1815 game pics

As John mentioned in his great report on our game at Dave's house, these are some views of the game taken from the hard pressed allied side.

A "what if" Napoleonic.

Last night we had a full "house" down at Dave's bespoke wargames room,playing a "what if" type scenario,with Ney having reached Quatre Bras before Wellington,and the allies having to retreat before the French threat.Paul and Brian were the Dutch Belgians and Allies,whilst Graham and I were Derlon and Ney.

This shows the initial set-up before Brian and Graham arrived-Paul and I had to write orders for them,but they both chose to ignore them and do their own thing!!!-leading to a very close run thing in the end.Reinforcements arrived on the table in ever increasing numbers until we thought the table would collapse,but the figures had recently been received from Srilanka,and they deserved to be shown-fantastic paint jobs and beautifully based by Dave and Paul.

Action!! and we all got stuck into it,with more and more figures arriving on the board we had to try and manoeuvre into position,both sides aiming to take a flank-thrilling stuff!

Lok at the action across the whole board,neither side gaining an advantage at this point.

Top photo shows my 8 squadrons of Cuirassiers arriving,but because I had deployed my infantry,I had no where to put them!!!-bottom photo shows the action across the table,and Paul's heavy cavalry appearing to combat mine!!! Graham was just about holding his own(steady!!) against Brian on the far left flank,where guns were blazing and cavalry were shaping up to take each other on.

Unfortunately this is the last photo I took,but it shows my "heavies" about to cross the ford and out-flank Paul(winning the game!)-Both Dave and Paul took photo's so I'm sure they'll post some soon-thanks to Dave,and Paul for laying on such a spectacular game-I am told they have "hundreds" more figures available!!!!

Roll on next week-possibly Ancients.

Inspiration(!)

Inspiration comes in strange forms!-last week Paul and I visited the Border Reivers Club,and winessed a WW2 tank game,and this gave me the inspiration to try and formulate a set of simple(very simple) rules that would not involve the throwing of "thousands" of dice to achieve a result.Now when the "boys" talk about 75mm guns and 50mm armour etc. it means nothing to me:to me a tank is a tank is a tank,whether it's called Matilda,Tiger or "Scooby Doo" but I still like to see tanks,mortars APC's etc.etc.marching across the wargames table-strange!! So I set about making the rules I would use as user friendly(to me) as possible-working on short,effective and long range for all weapons,I initially made two sets of "new" dice,giving short range a better chance of hitting the target,and long range a worse chance of hitting the target-simple!

The figures(tanks,apc,infantry,mortars and artillery etc.) were all bought from The Pound Shop millions of years ago,and are quite impressive(I think!)

What are you looking at????

The "new" dice-red is short range and has 4 hits(full colour) and 2 misses,the black,effective range has 3 hits and 3 misses,the blue,long range has 2 hits and 4 misses.My idea was to throw the appropriate dice,and if a hit was recorded,then throw an average dice-a 2 or a 5 destroys the target,a 3 or 4 would see the target receive a "red pom-pom"-three pom-poms and the target is destroyed!

A luminous "flash" indicates when a target is destroyed!!

I had three very enjoyable games(does the terrain look familiar?) using my simple rules,which worked a treat,but probably not for the "purists"-I love the diversity this hobby gives to me and I hope to get inspired from many other sources in the future!

Napoleonics rule!

Because of holidays and sickness,it fell to the "three stooges" to fight this fantastic Napoleonic game last night.

Scenario and table before any movement-Larry and Mo, in the guise of Brian and Dave, commanded the French,whilst Curly(me!) commanded the British.

Early days as the French commanders execute their attack-they had a good plan,and it worked out quite well in the end-however the "wily" British commander also had a good plan,which almost worked out quite well!!

Top photo shows Dave's first attack about to come in,bottom photo shows Brian's attack about to come in-was I worried????-Nooooo.

Now is the time to start to get worried!!-I am being pressed on two fronts at once,and the regiment in the bottom photo has low morale-oh dear!

An overall view of the table about half way through the game-a most undignified bout of "gloating" took place shortly after this photo,when Dave was firing his artillery on the British regiment placed to the left of the gun(bottom right) and consistently hit them at long range,and then,not only hit them for the fourth time,but also killed their Colonel!!-both French commanders showed scant respect for my feelings,which were hurt badly(but not as badly as that regiment that had to retire(it's good being retired!))

