Our old mate Allan came around this morning for a quick "knockabout" game,using the terrain Paul and I are using tonight.-This was a good and fast game,Allan is a "wily" opponent,and kept me on my toes for the whole game-well done mate!!
These two photo's show the scenario and initial troop dispositions,before any movement-Allan was Prussian commander,I was Russian commander(defending)
To the thunder of Russian guns,the game started-Allan put in a tremendous attack on both positions,his Infantry marching in serried lines against my "quaking" Russians!!
Changing quickly from line into column,for ease of movement,Allan feints towards my centre,whilst his real intentions were to my flanks.
A fire-fight erupts along the front and right flank-my guns had done enough damage to Allan's troops to put them at a disadvantage on the far right,and they were forced by morale checks to go back-hurrah!! However my centre is being sorely tested,and I may have to pull back,unless i can get my cavalry into play-let's see!!
Allan has launched some of his cavalry against my left,so I am tied up there,and can't safely move my cavalry to support the centre-woe is me!!
It's all over,Allan has broken my right and centre,although I have driven him off on my left,it was decided that decisive Prussian victory must be recorded.
I enjoyed this game,we played "cat and mouse" for a lot of the game,which was full of give and take-roll on tonight-same terrain,different period(Ancients)
Is this dedication or what?-a selfie taken in two degrees last night whilst setting up the games for today-memo to self "stop being an old Scrooge and put the bloody heaters on!!"-and it's no good you all putting comments onto the blog telling me how much I look like George Clooney,I already know!!!!!!!
Well,the car's in the garage,the decorating is finished(for now!) and the wife is out Christmas shopping,so what is a man to do?-Try solo wargaming,that's what!!
Over the last few nights I have been working on a very simple,but effective,set of solo rules for World War 2(a subject I know very little about!) If I know so little about WW2,why would I want to "game" it?-Well as many of you will know,I hang around "Pound" shops like a bad smell,but on a recent visit I couldn't help myself and "splashed out" an horrendous amount of cash on WW2 infantry and tanks-£5 bought me 10 tanks and 100 infantry-can you believe it?
So with this expenditure coming off my pension(I'm retired you know) I had to do something to justify it-and so the Solo rules,and game I'm about to describe.
The rules take the form of throwing a dice for each unit(tanks or infantry) and that score is the fighting points for the unit-this is reduced by losing a fire-fight,or being hit by something that you can not return fire to-ie bazooka on tanks,until your score is zero-then the unit is removed!
I set up the terrain as shown,then placed cards(some of them blank) in various locations on the terrain,marked up with either "TANK" or "INFANTRY" so that I didn't know what was where,when I attacked.
I had great fun deciding where to attack,and the options I had,using the Intelligence I had to hand,ie I knew where there might be troops,but not what kind-I eventually decided to launch a grand attack on the Southern field,whilst Pinning the defenders in the Northern field and Farm.
This is how the terrain looked on the board-pretty much as the drawing/map
I had given my attacking troops precise orders,as to where to move and what objectives they were to take etc.realistic,I thought(hell I sound like Yoda!!)
Move number one,and the attack begins-I had a nasty shock when I turned over the card in the Southern field to reveal a Tank,which proceeded to shoot my lead tank to bits!!I had ordered the tank in the centre to move onto the bridge and shoot at any troops defending the farm and hedges-this was a big mistake-for two reasons,one,it was out of range!!two I had not given it an alternative order,so it remained in situ for the whole of the game!!
In the Northern sector,I rolled forward,and found I was facing two infantry squads-no problem here then!
Move number three,and I have taken the Field,but another tank has been revealed behind the hedge,and it too shot my lead tank to bits!!-what other "nasties" are about to be revealed?
In the Northern sector,I have managed to destroy one unit of infantry,but the others have "dug in" and another infantry unit has been revealed in the woods-I am about to be out-flanked!!
My attacking tanks are making a bit of headway now,and the infantry are fire-fighting the troops in the farm,who are suffering badly.
This is move number nine,and job well done!although my Norther sector troops were forced to retire,I had captured the Farm which was the prime objective-hurrah!!
To answer my initial question,Myth or Magic? I really enjoyed this game,so it must be Magic!!
I will be trying more solo games over the next few weeks,maybe trying different periods too.
If there was a prize for "spectacular" we would have won it last night!!
This is the general layout and scenario,for last night's game-Paul was Caesar,and Brian and I were the British warband leaders.What Paul didn't know was that there were 8 warbands hidden,in the woods beside the "stockade",and they would make an appearance on move two-I love surprises!!
