Auction of Wargames figs.18.7.12.

On Tuesday I paid my regular visit to our local Auction House,to see if there was anything I might fancy (weapons,medals etc.) Imagine my surprise then at walking into a Wargamers paradise !!
There were literally thousands of plastic kits,toys,trains,books and paints,but best of all Wargames figures!!These were apparently all one man's collection over many years,and unfortunately he had died and his wife asked the Auctioneers to sell them on her behalf.There was alot of media attention (newspapers and T.V.) so I was not very hopeful of getting in a successful bid for lot number 265,which was an enormous amount of ancient figs,some painted but the majority not.
The photo below shows how the lot was presented on the viewing day. I was successful with my bid,against some opposition,of £110 for the lot.
below is the lot at home,consisting of,185 beautifully painted inf. figs.350 unpainted inf figs,53 cavalry figs.6Elephants,4 Ballista,4 pack horses,thousands of shields and weapons and pack upon pack of shield transfers.When I finished sorting the lot out I was "over the moon" with my purchase,and immediately started putting the figures into bags and types.
the shot below shows the "sorting " just getting started.

Another shot of the sorting process,as you can see all of the unpainted figs were in their original packaging,mainly Foundry, AA and Navigator,and were Carthaginian and Macedonian,with a few Romans.

I had to include this photo to show the Beautiful shields that this man has painted,he was obviously highly talented,I couldn't believe that these were all hand painted!

This is my attempt to get the units organised,I have managed to put spears on the units that didn't have them,and put shields on as well,and in fact I have tried in my own way to finish the units which he started but didn 't finish.I will incorporate them into my armies rather than sell them on.

This is another shot of the collection,which I will make into an army later on in the year.

English Civil War game 15.7.12.

English Civil War games are colourful and exciting affairs,this game proved to be no exception.I suppose really it was just an excuse for a massive cavalry battle,as you will see as you trawl through the photographs.I wanted to try a couple of things during last night's game,namely that the first two moves were purely for artillery fire!! No cav. or inf. could move,to simulate an initial bombardment,befor the troops got to work,and secondly,Random movement dice were to be thrown for each unit,on every move,to simulate the "fragile" command structure of the Civil War armies.These two experiments were ,I think, very successful.
The first photo shows the overall view of the table,with the Royalist cav.in the immediate foreground,facing the Parliamentarian cav.on the opposite hill,with the Inf.stretching to the far side of the board.

This is the Parliamentarian cav.(8 units) before the game started,quite impressive! Equally impressive are the 7 units of Royalist cav. facing them,led by Prince Rupert, of course.

This is the gun signalling the start of the battle,but doing very little damage!

This shot shows that the infantry did actually take part,a mass firefight in the centre and far flanks.

This shot shows the cav. on both sides moving to contact,with the random movement dice,this phase took a while to achieve,with disgruntled shouts from both Paul (royalists) and Graham (parliament) ABOVE....
The photo below shows the cav. about to engage,this was a spectacular sight.

Mas cavalry melee in progress,the melee swung both ways,but eventually,Graham,who is usually very unlucky with cavalry,won the day and the Royalist cav. were forced to retire!!

In the centre,the poor infantry were slowly slogging it out by firefights and "push of pike",again the result was in the balance for a long time,but as usual, I was beaten!( I was in charge of the Parliamentarian infantry and our left flank.

Push of pike (don't tell him your name pike!!)

Graham pondering,Paul making a point,and I'm behind the camera wondering how Paul's cuirassiers have got behind my infantry, and are now threatening my whole centre!!!

This shot shows the successful Parliamentarian cav. pushing over the stream and heralding the end of the game.

I suppose I had to include this shot of my Infantry being "hammered" by Paul's inf.

This game was alittle different,because we used the random movement dice,and the artillery was used as it was in history.We all enjoyed the game,especially the cavalry battle, and will probably have more Civil War games in the future.

Roll on Thursday!

Illyrians and Thracians vs Romans 12.07.12.

Last night's game could be described as "short,sharp and bloody!" As you can see from the scenario and map,this was an ambush situation,with a Roman relief column attempting to get to a fort,with an Illyrian force hidden in the hills and woods,and a Thracian "blocking force" stopping any troops issuing from the fort. This shot shows my troops in ambush and on the plain awaiting the Romans, whose relief column you can just see in the background.

This is a view of the fort and bridge from the Roman side of the stream.The fort was made by myself a long,long time ago,and I was going to throw it out the other day,but decided to give it another chance!Just as well I think.

This is Paul's relief column consisting of light inf.Auxilliary inf and heavy cav.-Poor unsuspecting fools!!

Another shot of the column,showing the length of it and the "exposed" flank,which was set upon by light cav.light inf and horse archers,who we classed as good morale,but because I was fighting heavier types all my dice throws were at minus one,Ha, as if that made any difference!!

My Illyrian troops waiting the signal to attack,my plan was to stop the front and rear of the column,and then launch my light inf. at the centre.

Battle is joined! Paul tried to get as many of his troops onto the hill in his rear,however some got caught before they could manage that and suffered badly,however thing didn't all go my way,and a couple of my units were pushed back when the commander (foolishly put into a melee to help out) was killed!!

This shows the fight outside the fort,Paul led out 5 cohorts of inf. and a cohort of archers,to face my 4 units of peltasts and 1 unit of heavy inf.The mellee swung backwards and forwards with gains and losses on both sides,the Romans eventually drove my blocking force back,but by which time their relief force was all but anhialated.

