Game set-up,how I do it.

I'm a great believer that a wargame should "look right" for the period being fought, and to this end I have taken a few photo's of the steps Iemploy when setting up a game.(this one is for Thursday)
I started with a "germ" of an idea that I wanted to play a Successor game of Ptolemy against Selucid,based in Egypt,and to be fought against the backdrop of a city (Alexandria in this case).I decided we would be playing "down" the board rather than across it, so the first thing I did was to put a river section with a bend in it so that the city would sit nicely in the centre of the board.As a club we have built up quite an array of "extras" over the years,including this wooden fort,which has taken on many guises-Alexandria for example! I set the city where I wanted it and then decided to "dress" it with a couple of Sphinx, bought from a pet shop's aquarium section,as you can see from the photo below.

So far so good,now I added a few palm trees,again from the aquarium section of a pet store,and the city is beginning to take shape. Crocodiles basking on one of the little islands in the river,I personally like to see this kind of thing on a battle field,it lends a certain charm!!

This is a view of the corner of the board,I have placed a native "dow" anchored to a ruined temple,purely for effect,it won't play any part in the battle.

This shows the finished city from the attackers perspective,andI think looks quite the part.

This is a view from behind the city looking down the board,I have placed a temple on a slight hill to give Selucid a vantage point to command from,I have also placed some more palm trees on either flank to break the plainess of the board.

This is the overall view of the table showing the troops in place and ready to go,as both armies are basically of the same composition the game should go to the commander with the best battle plan,no doubt the winner will enjoy the "pleasures" of Alexandria afterwards.

I hope this short "blog" has described and shown you what goes into most of our games and the pleasure it gives me to be able to put on such games,any comments would be gratefully received.

18th Century game 13.5.12.

Well what can I say about this game ? It was supposed to be a straight forward clash,both armies attacking their set objectives and gaining points for capturing them,however it didn't quite go to plan ! Paul and Graham were on the Bavarian,Spanish and Irish side,whilst Robin,Dave and John were on the British,Austrian,Dutch,Danish and Prussian side.Graham and Robin attacked each other with "gusto" and a real "ding dong" affair it was,with volley fire and melees from the word "go",Robin was eventually beaten back to his original starting line with only half the troops he started with!! In the centre Paul decided to wait until I (john) had taken the windmill to my front, before he mounted a counter attack,meanwhile a couple of my regiments had taken too many casualties and had to retire,in retrospect,if we had known Paul was going to defend,we should have had a third more troops,however the counter attack was successful up to a point,I was drven back along my front, and Dave arrived just in time to get me out of a "hole".On Dave's left flank,he bravely attacked across the stream and charged Paul's gun,captured it and then went on to attack a regiment defending it,again after a real tussle Dave was thrown back and our morale collapsed along the whole front and Graham and Paul were declared the winners. Above is the scenario,the Cavalry battle to the flanks was just a "red herring",but added to the feel of the game.

This is a shot of the whole table before the game started,Paul and Graham's armies on the left of the photo.

This is the village that Paul was defending and which Dave so valliantly attacked.

The abve photo shows Robin's starting positions,he had a further two regiments just out of shot on the right.

This is Graham's starting position,with the windmill half way between him and Robin.

This is Dave's flank,British troops in front and Austrians to his rear,he attacked with the British and swung the Austrians around the wood to assist me in a joint attack against the windmill to my front.

I have included this shot to show the village which Robin was defending,to show that i bought it at a charity shop for £1.50,a real bargain !

This is part of the joint attack on the "uncontested" windmill,Paul's troops look set for the counter attack which proved successful.

This give a good impression of the struggle for the windmill between Dave and Paul,my troops are just out of camera on the far right.

The Irish in full flight after Robin's Prussians and Danes have failed to stand and are beating a hasty retreat back to defend his original position at the £1.50. village!! Never mind there's always next week,however I must remind the group that I refuse to put on another "horse and musket" game without help in the form of a scenario,map etc.-my mind is hurting trying to think of good interesting games every week,moan,moan whinge ,whinge!!

I can't think why I uploaded this again,must be an age thing!!

Prince August Romans and Barbarians.8.5.12.

My old mate Allan came down today for a game, and so I decided to put my Prince August cast your own figures onto the board for their "maiden battle" I only fielded Legio Phoenix and some Auxilliaries and Cavalry (I will keep Legio Nova for another day!) against most of my Prince August Barbarians.
Allan decided he would take command of the Barbarians,leaving the Romans to me.We had an excellent game with highs and lows to both sides,my legion did well but I was let down by my Auxilliaries and Cavalry,as you can tell by the way I am putting this,I lost!! however like most Wargamers I put it down to bad dice throwing !
This first photo shows the Legion in the centre with aux. troops on the flanks. Here is a shot showing the Legion in all it's spleandour,ie. before the Barbarians got to work with it.

A close up of a couple of cohorts, preparing to get to grips with the enemy.

This show the Barbarian line up befor the game started,pretty impresive and frightening.

Another shot showing the hordes of troops about to throw themselved against the might of Rome.

Sma troops, different angle and showing the barbarian left flank.

Roman cavalry on the left flank,they looked good but didn't like fighting very much!(these are Lancashire Games figures)

The Romans have advanced,as have the Barbarians,and a clash is taking place,javelins and pila being thrown all over the garage. On the flank, the Cavalry move into melee,we classed the Barbarian cav. as elite and gave them a good fighting ability,hence the "bashing" they gave the Romans.

This is Allan looking "smug" as my Legion is being pounded into submission,did I mention it was bad dice throwing and not my tactics that were at fault?

