I spent a very enjoyable evening in the company of Charlie Wesencraft and his group playing a Normans vs Saxon game in 15mm,on hexes,hence the title of this blog-"Different Venue".
The Saxon commanders,Charlie,Paul,Ron and Mike,discuss who will be commanding what-Paul ended up on the far left flank,and lost most of his command in the first 25 minutes of the game!!!
This shot shows Paul's troops rushing to extinction!!-using alternate moves is "foreign" to me,and it took me a while to get used to it,as did the "Hex System".
Charlie's troops are moving to take on both Phil and Mel-this resulted in a "ding-dong" melee,which eventually saw both Phil and Mel retiring(actually running away!!) back to our main hill,to hoots of derision from the Saxons!
Seeing Charlie's success,Mike decided to support him,and complete the discomfort of Phil and Mel-this worked!!!!
The "Discomforted Duo"-Mel(standing) and Phil,contemplate their next move(backwards perhaps??)
Having just lost his commander,from a counter attack by Paul's remaining troops,Dave is putting on a brave face-but not for long,as most of his troops then decided to go home too!!!
With most of our troops back on the hill,it looks to be all over,as Mike and Charlie sweep up-even the road's given up!!!
He's too much of a gentleman to "gloat" but this is very near to it!!!
Off I go,back to France-much better weather,and the locals are more friendly!!
Thanks,once again to Charlie and his group for an entertaining evening.
Last night it was up to the "Dynamic Duo",ie. Brian and I,to have a gripping Ancients game involving Romans and "Persians".
The usual scenario and table before any movement-Brian was the Roman commander,and opted to split the out-flankers,so that the cavalry re-crossed the river and attacked me both frontally and on the flank-the swine!!
And we're off!!,as Brian advances his elephants against mine,and I move to guard against his flank attack,the two first lines advance to contact-impressive stuff!!
The elephants clash!!-it's a long time since we had an elephant vs elephant melee,and it was swings and roundabouts for two moves,then I eventually won-hurrah!!-note Brian's cavalry making their way behind the elephants-oh dear!!
Our first lines are meleeing-the dreaded pila took it's toll on my troops,but because I was spear-armed,the Romans fought at -1 from their first dice,so,again,it was swings and roundabouts for a couple of moves.The cavalry are facing each other off,who will be the first to charge?
Meanwhile,on the other flank,I have sent one of Brian's elephants "packing"(trunk etc,get it?) but his cavalry are now threatening my line,and a small engagement is taking place in the foreground-this is tricky!
As Brian writes his memoirs(or is it his shopping list?) my first line troops are being destroyed-my second line troops are not very good,but I will have to put them into the Romans to try and stop them-in the far right background you can see that the cavalry are engaged,and,for a time I was winning-hurrah!!
All hell has now broken loose on my left flank!!The Roman cavalry are rampant-and mine are not!!,still,my elephants are just about ready to reform and give the Romans "what for!!"-if only Brian's archers don't shoot at them(he wouldn't,would he?)
YES he bloody well would-the double swine!!this was the result......................
Bloody mayhem!!-Brian combines this rampage with an attack on my left,with his auxiliary infantry...................
Brian's troops were too strong for mine,and in this shot I am being forced back-woe is me!!
On the other flank,I have been forced to use my "Immortals" to support my cavalry,who are being driven in a backwards direction(wargames- speak for being hammered!!) however they too have met their match in Brian's other auxiliaries-hell's flames,what's going on?????
In the centre,my second line has been beaten soundly,and Brian is looking "smug"-with both flanks and centre in a bit of a mess,we decided that the Romans had won(understatement of the year!!)
This was a good game,with a good deal of thought going into the battle plan from us both-well done to Brian.
The astute reader will have noticed that the playing surface is different from our "usual" desert-type terrain-in fact this is the surface we will be taking to Falkirk in May,for our demo. game of Assaye,and consists of "cheap" carpet tiles,but I think looks quite effective.
Roll on Thursday.
Last night the "Terrific Trio" ie. Brian,Paul and I had a very interesting and testing game,involving Prussians and Hanoverians against Russians and Austrians.
Top photo shows the Scenario,and bottom photo shows the table before any movement.
I commanded the Prussians and Brian and Paul commanded the Russians.By way of a change to our "normal" games,we didn't have any order sheets,but relied on a written battle plan,and points written on plastic attached to the bases of each unit-it worked out okay,apart from a couple of "hitches" when recording when a unit had to retire and reform-there's no such things as problems-only solutions!!
Paul's Austrian gunners open the battle-Paul was defending the Church with one brigade of infantry and this gun battery,but it took three(yes,three!!) brigades of Prussian and Hanoverian infantry to take the position!!-the man's a demon!!
My Hanoverians are advancing against the Church,backed up by a Prussian brigade,with Horse Artillery on the left flank-Paul casually destroyed not only the Hanoverians,but the Horse Artillery too!!!-send in more troops!
Has Paul been shot in the arm??-this is Brian's flank,holding steady-my plan was to make no aggressive moves at all against the village,but to pile all my troops over to the Church area.This perplexed Brian a bit,and he held two brigades,plus cavalry and a gun battery in this position for most of the game!
This shows my first attack being met with ferocious resistance by the Austrians-Paul has moved his central troops forward to try and stop my advance,and cavalry are moving onto my flank!
