hills all day-it's good being retired you know!!
Roll on Sunday,hopefully it will be full house-and probably an Ancients game(but will it include a Greek Temple?)