Desperate fighting in the centre,Legion being assailed on all sides while the Auxilliary inf. are "melting " away in the bottom left .

Cavalry being pushed back on the flank,it's all over now,ti,me for some lunch and a discussion as to what went wrong! This was a thoroughly enjoyable game,perhaps next time I will stand more of a chance if I field both Legions.

1715 Jacobite uprising.6.5.12.

For Sunday's game I decided to do something a little different,and decided on the Jacobite uprising of 1715,but with a bit of a twist,in that the English would be assisted by 4 regiments of German troops sent by King George the first,and the Scots to be assisted by 4 regiments of Irish(Wild Geese) sent by King Louis of France.The scenario is shown below. This is an overall view of the Jacobite positions at the start of the game.

This is an overall view of the English positions at the start of the game,it is worth pointing out that both sides decided to bring on their "foreign" troops on the same flank,ie,Scots right and English left,this made for a real "tussle" towards the end of the game.

This is a shot of the Scots centre and left flank,they decided to hold their attack until a hill to their front had been abandoned by some "raw" English troops,they then left a holding force and advanced on the English centre.

This shows the "raw" English troops who abandoned the hill,supported by some Cavalry.

This photo shows the English left flank being supported bya gun,which was overun by an audacious Scots clan who crossed a stream,climbed a hill,then crossed a bridge,and eventually charged the gunners and captured the gun,all "unseen" by the English commander who was concentrating his attention on an impending attack on his centre !!

This is what the English commander was concentrating on,a mass attack by the Scots clans aimed at his centre regiments,who were mostly "raw" troops,although they did stand and volley and then melee'd to good effect,however the clans rallied and eventually defeated most of the English regiments.The German troops had now decided to take part in the battle,and the Scots thought they had better retire and leave the rest of the fighting to the "professionals".

A shepherd and his flock of sheep observing the battle from the safety of a nearby hill.

The Scots had an unfair advantage (according to the English) by bringing their hunting dogs along !!

This shows the Cavalry clash on the Scots left flank,the Gentlemen Volunteers,on the Scots side,were soundly thrashed by the English cav.even though their fighting ability was higher!

This shows the massive attack on the English centre,with their Irish allies just forming up ready to do battle with the Germans.

The caption for this photograph must be,Pink tee shirt IN, Street cred OUT !! This is of course the English team of Robin and Paul,they weren't smiling at the end of the game though.

The Irish and Germans volleying each other from fairly close range,although the Germans got the better of the Irish (and brought down two of their officers) it was decided that the game could not be won by this unlikely alliance and the Scots would proceed south spreading death and destruction and the benefits of Haggis and deep fried Mars bars to the English!!

Mahratta Wars

It has been a while since I (Dave) posted about my Mahratta Wars project. This year I have decided to push on with it and get to a point where I can actually play some games! With this in mind I have been keeping my eyes open for any painted figures and terrain to supplement my very slow build up of forces. I picked up this lovely Foundry elephant from Ebay a couple of weeks ago for the same price as the unpainted casting (+ the additional foot figure). I think I got a bargain. My mate Michael purchased it through his Ebay account and has offered to cover the cost in exchange for me painting some Napoleonic British command figures for him. So, in effect, this beauty has cost me nothing! Thanks Michael!

The figure above is one which I have just finished painting and is a colonel of the 74th foot, William Wallace, one of my infantry brigade commanders. He is a Redoubt figure, as is the majority of my collection, and is a lovely sculpture.

Above he is shown with another command figure I have just completed. This Indian Prince will either represent Daolat Scindia or another Mahratta chief, I have not decided yet. Again the figure is by Redoubt.

Another shot of the Prince.

Next I thought I would show some of the books I have used whislt researching this fascinating period. The first three have been published by Leonaur and I was made aware of them through reading the blog "Joy nad Forgetfulness". I would recommend this blog to anyone as it is thought provoking and well written but above all very entertaining.

The first book is my latest purchase and I have currently read about half of it. A great read which adds flavour and insight to the period and which has determined me to have a unit of Skinners horse eventually!

The next book charts General Lakes Northern campaign in Hindustan and, although I intend to build my forces around Wellesleys Deccan army, gives some great ideas for scenarios. Of course I will expand my British to include some of Lakes units at a later date.

The next book, written around 1900, is less impressive but still gives some useful information, especially regarding De Boigne and George Thomas (the latter I was not aware of until reading this book).
The downside of the Leonaur books is that they do not contain maps or diagrams and there is no index! This makes it more difficult to go back and cross reference, an essential part of researching armies and ideas for rule ammendments. Still, they are fairly cheap!

I was a little disappointed with the above book as it covers a long period of time and therefore only a small part touches on the time of the 2nd Mahratta war. However I was still able to glean some useful information from it.

Burtons book was one of the first I bought and although it gives some useful information on Pindarries for example, I could probably do without it in my collection.

The Grant and Asquith booklet does what it says on the label! It is a useful wargamers guide with good info on the various armies and a potted history of the Mysore campaigns against Tipoo as well as the 2nd Mahratta war. It also has some scenario ideas and simple maps which will enable the wargamer to set up interesting games. Highly recommended.
   One book I have omitted to show is Wellington in India by Jac Weller. I picked up my used copy last year for only 20 quid and it is simply essential reading for anyone interested in the period. A good narrative history and a cracking read.

  As i mentioned at the start I am determined to push on with this collection and have already made some key purchases in building my armies. I have recently received another package of figures from Redoubt and these arecurrently on the painting table. Also I am anticipating the delivery of some flags this week from The Virtual Armchair General who does a comprehensive range for the 2nd Mahratta war. Once these have arrived I will get them on my completed units and post some pics.