This is the final shot, showing that not many Romans are around the bridge area.

This was ,as usual, a great game with some interesting problems being thrown up for both sides,roll on Sunday.

Marlburian game 8.7.12.

For last night's game I took the Ancient battle of Thapsus 46BC and put an 18th century twist on it,changed the terrain a bit and gave the opposing armies the same objectives as their ancient counterparts,ie. capture or hold the town,depending which side you are on.
Paul commanded the Allies (Austrian and Dutch),Graham commanded the "English", and I took command of the Franco-Irish army.
The map and scenario are shown below,the Irish,although behind entrenchments,were heavily outnumbered,and the "English" should have stormed the defences and rolled right over them-this was not to happen!!

Below is a general overview of the whole table,in the foreground the "English" are in their starting column,ready to assault the Irish,whilst in the background the Allies and French face each other with equal numbers.

This gives a good impression of the daunting task the English troops faced.

Allies and French troops before the battle started,a difficult approach for the Allies,who decided to "stretch" my lines with a combination of inf. and cav.Pauls left flank gun battery did considerable damage to my right flank inf. during the whole game.

This shows the magnificent and frightening attack being put in by the English,against my ,now, weakened Irish troops,however a couple of good dice throws for musketry and gun fire saw Graham's troops stop and finally collapse altogether!!

Paul starting to move his inf. and cav. towards me,my gun placed on the hill blasted away at his infantry and caused real damage which would prove useful later on when morale was checked.

Fire-fight! Note Paul's cavalry attacking my centre,in column!I counter charged and beat him back,I then followed my success and this proved to be the catalyst for a massive cavalry melee,with both Paul and I feeding in extra squadrons until all of our cavalry was involved,a spectacular sight.

Graham's troops being held at bay by a handfull of Irish,I sent reinforcements as quickly as I could from the town, but they had a long way to travel, and I thought at this stage my fate was sealed,however the English commander and his troops saw things differently and decided, after a last charge by the Grenadiers,to call it a day and go home.I don't think the Allied commander was very "chuffed" at that!!

Go on Grenadiers,you can do it-oh no you can't!!!!!!!!!

The cavalry melee,first stage,the melee swung both ways, and I'm sure that both Paul and myself were confident ,that,if we put a couple of extra squadrons each into the fray,we would win,in the end the Allies won and my centre was deemed untenable,however the town was yet to be taken,which was the whole objective of the game!

What a glorious mess!The French cav. have just about had it in this shot,we took morale and my cav. all decided to go home.

This was the end of the game,which was played in good spirit,we decided that a draw was the logical result,I was happy with that!!

Roll on next week.

Stream sections.

My wife doesn't think I use my time constructively,so this little blog will prove to her that I do.
About a thousand years ago I bought some river/stream sections from a company called A and A models,they are out of business now,which is a shame because they produced some good terrain pieces,however these sections were made of plaster,and consequently were brittle.Over the years I have had to repair and repaint quite a few of them,so I decided this week to base them in long sections instead of the 6" sections they are now.
this blog is to tell you how I did it.
I first placed the sections I wanted to have in longer sections and drew around them,the photo below shows this being done.I had to number both the sections and the Hardboard lengths so I didn't get mixed up-as if !! The second photo shows all the hardboard lengths drawn out and numbered,this is the tricky and dangerous part,the dreaded "jig saw" was prised from its case,and after a bit of wrestling with Aln Keys and plastic guards,I eventually got to cut around the shapes on the hardboard-added bonus,I didn't lose any fingers,although I did get "nagged" for getting saw dust on the flowers!!!

This shows the numbering of both the sections and the hardboard,trying not to waste any.

This is all the long sections cut and ready to have the river sections stuck onto them

All finished and looking good,it will also enable me to handle them better,I stuck a few "single" sections to give more flexibility when planning terrain etc.The only thing I've got to do now is paint and flock the edges,which will be done next week.How on earth can the wife say I'm not using my time constructively ?????

They shall not pass! ancient game 5.7.2012..

Paul and I played our "usual" ancient game on thursday,and I had thought up a scenario which was Hannibal trying to get through an Alpine pass with his baggage train,being attacked by local tribes.Paul had an army consisting of cavalry,Spanish inf. African Inf,friendly Celts and of course the Elephant contingent!
My army was mostly Infantry warbands with a little help from some Cavalry.I started the game in position guarding a pass with wooded terrain all around,Paul started the game with his troops in column either side of the baggage train.
from the very start I intended to outflank Paul on his right/rear with my cavalry and just charge him with my warbands,very basic but,as it turned out, very effective.
This shot shows Paul's initial moves with his Spanish troops,and my cav.trying to stop his cav. I was surprised that he didn't use his Elephants to try and stop my cav,instead he used them as a sort of battering ram against my warbands,however my light troops saw them off,and they proved ineffectual.

This shows my charge against the celts and Germans,this was hard fought and I was beaten back after a while on this flank.
This is about mid-way through the game with melees going on all over the place!

Paul is attempting to "shepherd" the baggage train away from the fighting in this photo,however since the rest of his army was being beaten on all other fronts,he decided that he couldn't get the baggage through the pass and that the local tribes had,for the time being, won the day.

This is the last shot showing the Carthaginian cavalry being "sorted out" by the Barbarian cav.

Again this was a good tussle with the melees going first one way then the other,roll on Sunday.