The French have breached the walls,and hand-to-hand fighting is taking place in the streets and alleyways of the town-this is not looking good!

The action in the town is still on-going,but my morale is "flagging"-Brian's attack on my left flank has stalled and he even lost a regiment,caught in line by my light dragoons-hurrah!!-On my right flank,my cavalry has launched a last ditch charge to try and secure the flank,but up against Lancers,I had little chance.....................

The forlorn hope!!!!-actually no hope!

One last shot showing the British leaving the town in French hands!-this was,by any standards, a good Napoleonic game,full of laughs,banter and "give and take" from both sides-well done to Brian and Dave.Next week we will be playing another Napoleonic game at Dave's house,featuring loads of his,and Paul's newly painted figures-roll on next week!

 

Thermopylae refight.

Last night,the thrifty three,Paul,Graham and I refought this famous battle,and managed to recreate history,and gave both sides a fright in the process!!(Dave couldn't make it because of family commitments,and poor old Brian is having to "isolate" because of "track and trace" commitments!)

Top photo shows the first "wave" of Persians attacking the wall(Medes and Kissians) bottom shows the result!!-Spartans standing firm,although one unit was lost and replaced with a Thespian unit.

The second "wave"-Immortals attack the wall,and as the bottom photo shows,gaining a little success-can the Thespians save the day??

Ephialtes(BOOOO!) leading the Elite Persians up the pass towards the Phokians(nick-named the Knee-Knockians!!) as the srtuggle for the wall continues.

Top photo shows the Immortals having been pushed back,and retiring(it's good being retired!) behind their lines-the "king of kings" is not amused,and orders a grand attack by the rest of his "motley Crew".Bottom photo shows the Elite troops forming line prior to charging into the Phokians-great stuff!(is that Ephialtes(BOOO! leading them??)

In this shot the mass of Persians have attacked the wall,which is a bout 50/50 Spartans and Thespians now.The Phokians are fighting the Elite troops to prevent them from attacking the Spartan position in the rear-will the succeed in stopping them??

NO!!!-the brave Phokians had to retire(did you know that it's good being retired?) leaving the Persians ready to march on the rear of the Spartans.Leonidas now had to make two decisions-one good and one not too good!!-He ordered the Greek allies to go home and save the nation-good decision,then, to stop a Spartan unit from giving ground,he put himself into the fray,got himself killed(wonderful dice throwing from Xerxes(ie ME!) leading to the collapse of the Spartans-not too good a decision-but historically correct!

What was left of the Spartan and Thespian command retired(not even going to say it!) to a nearby "Last Stand Hill" and there the myth and legend of the famous 300 Spartans begins!

This was a lively,entertaing and enlightening game-well done to us all-next week we will,hopefully be playing a Napoleonic game(as near to the 18th as we could make it!) involving Dutch/Belgians against French.-roll on next week.

 

Armoured Train BP-4

 

You may recall that one of the items that has chugged off my 3D printer is an armoured train. The models are loosely based upon the famous ‘Orlik’ pictured above. So the results are not accurate scale models, but very acceptable wargames models. 

The Zaamurets hot off the printer! 

The models undercoated. I’ve undercoated them different colours as even when I’m fielding as one train, I want it to be clear that it’s far from a homogeneous unit.

The armoured loco. I’ve given this the least impressive look. Poor quality rusted armour. Or just a cheap brown paint job. It’s probably a miracle that it’s still running!

The Zaamurets armoured rail cruiser. The model is a reasonable representation of the actual vehicle. This could be fielded as an independent unit or coupled up with other vehicles. I like that it can be fielded on its own.

It has a main armament of two 3 inch Putilov field guns and is powered by two Fiat 60hp petrol engines. Top speed 28 mph! 

The Zaamurets was built at Kiev in 1916 and saw service with Tsarist Russians, Soviet Russians, the Czech Legion, White Russians and various Chinese armies.

I’ve depicted it in Chinese service when it had the humble name of Train No. 105. The name changed with its masters; Zaamurets, Lenin and Orlik…

It had a very active service history!

Two Khunkhuz-class artillery cars. Each carries a 3 inch mountain gun. I’ve given these a strong Russian feel with the paint job. They were a standard Soviet design.

The whole train together is 28 inches long!  The Zaamurets was combined with an armoured train designated BP-4 in 1918. BP-4 was a Khunkhuz-class armoured train so a loco and two of the artillery cars.

So there you have it! Ready to roll through the Back of Beyond!

Cheers 

Chris