Brian has "twigged" what I am doing on my right,but their battle plan is preventing him from doing anything about it-yet!!!
This shows my second brigade attack-Paul is weakening,but his cavalry move against my flank is causing me some concern-luckily I have some Dragoons moving up to help-hurrah!!
In the background,Brian is stirring his troops in the centre and left into action-ooh er!!
All Hell is breaking loose,all over the table-Paul shouted to Brian to implement "Plan B" to which Brian replied that he couldn't remember what "Plan A" was never mind "Plan- Bloody- B"-hilarious stuff,great wargaming!
While Brian tries to remember "Plan A",Paul is putting his coat on and is deserting his co-commander-oh dear,is this "handbags at dawn??"
My third brigade,sent to the attack,has sealed the fate of the Austrians in the Church,and the game is all over.This was a great game,and well played by everyone,the atmosphere and "bon homie" were what wargaming is all about.One last shot(and very rare!) of me................
O.M.G.!!-it's enough to frighten the bairns!!!!
I had a call from Dave on Wednesday night and he asked what I was doing-well,I said,it's a Wednesday night,so what else would I be doing except making Kamikaze Headbands!!(for our participation game at Stockton on the 9th July)-everyone who takes part will be given a headband(whether they want them or not!!!)
16 made so far!-the Japanese symbols say(I think and hope!) "I won" or "I am a winner",so they could be quite appropriate on the day.
Having just changed from Windows 7 to Windows 10,I am experiencing great difficulty in accessing my photographs.
Design to be used on Kamikaze headbands on 9.7.2016.
Don't you just hate it when things suddenly right themselves and make you look like a complete "TIT"???????????????photo's back on track!!!!!! I wish I knew what I was doing with this computer.
Last night,Brian and I had a very enjoyable,and entertaining game/trial of the participation game we hope to put on at Stockton in July.
This is the info. given to us by Dave and Thomas at "Battleground" show.
Here are three views of the "Terrain" we will be using,the American Aircraft Carrier in the bottom left hand ,and the Japanese Air Base on the right centre.
A view of the "authentic" WW2 Japanese air-base(Hmmmm!!)
A shot of the American P40,and the Zero fighters we will be using for the game.These are made by a company,based in Chicago,called "Tootsie Toys" and are very collectable,so if anyone out there has any for sale,contact me!!-the models are no bigger than my thumb,but look quite effective.
Two shots of our "trial game" in full flow-Brian looks relaxed!-the playing surface is about 4 foot by 3 foot,and is just about right for the size of the game we are putting on.
I have made a couple of Kamikaze head bands for the "participants" to wear during the game,as they will always be the Attackers and we,as a club, will always be the defenders!
The whole point of the game is for the Kamikaze pilots to sink the Carrier.
There it goes!!-we hope this will be good fun on the day,with lots of "participants",each game last night took about 20-30 minutes,and the Carrier was sunk each time!!! so,roll on 9th July!
Last night the "Fab Four" ie. Graham,Brian,Paul and I,had the most colourful game we've had for a while,involving Moors and Normans in Sicily!
This is the simple scenario,the objective was to capture the camp for the Normans(Paul and Brian)
Graham and I had come up with the plan,to attack on both flanks and hold the camp area with Infantry and cavalry-Paul and Brian had come up with plan to attack our centre and capture the camp as quickly as possible!!-look at the colour!!
My light infantry are sweeping across the stream,against Paul's light infantry-he had heavy cavalry support,but chose to use them to support the attack against our centre-bad mistake!!-I had light cavalry which I used to out-flank on my left-this proved to be very successful,to the point that in one melee,Paul put his commander into the fray to bolster the points of his left hand unit-I killed the commander and the whole of the flank collapsed-hurrah!!!
Meanwhile,on the right flank,Graham launched his cavalry against Brian's heavies-we "bounced" but still had reserves,which were also put into the melee-Brian then put his reserves into the melee,and all hell broke loose!!-neither side winning a decisive victory-great stuff!
In the centre,things were going the Norman's way-their cavalry brushed aside our cavalry,smashed their way through the first line of infantry and crashed into our second line!!
On the right,Graham has won a crucial melee,and is driving the Normans back through the trees-I've got a good feeling about our chances now-hurrah!!
On the left,I am pushing hard,and Paul's infantry are not doing well-it was at this point that he decided to put his commander into the melee,to support the far unit-how will he explain that to his C-in-C(Brian the Brute!)
Well, standing with your hand on your hip won't get you any sympathy for a start!!-you can imagine the conversation-"well,it was like this..............."Brian is looking none too pleased and speechless!!
Graham is looking none too pleased and speechless too-why? his right flank is doing okay,however the centre is looking a bit "fragile"
Yes,our centre is looking as grim as Grimsby on a wet afternoon-and that's grim!!!
However I have some spare cavalry,and sent them into the flank of the attacking Normans-hurrah!!
The centre is now stabilised,my light troops are advancing on the Norman centre,and Graham is winning on his flank-is it all over for the Normans????
YES!!the camp and gold are both safe,and the Moors were declared the winners-another hurrah!!-great game well played.
All of the figures used were from Warrior Miniatures,and painted by me!
I don't know if we will be playing on Thursday,and we definitely won't be playing on next Sunday.
