28mm WW2 houses.

After our game had finished on Sunday,Paul and Dave had a conversation on the size of houses,and how difficult it was,due to the "footprint" of houses on the wargames table,to represent them properly,and for them to look in scale,and of course,to fit figures into them!!
Me,being Me,decided to do something about it!! I made a template,from cardboard,fiddled about with sizes etc. and developed a minimum sized house,to fit our existing bases.

This is the template-and armed with a Stanley knife,some white foam board,pen and ruler,I set to work making some houses.The first one took me 20 minutes!-as it looked okay,I set to and made a further four(one of them was a two storey one!!)

The buildings took no more than two hours to make,but the painting took a lot longer,because the foam board is plastic- coated and didn't want to be painted!!!-I used the ready-mixed paint from Tesco for the job,and after 3 coats,I'd had enough and called it a day.

These are two of the carcasses-I have "damaged" the walls to simulate shot and shell,and did the same for the roofs,which are removable,to facilitate putting the infantry bases into the houses-who's a clever boy then??

Almost complete-I decided to add a bit of "flock" just to finish them off.......

Flock added,and paint all dry-time to take them out for a photo-shoot!!

The houses look in proportion to the figures and the tank-in the first photo you can see some infantry "lurking" in the house!!

Now in position,ready for Sunday's game!!

WW2 Rules test and game.

If knowledge is power,then our small club must have the most powerful members in the wargames world!!-It is well known that I am not a fan of WW2,but the rest of the "boys" are,and last night we had a most interesting game and rules test,and it always amazes me the amount of knowledge the "boys" have-I look at a tank model,and see a tank!-they can tell what the model is,where it was made,what theatre of war it was used in and what year!!!!

The top photo is the scenario(which Dave came up with) and the bottom photo is the table before any movement-all figures and tanks/vehicles were provided by Brian.
Dave and Brian were the Germans whilst Paul and Graham were the British-I was designated as the "war correspondent" and observer!!

The game "kicks off" with a lively discussion on tactics,objectives etc. but no action!

Now there's some action!-a beautifully photographed Stuka(decked out in Romanian colours??!!) makes an appearance,and is attempting to bomb the British column-it failed,but looked tremendous!!

"Anything you can do..."-a beautifully photographed Spitfire makes a "straffing" and bomb run,causing the first casualties,as the British move into position-great stuff!

Brian is deep in thought,and contemplating his next move,as Graham keeps an eye on him!!
The village is occupied by the Para's who are awaiting the Column,and the Germans are beginning to deploy-in the foreground you can see Brian's tank about to knock out Paul's Sherman,on the bend in the road!

This is Paul's Sherman just before being sent to tank heaven!!-the British are all over the village now and "digging in" as well as occupying the various buildings.

As the game develops,another discussion-this is fascinating to me-armour thickness,size of guns,movement,ranges etc. etc. these "boys" know it all,but still listen to what each other have to offer-and that's the way to develop rules-wonderful!!

Paul,with the leading British column,has seen most of the action so far,but now it is Graham's turn-he is moving through the gap in the Bocage,and into  position to protect the flank, Brian might have something to say about that!!

Brian is sending a couple of platoons of infantry,unseen,behind the Bocage,ready to "rush" the defenders in the village,meanwhile he has deployed a couple of tanks to protect their flank,but Graham has an anti-tank gun deployed too!!

BOOM!!-GOTCHA!!- Brian's leading tank gets knocked out,and that's when the German luck seems to have run out,and a spate of "knock-outs" followed in quick succession.

A flurry of activity! The German advance has been stalled,and Graham's column is now pressing forward-looks like the end for the Germans.

Where has everyone gone?

It's no good asking him,he can't see over the Bocage!!!

One final shot of Graham's tanks advancing on the retreating Germans-the village is held and the British were declared the winners-but a re-match is planned for next Sunday(after Border Reiver,on Saturday!)
This was a very enjoyable game to watch,the rules will probably need a bit of "tweaking" before next week,but well done to Graham,Paul,Brian and Dave .

"They Shall Not Pass" 217BC

As Brian and Dave were not available last night,it fell to Paul,Graham and I to fight a grand battle,pitting Carthaginians against some Alpine Tribes-and what a tussle it turned out to be!

Top photo is scenario and initial troop dispositions,bottom photo is the table before any movement.
Because Paul is fascinated by Hannibal's exploits,he was put in charge of the whole Carthaginian army,whilst Graham and I split the Alpine tribes between us.

This shows my section of the board-my plan was simple-ATTACK!!!!

This shot is from Paul's right flank-opposing him,Graham had light troops as well-all was set for a prolonged and hard-fought struggle!

