American Civil War.15.11.12.

Last night we had a real change in our game,we used my 15mm A.C.W. figures!
I had picked sides earlier,and Paul and Brian were the Union commanders whilst I was in charge of the Confederates.We used our all-encompassing rules which,we found,adapted very well.

Above is the scenario and map showing start positions,we agreed that I couldn't react to Brian's move towards the ford,until he had actually crossed the river,however I did have a handy reserve placed behind my main hill.

This is the overall view of the table,with the Union troops of Paul on the right,and Brians outflanking column in the background,"snaking" towards my left flank.

This is a shot of Brian's column made up of cavalry,guns and infantry,the ruined bridge is in the foreground.

My initial advance towards Paul's position on his hill,is shown here,although I had a great advantage of numbers,I was continually aware that I would need troops to combat Brian's push on the flank.

Brian's troops are crossing the river in numbers now,he made a dash for my reserve cavalry,and set up a gun battery too close to my position,just out of shot on his left flank,and he was to suffer a couple of cannister shots before he was able to take the position.

This shot is of the centre,where Paul and I were still slogging it out,he managed to get more units into his firing line than I did,and inflicted enough casualties to force me to take morale. A couple of my units broke,and I decided to pull my whole line back to their original positions.

Brian's cavalry hitting my,dismounted, cavalry,I managed to get a shot at him before he made contact,which proved to be important later on,I also had a brigade of Zouaves on his flank,which I had to put into the melee once it was "static".

This shot shows my position,on Brian's left flank,defended by dismounted cav. and a battery of guns,and in the background some infantry which I had to withdraw to try and support my position,from a tremendous attack from Brian.

Brian has broken into my position!! after morale was checked,most of my troops ran away,and left Brian in possesion of the position.

This is a shot showing my infantry defending the town, against a determined assault from Paul's troops,I managed,somehow, to hold on in the town,and with my infantry now back in their original starting position,Paul was in a precarious state,with his troops scattered around the centre.

This shows my cavalry capturing one of Brian's gun batteries,by a daring sweep around his flank,this move placed me behind his cav. and inf. although he had taken my defended position.Because of this set of circumstances,we decided that a draw was afair result.Paul being able to regroup in the centre,and possibly start a new offensive.This was another good game,everyone went away happy.what more could you ask for ?? A WIN !!!

roll on Sunday.

Final photo,completed Testudo,just one more to go!!

Painting update.

The Testudo factory is back in production,if everything goes well I should have completed the last two Testudos by this weekend.

I also promised Paul that,for his birthday,I would paint a regiment of cavalry for him.the photos are below.The figures are Front Rank,and I actually enjoyed painting them!!

Marlburian game 11.1112.

Last night we didn't have a good game.......we had a great game!!
Basically both sides were the same strength,at 17 infantry regiments,12 cavalry regiments and 3 gun batteries.The scenario was very simple;both sides had a position to hold,the enemy were to capture those positions,plus there was a marsh in the middle of the table,and that was to be an objective to hold too.

Brian and I were in control (?) of the allies,consisting of Danes,Prussians,Dutch and Austrians,whilst Paul and Dave were in control of the French,Bavarian and Spanish troops.

This is the over-view of the table,with the Allies on the left and the French on the right,the French had a village to defend,whilst the Allies had a sort of Manor house to defend.

This is shot of the French village,manned by Bavarians,Dave elected to advance from the village,which upset my plan to attack/melee with his troops,instead we had to fire-fight!! sneaky devil.

This is the French centre,because both sides were equal in strength,we had to attack: Dave and I seemed to spend the whole game firing at each other,substituting lines and taking morale tests,great stuff and very tense.

This is Paul's command on the French right flank,he faced Brian,and was tasked with not only taking on Brian's cavalry but also capturing our Manor house,a formidable task!!

The Allies right flank,a mixture of Prussians and Austrians,I had planned a feint with two regiments of cavalry,followed by a mass attack on the Village,Ah dreams,dreams,dreams!!!

This is Brian's flank,our left,in the Manor house are his newly painted Danish guards, and in the background his numerous cavalry,I don't know if I've mentioned this before,but in a previous game he didn't handle his cavalry too well,HOWEVER, tonight he redeemed himself and did exceptionally well,my hero !!

This photo is of the Allied centre,showing the marsh,and the difficult oblique approach,this was the centre of fighting throughout the game.

Move one was just like the start of the Grand National,horses thundering all over the place,and infantry moving forward,guns blazing etc.
This shot shows Paul's magnificent attack on our Manor house,Brian is just about to lose his gun battery, and his Danish guards are about to be assailed,come on Brian, hold on ,you can do it !!

Oh dear,did I speak too soon? Brian's newly painted Danish guards have been "ejaculated" from the Manor house! Come on Brian,reform and get back in there,you can do it!

My Prussians advancing towards the French village,this was a real slogging match,Dave threw some good dice to keep my high morale rating troops in check,to the point where I had to change lines, and let my Austrians have a go,Dave also change lines and put a French brigade in to hold this vital position.

Paul and Brian conspiring against me, I know they are.Actually they are discussing a fine point on tactics,if any query comes up in our games we stop for a couple of minutes and work it out,no rule books,just good plain common sense,and historical knowledge,failing that we just punch each other !!

This shot shows the newly painted Danish guards re-taking the village!! I knew you could do it Brian,I had 100% faith in you.This was atremendous part of the game,both sides were dangerously low on morale and fighting capability,and the final melee could have gone either way,fabulous wargaming,played in a fantastic spirit.