A feeling of peace and tranquility oozes from this shot-oh boy was that to change!!
In the background,Caesar's columns advance down the "old Kent road",whilst in the foreground,the British are moving through the woods,ready to spring the ambush.Paul was given a bit of a ridge,and he used it well,positioning his cohorts in a wonderful line-can Brian break it?
Spectacular,or what!!Paul's line looks unbreakable,but Brian's warbands look determined-in the words of the song "somethings gotta give"
Back at the stockade,my warbands have exposed themselves(now,now,behave!!)
I had sent 4 warbands on a long outflanking move,whilst "pinning" the Romans frontally-Paul's patrol cohort have reached the stockade safely,and have positioned themselves as a mobile reserve.This part of the battle was important,as we set the objectives of the Romans reaching their boats,or the British tribes capturing the stockade and burning the boats!
The melee at the walls went on for a long time-I had the advantage of having more troops,and kept feeding them in,hoping to "grind" the Romans down-no chance!!
The fighting in the centre was desperate,javelins and pila whizzing through the air,war cries and trumpet blasts,mingling with shouted oaths(mainly from Brian!!) Neither side could get a result,and still they both kept reinforcing their tired troops-epic stuff!!
This was the crucial melee,on the Roman right flank,whoever won this would win the game,so everything was thrown in,cavalry and infantry mixed-Paul even threw Caesar himself in to boost his points total-who would win? It's down to the dice,come on Brian!!!
Having gained a tenuous foothold for a while,my troops we unceremoniously ejected from the stockade,and my morale was shattered!!
So was Brian's,back at the main battle-the Roman line held,and the British were sent packing-but at least they can go back to their homesteads,safe in the knowledge that they won't see the Romans again,I mean,after all,what could the Romans do for us????
This was another great game,but my head is really hurting thinking up these scenarios,lads,come on ,give me some help!!
Roll on Thursday,it will only be Paul and I,as Brian is going into hospital for tests-good luck mate.
Last night,following an in-depth discussion on an article that appeared in "Slingshot" magazine number 296,entitled "Like a knife through butter",Paul decided to illustrate,mathematically,that the article did not "hold water".
His argument was put very eloquently,and with passion,however his illustration,shown below in all its glory,left a bit to be desired............
It was pointed out to Paul that most(if not all) Macedonian cavalry did not ride Armadillos!!
Oh how we laughed!!!
Well done Paul,you've managed to put back Art to the time of the cave dwellers!!
For this battle last night,Brian was Seleucus,whilst Paul and I took the role of Antigonus!
This is the scenario and basic troop layout-note Elephants on both flanks of Antigonus' army!!
The marines on both sides rowed their way to the landing point-Brian is so taken with commanding ships,that he has got rid of his right hand and is going to replace it with a hook!!
Whilst both sides sought to secure their flanks,the centres moved ever nearer,not long before the inevitable clash!!-Paul has adopted an echelon attack-very nice too!-You will note the Elephant unit in the bottom left corner,and the archers about to shoot on its flank-Brian was hoping to drive it away,however it took fright and ran "amok" straight towards his beautiful straight line ,and caused chaos!!-hurrah!!!
Cheer up Brian,worse things have happened at sea!!-talking of which............
The Marines have landed(lock up your daughters!!)-a tremendous tussle took part at the landing point-luckily Paul had given our Marines very good points,and we eventually won the flank-another hurrah!!
The battle for the centre was great nail-biting wargaming at its best-neither side gaining an early advantage,and dice rolling all over the place,including this rather extraordinary one......
HMMMmmmm!!
Brian's centre is just about to collapse,caused by the cavalry threat to his exposed flank,although it must be said that he gave us a "bloody nose"-cheer up Brian worse things have happened at sea.............
The flank was won,and Brian's marines are about to be driven off the board-hurrah!!
This was a good taxing game,with neither side gaining any advantage until almost the last throw of the dice-well done lads.
We will probably be playing on Sunday-so roll on then!
The above photo is the starting point of our game last night-we actually had two games with the same theme,of sinking the Bismark!
The Hood and the Bismark are models I bought from "Atlas Editions" for £1.99 each,the Spitfires and Stuka's are made by a company called "Tootsie Toys" and are 1.75 inches long,quite hard to come by and very collectable-the "bombers" are cheap plastic toys which I found lying around in a box,but which fitted the bill nicely-the other two players are just a couple of old guys who come along to my house every now and then!!!!
