Before Dave and Paul go back to work,we decided to have a game through the day.
Unfortunately Graham and Richard couldn't make it as they were having a large family gathering,so the "Fab Four" had to play this magnificent game on their behalf!!
I wanted to put on something special and different,and devised the following scenario......
We drew lots and Dave and I were the Roman commanders,whilst Paul and Brian were Barbarian commanders.
This is the table before any movement-Dave was in charge of Legio Phoenix-already engaged with Brian's Warbands,in the foreground.
This shows the initial fighting-and what a tussle it was!! neither side gaining any real advantage in the early stages.
Dave did well to maintain his Roman line,under considerable pressure from Brian-thrilling stuff!!
I am still in column of march,as Paul begins his attack-my objective was to defend myself,but also send what help I could to Dave-easy!!!!!
My Legion(Nova) is forming line against the inevitable assault from Paul's warbands,whilst in the background,Dave is fighting for his life!!!
Look at the "intense" looks on Brian and Dave's faces!!-I am still awaiting attacks from Paul,but the line is beginning to form nicely-if only Dave can hold on for another move or so!
Dave is adjusting his positions in this shot,but Brian has broken his line in the centre,and is sending more warbands against the frail Roman line-will it hold until I can send support??
YES!!! as a cavalry battle begins to develop in the centre of the table,Dave is "Heroically" holding on-hurrah!!
This is my far left flank,where Paul has been "messing" me about until I detached two cohorts to assist Dave-he then attacked-the swine!!! My centre cohorts and cavalry are engaged,but this turned out to not favour the Romans(ie I was getting hammered!!)
In this shot,Dave's cavalry(in the Red) are beating Paul's cavalry,but mine are getting pushed back into my cohorts!!-this is not looking good for the Romans.
This photo is taken from the Barbarian side of the table,and clearly shows the state the Romans are in-I blame Dave!!!!
With the Romans looking in all kinds of disarray,and Brian looking rather "pained" we had to accept defeat,but not dishonour(!!)
A "cracking" game,and well played with the usual "hoots" of laughter and crude banter.
Roll on next Sunday-we'll be playing through the day again,and probably a large Marlburian game,involving all six of us.
The "Super Six",Brian,Graham,Paul,Dave,Richard and I had a spectacular Seven Years War game last night,involving Austrian,Prussian,Russian and Hanoverian troops.
This is the information the "lads" were given,we drew lots,and Paul ended up as the Prussian commander with Graham and Brian his sub-ordinates,whilst I was Austrian commander with Richard and Dave as my sub commanders.
But first let's get the silly photo's out of the way.............................
There now,that's better!!-With that "wig" on I think Brian has more than a passing resemblance to Dolly Parton!!!
We are just about to start the game in this shot-Paul and I had to give objectives to our sub-commanders,which were to occupy and hold the villages,and to advance in the centre and give the enemy hell!!-simple but effective!
Brian and Richard both move into Wamberg,and a "ding-dong" (doesn't that sound Christmassy?) tussle took place for most of the game,with infantry being sucked into the village.
Meanwhile,on the other flank,Graham and Dave are both contesting Bamberg village-this looked great,the Green of the Russians contrasting with the Red of the Hanoverians.It was swings and roundabouts for most of the game,and nail-biting stuff too!!
The open ground on the Austrian left flank was ideal Cavalry country,and soon both Richard and Brian were moving their respective cavalry forward to try and gain an advantage,and out-flank the enemy.
With Paul concerned about his right flank,leading to un-characteristic inactivity,I led my white-coated Austrian infantry forward,and a massive fire-fight ensued!!! Paul is a renowned good(lucky!) dice thrower(we all know one) but on this occasion I managed to come out on top!!!! Although not without taking a lot of casualties from his Gun Battery.
Richard's cavalry are pushing onwards towards the Prussian lines,but a well placed gun battery took horrendous casualties off his leading Cuirassiers and forced them back-what a tussle,and great wargaming!!-the village is still being fought over!!!!
Come on Richard,you can do it!!-the fire-fight was so close,you could almost smell the gun-powder!!
Graham has thrown everything at the village of Bamberg,but the Russians are holding out,and the Russians would hold it until the end of the game-hurrah!!
In the centre,a combined Austro-Russian assault is proving to be successful,and the Prussians are in trouble,and then.........................
Dave launched a magnificent,and winning, cavalry attack on Paul's flank-hurrah!!!-with the centre gone and Bamberg still in Russian hands,and Wamberg still being contested,the Prussian commanders admitted defeat!!
This was a splendid game,played in the best of wargaming spirit by everyone-well done lads!!
We won't be playing before Christmas,but hopefully we'll get a couple of games in over the holidays,so best wishes for a Happy Christmas,and a Peaceful new year to you all.
One last photograph,entitled-"How could you not love that little face?"
Easily, comes the reply!!!-Have a great Christmas,Ho,Ho,Ho!!!
.
Apologies to everyone!!-we weren't going to have a game last night ,because of "Christmas Nights out" but because I couldn't contact Brian in time,he turned up,so we had a little "knockabout" of an Ancients game-I took the usual "million" photo's to put on the blog-and have lost them all-bloody technology!!
So instead,I'll bring you up to date with what is happening in my paint box!!
Because Brian can't paint at the moment,he has kindly "donated" his Warrior Normans to the club,and I am "ploughing" my way through them-this is the first unit,ready for flocking.
Same unit in "situ"-the figures are good,with just enough detail to satisfy my painting technique-basically I paint over any detail I can't be "arsed" to paint in!!!
None of my figures bear close scrutiny,but "en masse" and applying the three foot rule,they pass for wargames standard.
This is the second unit(light infantry) well on its way to completion-only the shield patterns and flesh to put on!!
