After waiting two weeks for this game,we had both good and bad last night-good,in that we had a fantastic game,bad,because of one of the worst cases of "gloating" ever witnessed!!!-read on.
Top photo is scenario,bottom is the table before any movement.I was Alexander,on the Macedonian left,Brian was Cleitus,on the Macedonian right,Paul was in charge of the Indian centre and left,whilst Graham(or Gloaty Macgloat Face,as we call him now!) was on the Indian right!
The game got off to a cracking start,with my Companion cavalry charging into Graham's Indian cavalry-knife through butter??????-well, to start with,yes..........................
I combined my cavalry charge with an assault on Graham's hill,and drove the defenders away-hurrah!!-at the same time,Brian and Paul's Elephant line had "locked horns"(well,tusks really!)
Brian's phalanx(first line) is giving the Elephants a hard time,but is taking too many casualties in the process!!
Then the unthinkable happened!-one of Graham's cavalry units beat one of my cavalry squadrons!! and drove them back-this wasn't in the script!!
Meanwhile,on the far right,Brian's peltasts are attacking the Indian held hill,but not doing too well!!-oh dear.(by the way,I know that the Buddha statues are incorrect for the period,but it adds atmosphere!)
My cavalry have regained their composure,and are now pushing the Indians back-hurrah?
An impasse in the centre,allowing the second line phalanx to advance and take on the elephants soon(??)
Then disaster!! to bolster my cavalry attack on Graham's far right,I put Alexander into the fight(stupid me!) and got him killed!!!!!-not only did a massive amount of gloating follow,but the whole of the Companion cavalry decided to take off-woe is bloody me!!
This is a photo of the open field where the Companion cavalry was supposed to be!!-at this point Brian was doing so badly that he said if he threw one more "2" he would eat the dice-of course he threw another 2,but amid peals of laughter and more gloating,he refused!!
Basically this was the end of the game,I had lost my flank,Brian was getting nowhere,and the Indian cavalry was threatening the whole Macedonian army!
After losing his first line of elephants,Paul has thrown his reserve elephant against the phalanx,and drove a section of it back!Brian's peltasts are getting shot to bits,in the middle of the river,so we surrendered!!
This was a great game,well done to us all(except me for getting Alexander killed!)
Roll on next Sunday.
For those of you not "au fait" with Mercantile Law or Latin,the phrase Caveat Emptor means let the buyer beware!
I was at a car boot sale on Sunday(at Hexham) and bought an Early Learning Centre wooden castle from a man who will for ever be called THE BASTARD!!-however in his defence I didn't ask if all the pieces were in the battered old box(hence,let the buyer beware!) and he didn't have to tell me if any bits were missing!! Imagine my amusement when,on opening the battered old box,just the main bits were missing!!!-silly old me! however having paid THE BASTARD most of my weekly pension(he actually only charged me £3!) I was determined to get something out of the deal-and,yes,you've guessed it, another project was born!
I made up the pieces I had,which were three of the sides,and a Gateway,and tried to solve how I could make a complete fort-remember in my world there are no such things as problems-only solutions!!
THE BASTARD must have a warped sense of humour-he even included the instructions on how to build the parts that were missing-ha bloody ha!!
This is the three walls built,and the gateway.................................
Nice piece,the whole(that's a bloody laugh!) fort is made out of wood and is coloured !
Part of the back wall is collapsible,to simulate damage-very clever and very well made.
The whole of the back wall-impressive.
My problem was what could I do to make the front wall look good and incorporate the gateway-the solution was simple-I would photo-copy one of the side walls a few times,stick the copies onto a length of pre-measured cardboard,and that should do the trick!!
No sooner said than done,all I had to do now was stick the gateway onto the cardboard........
Done,now to carefully cut the doorway out-this took no time at all,and the result was............
Complete,and ready to be fixed between the existing walls.
Two views of the "new" fort-who's laughing now,THE BASTARD or me????
However whence "fannying about" with the completed fort,I wondered what it would look like if I extended the left hand wall using the new front wall,and......................
OMG!-if I made a couple of corner sections and some more straight sections,I could have a fort/town as big as I needed,the sky's the limit-ah well,it's off to B&Q tomorrow to buy some hardboard!!
Any comments??
