Battle of the Danube Defences 101AD.

The American Military have a word that describes last night's game-FUBAR!!!
It has now got to the point,that I am giving up club wargaming for a couple of weeks,to get my enthusiasm and sanity back!!!

Preview of game for Sunday 22.9.2019.

We haven't had a good old fashioned Ancients "bash" for a while,so I thought that Sunday would provide the "fix",featuring Romans vs Dacians.

The scenario and table as the "boys" will see it on Sunday-each side will be given a reminder of the tactical and weapon capabilities of the armies,but as yet I don't know whether to allocate sides or "lucky-dip" it!!

The Naval contingent(so good I printed it twice!!)-this will be an interesting command!

The formidable defences on the Danube.

The Dacian right flank hill-quite an obstacle!

The whole Dacian position.

The "token" 1/2 Legion in testudo formation.
Hopefully we will have a full turnout for this game,so roll on Sunday!

Battle of Winterton 1644.

As Dave was in Manchester,watching the cricket,it fell to Brian and I,commanding the Parliamentarians,to face the Royalists,commanded by Graham and Paul-it was a most excellent game!!

Top photo is scenario,bottom is table before any movement-keeping the scenario in mind,each player had to decide on his own objective,and away we went...........................

The opening moves-my troops are manoeuvering towards the "walled field" held by Paul's troops,whilst in the background Brian is mounting an attack on the Town,held by Graham.

A couple of musket shots,supported by a blast from his artillery,and then in with the pike-glorious stuff-however Brian was repulsive,er, sorry,I meant repulsed!!!

Despite being cannistered,on the way past,my cavalry are about to challenge Paul's cavalry,for dominance of the central position-hurrah!!

Brian and Graham's reluctance to get their cavalry engaged,caused a bit of an "impasse",which didn't last long,resulting in Brian's troops getting a right old beating!!
But on the town front,things were a bit different.............

After clearing the walls,with finely directed musketry,Brian charged in,and took the town by push of pike and dint of musket butt-another hurrah!!-to the left of the town,you can see I have taken the central field,putting the whole of the Royalist position in jeopardy.

Paul and I were having a real "humdinger" of a fight for the flank,and for a while I thought I had "shot my bolt",but I managed to amass a couple of cavalry units plus one untouched infantry regiment,and pushed on through the gap in the Royalist line-could this be the end????

There they go!-with the Royalist army split in two,the game was finished-Brian had possession of the town,and Paul,although far from beaten,was in a bad position,so the Parliamentarians were declared the winners-if only Brexit could be solved that easily!!!!
Well done to us all,a great game,roll on next Sunday.

Border Reiver Show Report.2019.

On Saturday we attended,and put on a demo. game at Border Reiver show in Gateshead.
Our game seemed to go down a storm,but the show itself felt a little "flat",with not many traders and the "footfall" wasn't as good as last year-the canteen did a roaring trade from the start to the finish,and with free car parking you would have expected a good turnout!

Top photo shows my garage at 8.15am,and by 9.00am the game is ready for action,as can be seen in the bottom photo!!-it's all down to organisation and planning-the game was,of course, the battle of Isandlwana (Zulu Wars 1879) we included our,now almost compulsory, display at the end of the table,which attracted a hell of a lot of interest!

The Zulu "high command" of Brian,Graham and Paul-awaiting the start of the game-believe it or not the doors are open!!

Yes,OPEN!!!

Our game was one of five or six demo games and a couple of participation games,and as you can see there was room to wander around and look at the games,and there was no queues at the trader's stands either!(although the couple of traders I talked to,said they had done ok.

It wasn't long before our display of original antique weapons of the period attracted young and not so young-well,when are you going to get another chance to handle a Martini Henry rifle,bayonet,assegai and shield??

Graham's attack by his centre regiments(looking very Napoleonic!) sweeps towrds the British line,commanded by myself and Dave-the "horns" were filtering around the flanks-very impressive!

Brian is putting my command under serious pressure,and the whole line is falling back!
Then it happened...................................

Robbie Roddis,disguising himself as a "normal" person, has managed to slip past Security,and is attempting to disrupt proceedings by sneaking up on Brian's blind side!!!!

I have tried to think of a witty/funny caption for this photo. but can't-can anyone help??

The British line is on the verge of collapse!!-History repeating itself,look at the hordes of Zulu!

They think it's all over-it is now!!!
We had a great day out,talked to some very interesting,and interested people,and hopefully portrayed our hobby in a good light.One noticeable thing was that I didn't see any "official" from Border Reiver coming to our table and asking how things were going!
We still had a good day,and will,probably, attend next year.
I took some photo's of some of the other games,but "camera shake" took over and the results were CRAP, so I haven't put them on the blog-apologies to all who took the time and effort to do so.

Mongols vs Russians.

Last night we had a 100%  turnout for this fascinating game,pitting a fine Russian army against the might of the Mongol Empire.

Top photo is the scenario,bottom shows the initial attack by the Russian vanguard against the Camp.
Brian was in charge of the Koreans,Paul and I shared command of the Mongols and Dave commanded the main Russian army,and Graham commanded the Vanguard troops.

To the right of the camp,Graham is attacking Brian's Koreans-neither side getting any real advantage early on!!

On move number 2, the Russians arrived,and on move number 3 the Mongols arrived-this shot shows both sides trying to deploy rapidly-the Mongols won the race and hit the Russian infantry as they were still in marching column!!-this was a good tactical ploy by Dave and in keeping with the Russian tactics of the day.

In these two shots you can see the Mongols sweeping forward to pin the Russian centre,whilst attempting to gain the flanks,using masses of fire-power and hit and run tactics-marvelous 

stuff!!

The fight for the camp intensifies!!-The Koreans are weakening and the Russian infantry  are closing in-this could be "touch and go".

The Mongols are making a right old mess of the Russian infantry,but the Russian cavalry are massing,ready to counter attack!!

Graham has managed to beat the Koreans outside the camp,and is now assaulting the camp defences-come on Brian!!!

Oh dear!!-the camp is taken,after an heroic struggle!!

In the centre,the fight is going the Russians way,but we are slowly gaining the flanks-a draw could be on the cards!!

One final shot,showing the Mongols in a spot of disarray!!,but the Russians can not take advantage because of their insecure flanks,so a draw was declared!

This was a good game,and the offer of a loan of books and videos still stands "boys" before the next one!!

We won't be playing next Sunday,as we are putting on a demo game at Border Reiver on Saturday.