I have combined the two game's photographs,just to show the games and the way they were played-we had a good laugh,and the Bismark was sunk-twice!!
This is the task force,commanded by Brian and Paul,my forces,of Bismark,3 Stuka's and a submarine,were off the board but marked on a map.
First "blood" to the Luftwaffe! a Spitfire goes down in a trail of smoke!!
Surprise,Surprise!!-Paul has sailed the Hood (in a pre-set course) right into my trap-my submarine makes its appearance and looses its torpedoes-However very little damage was caused to the hull,but the rudder was damaged-hurrah.
Paul fired his depth charges at the sub. and caused it to evade,never to be seen again!!
In the background you can see a massive "dog-fight" going on.
The Bismark has been found,lurking in a Fjord,and with no Luftwaffe protection(Brian has shot them all down!!) a pincer movement,involving the Manchester(?) bomber and the Hudson(?) torpedo plane is about to "DO" for the German battleship-game number one is over!
For the second game,I decided to go on the offensive,and attacked the British force.This shot shows the Bismark giving the Hood a "broadside",unfortunately,Hood fired back and caused an awful lot more damage to my deck and guns,than I had caused it-woe is me!!
Astute readers will have noticed in the background,that each Spitfire has a Giant figure behind it!!-these are figures of famous WW2 aces,including Douglas Bader,Jonnie Johnston etc-just to add a personal touch-I felt really bad when I shot poor old Bader down!!
Brian's submarine has "popped" up and fired his torpedoes into the Bismark at very close range!! thus sealing the fate of the ship-again!!
We all enjoyed this foray into WW2,and will try it out again,it was exciting and fun,but most of all the rules were easily and quickly picked up by both Paul and Brian-hurrah!!
Roll on Thursday,back to "figure" wargaming,don't know what yet.
Paul,Brian and I met last night to play a Napoleonic game,but before I start the narrative,I must tell you,that one of our number,and I won't say who(but it's not myself or Brian!) is a qualified Health and Safety (NEBOSH) expert-the kind of person who you wouldn't dream would cause an Ecological,Environmental and Medical catastrophe-or would he?-Well,our NEBOSH "person" decided to put a plastic(yes,plastic) template that we use to determine cannister fire,on top of one of the heaters in the garage!!-Can anyone guess what happened next?? Amid coughing and spluttering (and a bit of laughing!) Brian had to be given the "kiss of life"-Paul and I refused to do it,so we got next door's dog,and to be quite honest,they both seemed to enjoy it!!
Anyway,on with the game.I built up a scenario around Napoleon being injured and getting treatment in a Farm house,surrounded by what was left of his demoralised Army,and the Allies of Prussia and Britain attacking and attempting to either capture him or prevent him from leaving the board within 10 moves-I was French,Brian was a combination of Prussian and British,and Paul was in charge of the rest of the British forces.
The centre of the French line,anchored on the Farm and to the right a village occupied by the French Guard-Brian had the onorous task of attacking the village with his Prussians,and a damned good job he made of it too!!
Napoleon is in the farm house with his Faithful Guard-the Ambulance is to the right,on the road,but Paul is putting in a grand attack against the Farm and my left flank-his Scot's Greys are poised and lurking,ready to take advantage of any weakness in my line.
Poised and Lurking!!-will they get an opportunity to charge??
This is a good shot of the battle for the village-the melees swung both ways for a long time,then Brian eventually captured the village,and I had to rush reinforcements from my centre to try and stabilise that flank.Meanwhile in the centre Paul has driven away a battery of guns plus their supporting Hussars-woe is me,but can I hang on and get Napoleon out-the clock is ticking!!
Paul is piling the pressure on!-He has had the audacity to actually attack the Farm-silly boy,that's the cream of my army in there,and it's almost time for Napoleon to get out -his carriage has arrived-hurrah!!
The low morale ratings are beginning to tell on the French centre,I am losing the fire fight,and the village is taken,but the "Man" is galloping off down the road-I may have just done enough to save him-another hurrah!!
A final shot-Brian looks dejected,but he shouldn't be(maybe he's missing next door's dog!!)-he has won his flank,Paul has destroyed my centre,but,and it's a big but,Napoleon has escaped-double hurrahs!!
Although,theoretically,I had won the game by achieving the objective,we
were all declared the winner of this very exciting and tense game-well done lads!!
I will be the first to admit that Napoleonics is not my favourite of periods to wargame,but last night's game was very good,and I enjoyed it-roll on Sunday,I don't know what we will be playing,although I have been working on a couple of projects during the week-it's great being retired you know!!
