Marlburian battle 15.3.2012.(ides of march)

The scenario for this game was that an allied force,of Danes,Dutch and Prussians,had been attacking a town held by Bavarians,the first day's fighting had seen the town reduced to rubble,the defenders running out of ammo.and their morale low.The Bavarians have asked that a French force be sent to help them,hopefully to reach them before the allies attack and take the town on the second day of fighting.Robin commanded the beleagured Bavarians,Paul commanded the relief force,and John commanded the attacking Allies.Both sides had considerable problems to face and solve,and it turned out to be a "cracking" game by any standards.
This is the overall view of the table taken from the French position,with the town in the distance,the Allies had to take the town,cross the river and defeat the French!!

This photo shows the initial Allied attack and the brave Bavarians defending the town.The first Allied attack by my veteran Von Prister regiment of Prussians were soundly repulsed by a very weak Bavarian Lieb regiment,my shame will live with me for a long time!

The smoking town with Bavarians lurking behind whatever cover they can find,I wish I could have found some!

This is the Allied attack on the town and their outflanking move against the oncoming French.

Robin did very well to defend the town as long as he did,in this shot you can see the dead bodies and ruined gun battery from the first day's fighting-gruesome!

The shot below shows the French advance,with the cavalry moving to counter my outflanking move,luckily for me the ensuing cavalry battle was in my favour,this saved the flank and eventually led to the defeat of the French force.

This photo shows my left flank crossing the river and hurrying to take up positions before the French can "hit" me.

Contact is made along the whole line,the town has been taken,but the French,now under joint command of Robin and Paul,are putting in a furious attack against my infantry and the town(being held by my Prussians now)
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This very ungracious shot shows the terrible confusion on the French left flank caused by the Prussians having fired into the flank of a French regiment trying to form line,and a defeat at the walls of the town by another French regiment,morale was taken on both and the result was the confusion you can see.

This shows the Allied cavalry,having taken out the French gun position,threatening the flank of a French infantry regiment,this was the beginning of the end for the French.The Allies were not "wound free" and the game could have gone either way.As far as statistics go the Allies had 11 infantry regiments,2 cavalry regiments,and 2 gun batteries.The Franco-Bavarians had 9 infantry regiments,2 cavalry regiments and 1 gun battery, another great game,roll on Sunday-St Patrick's day !!

What's he up to now ?

Wooden discs,dowelling,cardboard squares,PVA glue and a Stanley knife,what on earth can be going on ?A tiny WW11 Japeneses Zero fighter,still no clue ?

All becomes clear,stick dowelling to plane,drill hole into wooden disc and stick dowelling into the disc;Next project looks like being ww11 aerial combat!

Zero completely based,can I find any other types of planes ?You bet!

Zeros and Spitfires based,look like they've just attacked my cup of coffee!

Goodness me they've been joined by Mustangs,Corsairs and P40's.

This shows the size of these tiny planes,bought about 10 years ago in a supermarket,in packs of,I think, 5 assorted planes.These are made by an American company called "Tootsie Toys",Very interesting history if you "google" them.

This shot shows the planes getting their bases painted and flocked,and almost finished.

The finished articles.I have twenty planes in total,and no doubt they will feature quite heavily in the next few weeks games.I can't wait to use such phrases as "chocks away","tally ho chaps" "bandits at one o'clock" and of course the all round favourite,"get your hand of my joystick!!"

Napoleonic game 4.3.2012.

Four of us turned up for this Napoleonic game with a difference,I decided that, for a change we would have a Russian army fight against amixed force of Austrians,Prussians, and Westphalians,quite a mixture but it worked out fine.
Robin and Paul were to command the Russians whilst Dave and John were to command the "Allies".The objectives were set, and the "Allies" were given the task of crossing the river and outflanking the Russians,and capturing a hill dominated by a Russian church.The Russians had to deny both objectives to the "Allies". This first photo shows most of the Allied dispositions with the Austrian facing the Russian Guard brigade across a formidable river.The Prussians and Westphalians can be seen already moving on to Church Hill.

Heavy cavalry masking the infantry who are moving to form a centre and left flank.

Another shot of Dave's troops moving with all speed to position themselves before the dreaded Russian columns hit them.

Russian troops advancing towards their central position,heavy cavalry just out of shot to bottom of photo.