We are having a game on Sunday,and it should be a "full house" of 6,so I am thinking of a 7YW game,involving Prussians,Austrians,Russians and Hanoverians!! and could be described as follows...............................
Can anyone guess which "nutter" in our club sent me this "bawdy" card????
Roll on Sunday.
I have been Wargaming for 45 years,so by definition I must have fought Waterloo(or sections of it) 45 times! so when we were invited to take part in a re-fight of the battle,by Charlie Wesencraft's club,I had a feeling of "here we go again"-but wargames are not only about the battles,but about the players involved,and Charlie's club is full of characters that make any game worth playing.A mention must be made at this time of Glen,and his young son,Wills,whose hospitality was great,we were made to feel welcome a soon as we walked into his factory unit,where the game was taking place-fantastic!!
The battle itself involved 12 players,and is so well known that it really needs no narrative,so I'll let the camera do the talking,with just a few words under each photo-by the way,the French came on in the same old way,and were sent packing in the same old way!!!!
Getting set up!-Mike had typed out all of the units and placed them in their historical positions,this must have taken him a while,but was worth it,to save time etc-well done Mike.
Ah,the dice!!-there just might be enough of them!!
Napoleon,Charlie claims that because of his age,he was at the actual battle,but we don't believe him!He had Mike,Brian,Mel,Phil and Dave under his command.
Whilst the Allies were commanded by Paul Kirby,who had myself,Glen and Wills,plus Bruce,Ron and John(Wesencraft) under his command.
Let battle commence!! As in the real battle,Hougomont and La Haye Sainte sucked in far too many French troops,but what the heck,it's Xmas!!!!
Ron,at the end of the table,looks relaxed,but in the excitement of the opening moves,decided to fire a gun battery on his own troops!!luckily he was talked out of it-these games are all about the players-great fun!!
Myself,Glen and Wills were on the Allied left flank,facing Brian and Mike,who are putting in a determined attack-Brian was detailed to guard the far right of his position,against any possible Prussian advance-and a sterling job he did too!!
Whilst "Napoleon" sips on his coffee,Mel is attacking La Haye,superbly defended by Paul,who gave the attackers a "bloody nose" for their efforts.
Ron is still looking relaxed,as the French are getting too close for comfort-the British second line had been placed too close to the front line,and a "push back" broke through them!!-Will the French win???
The Allied left is under pressure,as Mike explains the firing sequence to young Wills and Brian.
It's half time,and to much beer boozing and mince pie munching,Sue appeared(Paul's wife) looking like a rose among the many thorns!!
Paul has launched the British cavalry!!-this was rather spectacular,and successful!!-in the centre and right of the Allied line,the French are being held,and on our left,a lucky combination of dice throws saw me "killing" the French commander(Mike) and driving them back down the slope.-is this victory??
Judging by the look on Brian's face,it is!!!
As the Guard appear on the board(led by Napoleon himself-ie Charlie) it is all over,and the Allies have won!!
This was a good day out,and Charlie and I agreed that we need to organise,with more clubs in the region,more inter-club games like this-watch this space!!
A big thank you to everyone in Charlie's club.
Last night,Paul,Brian and I had a game using my newly painted Saxons as 11th Century Spanish troops!!-Mainly to get them onto the board,but to see how our rules would work too!
As usual,top photo shows scenario and bottom one shows the table before any moves-I was Alfonso,whilst Brian and Paul were in charge of Sancho's troops.
The two centres move towards the inevitable clash!!-we assumed that all the infantry were armed with spears and swords,so ignored the two-handed Danish Axe held by a lot of my "Saxons".
While the central troops were moving,both wings were "jockying" for position,each trying to out-flank the other.
Brian was in charge of the "Sancho" left flank,containing light infantry and heavy cavalry-I matched him like a mirror image,so it would come down to dice throws in the end!!!-I'll have no chance then!!!
On the other flank,I was out-numbered,so I moved two infantry units onto the flanks of my cavalry to bolster them-hurrah!!-In the background the two centres are just about to charge.
This is how the table looked around move number 4!-flanks not yet engaged but the centre is!!
By some lucky dice throws I managed to win 5 out of 6 melees,and Paul was on the back foot-another hurrah!!
My right flank is in a bit of bother-Brian has won the first round of melees-I will have to send my heavy cavalry in to the fray-but so will Brian-this is going to be bloody!!
There they go!!Brian won 2 out of 3 of the ensuing melees,and eventually pushed me back across the stream-woe is me!!-however I have won all the infantry melees,and am pushing Brian's infantry back!!!!-swings and roundabouts!!
On the other flank,Paul is lining his cavalry up to take on my combined infantry and cavalry.
In the centre,things are going from bad to worse for Paul's infantry-to stop a unit from retiring,he put his command figure with the unit-and,to everyone's surprise,I managed to throw the right combination of dice,and killed him!!!-this forced every unit under his command to test morale,and all but one unit decided that they had done their bit,and headed home-hurrah,hurrah!!!
The "tumbleweed" moment as the table is devoid of Paul's troops!!
This shows Brian's moment of triumph,as he pushes my cavalry back across the stream-however with their centre gone,and their right flank in a spot of bother,I was declared the winner-a big hurrah!!!
This was an interesting game,and, I think, the start of a new period of wargaming,where we can have various "Kingdoms" fighting one another,as well as the fight against the Moors.
We won't be playing on Sunday,because we have been invited by Charlie Wesencraft's club to take part in a re-fight of Waterloo,on Saturday-unfortunately only Brian and I can go,but we'll do our little club proud,I'm sure-a full report will follow on Sunday.
All of the fighting figures(ie everyone except the "El Cid" figure,and some Priests) are from Warrior Miniatures.