Because there will be only three of us this Sunday,I thought I would set up a simple game with a fixed objective.I have been reading a bit about the campaigns of Alexander the Great,and have decided that this is what we will be playing on Sunday............................
Top photo is the scenario,bottom is most of the table-I will be the Indian commander,whilst Dave and Brian will split the Macedonian command.
This is the Macedonian left,including the dreaded Companion Cavalry,headed by Alexander himself-the objective of this wing is to capture the hill and flank,then roll up the Indian right.
This is the Indian left,with a good secure hill position,a line of Elephants and the Queen's bodyguard!!
This is the Indian right,with cavalry,infantry and 4 horse heavy chariots-formidable!
The advancing Companion Cavalry,in wedge formation-ooh er!!!!
One last shot from behind the Indian left/centre,showing the mighty phalanx advancing!
Hopefully this will be a good game,roll on Sunday.
Over the past two days I have been playing a Modern Solo game,using my 54mm figures and tanks etc. in a desert terrain(make of that what you will!!) my rules are very simple(points x Dice) but are fast and very playable(not to mention enjoyable!)
Having decided that the game would be between Americans and Middle-Eastern troops,I made out cards,as shown,for the ME troops and placed them randomly,upside down in the main locations.I then ordered a Heli-Scout to try and determine what was where,but with a limited flight path,I only discovered the troops that you can see in the photo.
I then made out a plan of attack for the Americans,and off I went!!
Top photo shows the troops I had discovered,and bottom show my planned "left hook" by the Americans,who discovered a machine gun nest in the ruined temple,with an infantry squad about to support it-both were quickly eliminated!!-so far so good.
An enemy tank has revealed itself from inside one of the buildings,and knocked out an American tank with two lucky shots!Another enemy tank revealed itself from the far building and attacked the supporting American infantry-this is not going well!-Time for the reserves????
Top photo shows the enemy tank doing a lot of damage to the American troops attacking the town-however,the bottom photo shows the American helicopter giving it some rockets and knocking it out-hurrah!!-this allowed the left hook troops to continue following the plan!
In the top photo the American tanks and infantry are rolling into the town and giving the enemy "hell",whilst in the bottom photo,the reserve infantry are storming the right flank and have destroyed the mortar position-all looks lost now for the ME troops!!
With one last rocket salvo,the town's defenders collapsed,and being almost surrounded,they gave in-another hurrah!!
The terrible cost of war!!
The American tanks rumble on into the desert!-I have been assured, by the Pentagon,that the camouflage patterns I have used are correct in every detail!!!!!
Although tanks,helicopters etc.etc. are not my "thing" I did enjoy this game,and will look forward to another quite soon,when I have finished my latest "project"-the blog will be entitled "Caveat Emptor!"-now there's something for you to ponder over!!
As a club we tend not to take our games very seriously,and have a good laugh-last night broke all bounds of "normality"-I haven't laughed as much for ages!!!! Initially it was down to the Captains,Birdseye,Morgan,Pugwash and America,ie. Brian,Paul,Graham and Dave!!
Using my newly made ships and rules we launched(!!) ourselves into this new period/game with gusto!!
Paul and Dave's squadrons moving against Graham and Brian's-smooth sailing until.......
The dreaded protractor had to be used(for turning)-hilarious!!
Nearing the "crunch" both fleets are now in position to strike the opposition by ramming,shearing oars and/or meleeing-the rules were designed to be fast,furious and vicious-and they were!!-ships going down like nine-pins,and seafaring oaths galore!!-great stuff.
After a cup of coffee,we changed sides and Brian stood down so I could have a go!!
With a brilliant display of seamanship,I managed to get my "flag ship" sunk and the whole of one of my squadrons had to be taken off the board!!!-Brian is enjoying this!
Time out!! Paul and I were soundly beaten by Dave and Graham,who didn't gloat one bit(much!!!)
This was a very entertaining night,and I can see a future for the fleets-maybe a participation game at a show(??)
Dave has been painting some Russian Napoleonics-Hussars and command group.................
A "cracking" job,and based to perfection too.
Wonderful stuff-I can only look on in envy-well done Dave,now to get them onto the board!!!
I have planned a solo game for mid-week,a "modern" game which I know the purists out there will moan and groan at, but I will be using my own rules etc. and will be for my pleasure only!!