The epic cavalry battle on the French right flank,this was so tense and exciting,both sides throwing in Squadron after Sqadron,Regiment after Regiment,dice throws going both ways,this was wargaming at its very best.

This is the second assault against the French village,my Austrians did ok against the French guard,however on the left of this part of the battlefield,things were not going my way...

Dave and I fire-fighting,with Dave's cavalry about to ride Dutch guard down,this was agood move by Dave who had "husbanded" his cavalry,whilst I had squandered mine,he beat me in a straight melee,and when I "retired" he had command of the flank,and game over for me,although on the other flank Brian was still going strong.

A Scots regiment in Dutch pay tries to stop the Spanish troops from claiming the marsh,an unpluggable gap had appeared to the right of our Manor house,and with my flank about to be rolled up,we decided that the French had the better position,and they were declared the winners,however in this game there were no losers,it was by any standards a great game.

Roll on Thursday.

Bruttium 206BC. vs Paul.

Last night Paul and I had an Ancients game,Hannibal vs Scipio,with a bit of a twist,in that Scipio had "rumbled" Hannibal's ambush,and routed his ambush troops,ie Celts,who,when the game started were already running back towards the Carthaginian lines.

This is the scenario we worked off.

This photo shows the overall view of the board,with the Romans on the right and the Carthaginians on the left.

This shows the Celts being chased back to their lines,they had to go back two moves and take another move to reform,this disrupted the Carthaginian moves on that flank,and gave the Romans (Paul) time to manouvre his front line of Hastati onto both flanks.

This shot shows Paul's Hastati on the move,meanwhile I had launched my Elephants on both flanks against the Roman lines.My plan was to hold my centre until the flanks were secure then attack along the whole line.Paul was quite happy to take his time,and he didn't want to come over the stream until he was in a position to support the Triarii .

This shows my Numidian cavalry giving the Triarii a hard time,and giving the Celts time to reform.

THis is my left flank,Elephants charging into Paul's Princepes,and my Spanish cavalry supporting,and out of shot,to the left,charging into the Roman cavalry.The cavalry battle had just got started,when disaster struck.............

Both Elephant units were beaten in melee,and had to take a morale test,they both failed,and on the throw of another dice,stampeded to their left,straight into the cavalry melee!! Both sides had to take casualties,and by the time the Elephants had cleared the board,the cavalry melee was never resumed,mainly because my centre was assailed by pila throwing Romans,who managed to destroy my Spaniards.

The game was decided in the centre,a mass melee taking place,but also on my right flank,the Triarii launched themselves across the stream,drove away my remaining Celts,and put my light troops in real trouble.

I remember this man,ah yes it's Dave!! he popped in to watch Paul and I grapple with this fast and enjoyable game,and also to show us his latest painted figures,Chasseurs....

                          

Very nice too,can't wait to see them on the board.

I have a rather large Marlburian game planned for Sunday,when,hopefully,the "famous five" will be in attendance,Roll on Sunday.

"modern" game vs Brian 8.11.12.

This morning Brian and I had a "modern" game using tanks,artillery,infantry squads,helicopters etc.etc.
Now I may have mentioned before that Brian was "dismal" with his handling of cavalry in a previous game,and I am reliably informed that the modern version of cavalry is Tanks!! I have to report that Brian's handling of his tanks in this game was,as previously, DISMAL !!

This is the scenario,Brian had to have a "column of march" written out and also a battle plan c/w objectives,this he did with great efficiency.None of my troops were on the board at the start of the game,although I did have to have them marked on my map.

This is how the board looked before we put any troops on to it,the objective was to capture the village,which is on the right background as you look at the photo.

This is the village,I had an Infantry squad plus a heavy machine gun unit hidden in it,I also had a tank behind the village.

This shot shows Farmer Putin,with his faithful dog,who,on the third move was judged to have had it's balls blown off by a stray anti-tank shell !!Well he's very near the action!!

This is one of the highlights of the game,Brian,with great aplomb,announced that he was going to put his "chopper" on the table!! I don't know where he has played wargames before,but we are not that kind of club !!
The "chopper" actually did a great deal of damage to my infantry in the woods,and to my tank in the village.

This shot shows the "chopper" attacking the village,and my "blowpipe man trying to shoot it down.

"GOTCHA!! Brian's helicopter,to give it it's proper name,gets blasted out of the sky.

Some good (lucky?) anti-tank shooting, combined with a good bazooka shot took out two of Brian's 4 tanks, in one move.(dismal Brian,dismal!)

Now I'm not quite sure why Brian was attacking this herd of cows,they weren't being aggressive or anything! I would like to assure all of our readers,that no animals were hurt playing this game,apart from the dog,that is !!
This is Brian's outflanking move and was very successful,makes up for the dismal use of his tanks,I suppose.

This shot shows Brian's "cow killer" squad knocking out my last tank,with a very long range bazooka shot.

Brian's yellow squad,emerging from the woods and taking heavy fire from my machine gun and infantry fire from village,I failed to stop this advance and was eventually attacked from two sides, and had to give in.

This shot shows my troops defending the village,I did manage to inflict casualties on Brian's attacking squad,bu overwhelming numbers began to tell,and even my cover couldn't protect me from mortar,small arms and tank fire.

The end!,village captured,tanks blown up,mortar destroyed,and dog away to the vets!!

this was a good fun,enjoyable game.rool on tonight when I will be playing Paul in an Ancients game.