The "Pain in Spain".

Last night,because Dave was watching the Cricket,and Brian was sunning himself in the Costa del Mablethorpe,Paul,Graham and I had this absolutely "cracking" Marlburian game.

Top photo is the "scenario",bottom photo is the table before any movement.I elected to command the Spanish,whilst Paul commanded the Horse and Irish,leaving Graham to command the Bavarians(obviously not Historically correct!!) Paul had the objective of capturing the central hill,and Graham had the very difficult task of capturing the town................

This is the town,let's call it Mablethorpe-if you look carefully you can see Brian,wearing his shorts and "flip-flops",sitting by the pool,sipping his ice cold latte!!

The game got off to a "blistering" start,by both Paul and I moving our front-line cavalry into contact,whilst Paul attacked the hill with his Irish brigade-cracking stuff!-Meanwhile Graham was positioning his Bavarians to start his attack on "Mablethorpe"!

The central hill is under serious attack,and now I have to contend with the Bavarians attacking my troops guarding the town(I refuse to keep calling it Mablethorpe!)-mixed fortunes for both sides,but I am just "edging" it(for now!!)

Top photo shows the cavalry battle in full swing,bottom shows the main Bavarian force advancing on the town-colouful and exciting!

The Irish are taking a right old "hammering",and my cavalry are winning most of the melees-is this the time to say that I might just win this??

NO!!! in a most horrible turn of fortune,Paul gained the flank,the central hill,and Graham was now "knocking on the door" of the town-how do I do it???

With my left flank gone,the central hill troops fleeing,and the Bavarians demanding entry to the town,I had to admit defeat(but not dishonour!)

One final shot-very few Spanish troops remain on the field-however,this was a great game ,as usual,full of rude banter,laughs and cameraderie-what more could you ask for?(a win would be nice!!)

In my earlier blogs I mentioned that I had sent away to Lancashire Games for some 15mm Barbarians to fight my 15mm Romans-well,I have been busy painting these fine little figures,and now have 10 warbands,only another 20 or so to go!!.....................

I am knocking these out at 3 warbands per day,which accounts for the poor painting(that's my excuse,and I'm sticking to it!) but "en masse" they look ok-how will they do against the Romans?

You can almost smell the garlic!-I have also been painting up some Warrior Roman aux, archers.

Lovely little figures-I also have two Ballista to make up and paint-more of them next week.