In the centre, Paul is sending his skirmishers forward,in front of the Elephants,while I am moving my "suicide squad"(front line warbands!) forward to meet them-isn't Paul's face a study in concentration?

With bravery beyond comprehension,my men threw their little javelins,and then were met with tons of charging grey flesh!!-the result was inevitable,but spectacular!!!(fifty shades of grey was mentioned!)

Meanwhile,on our left flank,Graham is making headway-but Paul,the master of light cavalry tactics,is moving his Numidian cavalry onto Grahams exposed right flank!!!!

On our right,it was "swings and roundabouts" although my fighting points were better than Paul's,I was outnumbered,so the balance was keeping the flank open to anyone-great stuff!

As the tussle on the left continues,Graham has successfully taken the hill,driving Paul's Spanish cavalry backwards,and is now pouring his warbands onto the plain-this is looking good!!!

OH DEAR!!!-not looking so good now-an elephant unit has run amok,and flattened one of Graham's warbands,sending the others fleeing to the high ground!!-another elephant unit went amok the other way too,hitting one of my warbands,but also disrupting Paul's heavy cavalry!!!

There they go!!-bloody elephants-so much for our plan!!

It was at this point that our old friend, Billy Brown,who we haven't seen for years and years and years,turned up(he lives in London and is a councilor )-Billy offered to throw some dice for Paul,and promptly threw the requisite dice to destroy, one of Graham's warbands,killing their officer in the process,and forcing them to check morale,which they failed,causing all kinds of mayhem!!!!-well done Billy,the look on his face says it all!!!!

With the elephants out of the way,my weakened warbands pushed on to the steady Spanish infantry.Paul's cavalry had recovered from their elephant "scare",and moved onto my flank-now this really does not look good!!!

With our left flank on the point of collapse,and the right  flank still undecided,it was thought that the Carthaginians had done enough to win-the African infantry hadn't even been in contact!!-so we called it a night-well done to us all,this was another very enjoyable game.
Roll on next Sunday-I hope,if the boys can get their act together,that a WW2 game is in the pipeline!!

Battle of the Kipchaqu camp 1240AD.

Last night saw our second attempt at staging a game involving my Mongol army,against a combined Russian and Kipchaqu army.

Top photo is scenario and background info. and bottom photo is the table before any movement.
Because Brian was still feeling not quite at full potential(!) and Graham is on Holiday in Norway,it would have been up to Dave and Paul and I to play the game,however we had a surprise visit from Charlie Wesencraft,who bravely accepted the Kipchaqu command,so Paul took the part of the Russian commander,whilst Dave and I were the Mongol khans!!

No comment!!!!

This shows the objective of the game-the Kipchaqu camp-Charlie is just about to launch an attack on Dave's advancing  troops,whilst moving his Polish knights into a position on the central hill.

As Charlie advances,Dave has ordered his force to sweep to the right,leaving the Kipchaqu archers with an exposed flank,which(,Charlie didn't know this),is where my force of heavy and light cavalry are coming onto the board!!)

Here they are!!-Charlie ,wisely, beat a hasty retreat,leaving Paul,who had just come onto the board at points A and C,in a bit of a quandry,as he now had very little fire-power support!

As Paul's Russians, from point A,move into position,Charlie launched a grand attack on one of my isolated Mongol heavy cavalry units on the central hill,whilst at the same time containing my other units with a Kipchaqu charge and archery-this was touch and go for a while,but superior morale and weapon capability(but not dice throwing!) eventually saw the Mongols triumph!!

Meanwhile,Paul and Dave were having the most tremendous struggle,as Paul's troops from point C made their prescence felt,even though he was "out-gunned"(ie archery!) he was giving Dave a hard time,and Dave was forced to put Jebe and his Guard into the fray!!

This shows the central hill,and the Russians from point A,melees galore and arrows whizzing everywhere!!-eventually the Mongols were victorious,and my light cavalry attacked the camp,which couldn't put any worth-while resistance,and the Mongols were declared the winners-hurrah!!

The camp about to be assaulted by the light cavalry,with just a token force of Kipchaqu cavalry opposing them!

After the game has finished,Paul and Dave are discussing tactics,fire-power,weapon capabilities,morale and movement,meanwhile............................

The "Chuckle Brothers" are discussing knees!!!!!
This was an interesting battle,and I was quite pleased with the way the armies are handling,however there may be a danger of no-one wanting to fight against the Mongols if we don't give the opposition a better chance of winning-although,historically,the Mongols almost always won!!-the next battle will be a set-piece one,so we'll see how it goes.
Roll on next Sunday,probably an Ancients game,or a Napoleonic game,followed shortly by a WW2 game-we are going to be busy!!