Talk about a game of two halves!!!-last night's game was certainly that.As Dave had "hoyed a sickie" it fell to Graham and I vs Brian and Paul....................
Top photo is the scenario,bottom is the table before any movement.
Brian and Paul commanded the Romans whilst Graham and I commanded the Britons-all was set for another epic game(of two halves,as you will see!)
Top photo shows Graham's ferocious advance against the Legion,which Paul is still manoeuvering into position,bottom photo shows Brian's charge against the "town" defended by the King and his "Hearth Troops"-so far so good(??)
To break up Graham's attack,Paul has formed the Legion into a chequer-board formation-who's a clever boy then??
Well, not so clever now,because Paul lost every single melee!!-he must have fallen out with the Devil,who normally makes sure that he throws high and kills officers like they are going out of fashion!!
On my flank,Brian is advancing his auxiliaries,but I didn't wait to be caught,instead I attacked across the river,and won every melee(now that is a surprise!!)-the Romans were in trouble,but what of the "town" melee??
Ah,well, some dismal dice throwing from me(so what's new?) saw Brian's Marines break down the "town" gate and started to give the "Hearth Troops" a right old bashing!!-is this the start of the second half??-you bet it was!
In the centre and on the far right flank,Graham is being held by the Cohorts(ooh can be very painful that!!) and the Romans are gradually pushing the Warbands back-about time you put your commander in chief into the fight to save the day!!!!(you just know what's coming don't you?)
Well,Graham did put his C-in-C into the fight,got him killed,and the warbands decided to re-evaluate their positions,and,well,not to put it too delicately,pissed off!!!!!
At this point Brian started to laugh and "guffaw" like a LOON,which does count for gloating,which is not tolerated in our club!!
Brian's Marines are burning the "town",so technically,the game is over,but not before my remaining warbands are getting a good old bashing from Brian's other auxiliaries-oh dear!
We are not running away,we are retiring(it's good being retired!)
What a good game this was,Graham and I thought we had won it by about move number 7,but by move number 10,we had lost it(some would say we had lost it a long time ago!!)
Roll on next week,if Dave is not too contagious we will be playing in his new wargaming room,and hopefully we will be playing an ACW game.
Last night,by way of a change,we re-fought the famous battle of Marathon.
Dave and I were the Persians,and Graham'Paul and Brian were the Greeks.
If I were to be honest,the game was a very short disaster!!-mainly because I had weighted the "adapted" rules too heavily in favour of the Greeks-in fact,apart from the Persian centre,the rest of the Persians didn't stand a chance!!-ho hum.can't win them all!!!
This is how the table looked before any movement,Greeks to the left,Persians to the right.
The initial "clash"-the weakened Greek centre assaults the Persian centre-we tried something a little different as well,using the centre as one unit,the left flank as one unit and the right flank as one unit-so one dice throw decided who won and who lost-again making the game very fast(and short!!)-oh dear!
These two shots show the Greek flanks successfully pushing the Persian flank units back,whilst the Persians continue to push the Greek centre back(as per history!)
The successful Greek wings turned to catch the Persians in a classic pincer movement-game over!!
One final shot of the table-Graham looks happy!!
To show my disappointment,Brian suggested that I take a "selfie".................
Oh dear,how sad,never mind!!
I then suggested that Brian took a "selfie"...................................
Aaaaaaaagh!!!!
Roll on next Sunday,probably Crusader/El Cid,but who knows??
Yet another stunning and exciting game was had last night,as the "Fab Four"(Graham couldn't attend as his Daughter had presented him with a fine 9lb Grandson that morning-congratulations to you all!) consisting of Dave,Paul,Brian and myself,fought tooth and nail in the depths of sunny Spain.
Top photo is the scenario,that the boys were given,and bottom photo is the initial troop layout.
Paul and Brian were the Spanish and Irish,but what they didn't know was that the waggon on the bridge was loaded with gunpowder,and the driver flicked a burning match backwards into the waggon,and blew the waggon and bridge to kingdom come!!!-oh how we laughed!!-however,Paul was up to the task and quickly re-wrote his battle plan,now that the Irish were effectively cut off from the rest of the army(it's good being sneaky!!)
BOOM!!-I think it's a credit to the way we play our games,that we can react quickly to changing circumstances,and Paul certainly did!!-he opted to attack my Austrians!!
Top photo shows the Irish and Austrians moving into position,whilst the bottom photo shows the manoeuvering in the centre-both Dave and Brian look confident(smug?).
With most of the troops in their allotted positions,let the battle begin!!
The whole table erupted in gun fire and volley fire-spectacular stuff-however,as usual, Dave and I threw low dice whilst Brian and Paul(in league with the devil!) threw high!!! but it's early days,and wargames don't always go the way you think they might!
On Dave's flank,the battle isn't going too badly,Brian managed to throw a string of awful dice,giving Dave a respite-hurrah!-there's an old adage in wargaming,that if you put a building on the table,some fool will occupy it!!-are those Spanish troops in there????
Paul's Irish have sent half of my Austrians "packing"-however,worse was to come....................
Paul unleashed his cavalry just as one of my British infantry regiments retired(it's god being retired!) caught them in the flank,and destroyed them!!!!hell,bloody hell!!!
In this shot,Brian and Dave have decided to get their cavalry involved-this was good news for Dave,who won all melees,and winning the flank-Brian had decided to abandon the farmhouse,and moved his troops towards the centre,where Dave was waiting for him!!
What a fire-fight!!-I have also recovered from Paul's devastating cavalry charge,and am now holding my own(now,now,now behave!!) but what of my poor old Austrians??
Well.they are recovering behind the tee line,awaiting orders to advance again-the Irish look to be in a bit of disorder too!!
Dave continued to push the Spanish cavalry back,so basically both flanks were secure,but in the centre neither side could claim victory,so a draw was declared-a fair result I think!
Well done lads,and roll on next Sunday-maybe an historical re-fight of Marathon??
I really can't say much about the show that hasn't already been said before,on this blog and on others.
This year Graham(and his stepson David),Paul,Michael,Dave and I traveled down,being driven by Graham,on a cold and frosty morning(almost poetic that!)-on arrival we had a quick bite to eat,and were assailed by.........................
Robbie Rodiss,who had been let out of the asylum for Demented Detectives,for the day,and was being looked after by his full-time carer,John!!
Apart from being harassed by Robbie all day,we met lots of old friends,talked rules ,games and terrain etc.etc.-all inspirational stuff-in fact everything you could want from a show.
The games were of a very high standard,the traders were helpful,but there was,of course, the usual moans about the Bring and Buy chaos......................
When will the organisers sort this bloody shambles out????-you can't see what is being sold,you can't stop to peruse,and I'm sure that the sellers would want the thing sorted asap!!
The other annual "moan" is about this bloody "game"(ie static,uninteresting(it's been around for centuries now) same old,same old!!) taking up an enormous amount of space.
Still,overall we enjoyed the show,spent far too much money,talked to a million people-they were letting anybody in.......................
See what I mean!!!C.S. Grant(or C.S. Gas,as we affectionately call him!)
As you can see,we were all in high spirits on the way back............................
Charming!!!
One last photo,caption competition???
Roll on next Sunday,probably a Marlburian,but who knows?