Another shot of Dave's troops crossing the river and heading towards their final positions

This shows Paul's infantry and cavalry moving towards Church Hill and towards a tremendous clash with the Prussians,who were initially pushed bak but were saved by a judicious outflanking move by Dave,followed by a devastating volley at close range,which "dispersed" two columns.In the centre a furious cavalry battle ensued resulting in mixed fortunes for both sides.

This photo shows the brave Austrians crossing the river in the face of muskets,cannister fire and the threat of cavalry charging down on them.

Robin handled his troops well and with a little advice from Paul he managed to break my first attack.
After regrouping my troops and bringing my artillery into play,i managed to get across the river an start to outflank the Russians.In the centrte and left the "Allies" were starting to get the upper hand and we decided that the Russians could no longer stop us from achieving our objectives,and were therefore declared the winners.Yet another good game,roll on Thusday!!!

Snakes in the grass.

These photographs have nothing to do with wargaming,however I took them yesterday on the Simonside Hills just outside Rothbury in Northumberland. I came across these two Adders sunning themselves whilst I was doing abit of amateur archeolgy around the Lordenshaw Iron Age hill fort, and thought they might interest some of you (Karen and Elliot)

I lived to tell the tale!

They shall not "pass"

Paul and I had a very exciting "ancient" game on thursday night,Carthaginians vs Gauls;Paul's objective was to get through 2 passes with his army,whilst my objective wa to stop him with my Gallic host. This shows Paul's starting positions with Celts and Spanish on his far right flank,Elephants and African infantry in the centre and Cavalry on his left flank.

This shows my starting positions,with a mass of Gauls on the far left flank hill,a very thin centre, and cavalry on my right flank.

This is a close up of the Carthaginian centre showing the Elephants (16 of them) and the veteran African infantry.

The game started by the Elephants charging forward and meeting my central warbands,after a shaky first round melee I eventually beat the Elephants and forced them to retire
On my right flank the warbands on the hill charged down on the facing Celts and a melee started which lasted for 4 moves,however I was eventually beaten and forced to fall back.Meanwhile on the Cavalry flank both sides charged each other and for a long time we melee'd and moved onto each other's flanks trying to gain an advantage,inevitably I was beaten!

Thius shows the central position just as the African inf.push back my warbands.(note the remnants of the elephant units in the forground)

This photo shows Paul's victorious Spanish troops pushing my warbands back up their hill and on to victory.

The Carthaginian army pushed on through the passes and onto Rome,the rest as they say is History!!

An excellent game and good time had by both Paul and myself,Robin "observed" and asked questions throughout,he's very quickly getting to know our rules and the way we play,roll on Sunday.

A very Civil War game 26.2.2012.

Because of the many periods we fight as a club,a few exciting and colourful periods tend to get put on the back boiler,for example the English Civil War.On Sunday 26th Feb,I decided to "dust off" the ECW figs. and plan a game,this coincided with a new member to the club,Robin, showing an interest in this particular period.
The set up was a typical defence/attack game with the Royalists holding a hedged area and a hill,topped with a windmill.The Parliamentarians were to attack all along the line, and on move number 4 a hidden force was to come onto the board opposite and on the flank of Windmill Hill and attack it.

This shot shows the Royalists centre and right flank with Windmill Hill being defended by a mass of infantry supported by a gun battery.
This was a very exciting game with Cavalry attacks,Infantry fire fights and push of pike.In the end the Royalists managed to hold their positions and were declared the winners,however the Parliamentarians had given them a very bloody nose and were still strong on their left flank.

This is our new member (if he comes back next week!) Robin,welcome to him.

This photo shows Graham trying to cover up the Cavalry trooper who managed to jump off his horse!! We saw you do it!!!!

A welcome visitor on Sunday 19th Feb.2012

Our old mate Michael came down from Aberdeen to see us last Sunday and stayed for a game of Marlburian,Bavarians and Irish vs Austrian and British!! Quite a mixture but it makes a nice and colourful change.This picture shows Mike and Paul discussing tactics (successful tactics as it worked out)

This is a shot of the usual and un-usual suspects before the game started,a good night was had by all.Michael won't be able to get back down to see us until April again,when he is going to bring part of his enormous collection of beautifully painted Napoleonics,hurry on April!