Last night we had a large and spectacular Napoleonic game,but it all fell rather flat in the playing of it!!
Richard and I were the French,with Paul and Graham commanding the Russians.I hadn't done my usual scenario and map,so maybe that's why the game lacked direction-who knows?
Richard was in charge of the left flank,and the Guard,facing Paul-the Russian batteries were three guns big,and they played a most devastating role in the game-we might have to look at their effectiveness!!-Richard did his best but Napoleonics is not his "forte",however he managed to hold the flank until almost the last move-well done to him.
This is my flank(French right) facing the town of Fekov-I had ordered my cavalry to avoid an early melee,but Graham instigated a charge,to which I had to counter!-I always feel that early cavalry engagements are messy affairs,and at 50:50 the chances are that you could lose the game in the first couple of moves and expose the flank-which is what happened!!
A view of the whole table,neither side wishing to take any chances,although my plan was to attack the town on move number 2-Brian ,who was sitting this game out,looks comfortable!
The cavalry battle is not going the Russian's way-time for me to launch my infantry!!
Here they come!!-although suffering casualties from the battery placed in front of the town,I managed to capture it and wipe it out-hurrah!In the background Richard has advanced his Guard to the river bank-I don't know why,but he did!!-this exposed his flank to gun fire from Paul's supporting battery and did massive damage.
This shows the tactical error! however,Richard managed to hold the flank until the last move.
My infantry are attacking Fekov town,but the Russian tactic of sitting back and letting the artillery do the work,has worked(although it made for a "dull" game) and my casualties are growing,and the ensuing melee is a one-sided affair,to say the least!!
My ill-fated attack is shown here-I am soon to be forced into square by the dragoons appearing on the left -woe is me!!-however a well aimed shot from my artillery saw the dragoons off in grand style-hurrah!!
Now here's a tactic you don't see very often-Richard is advancing his cavalry,in column,against infantry squares,with a gun battery in his rear,and another to his front(out of camera shot)-this will forever be known as "Richard's Ride of Death!!"-looks like the end,but at least we tried!!
"La Guarde" is being overwhelmed,and out-flanked-looks like the end alright-but what of my brave troops??
Well,they have been "dubbed" the "Fekov Harriers" and are fleeing for their lives-the end!!
Roll on Thursday!!
The Russians army was 100% old Mini-figs,the French army was a mix of mainly Irregular Miniatures,with a smattering of Greenwood and Ball,Hinchcliffe and a regiment of Perry plastic Guard figures.
Due to me not feeling too well for a couple of days,we didn't play on Thursday night.
I've been put on a course of steroids for a few days,and have a "scan" booked on Tuesday,next week,so hopefully everything will be okay,and normal play will be resumed by next Thursday.
Brian is painting and basing his WW2 stuff,and is enjoying getting back to his old ways.Dave is "badgering" away at the Assaye stuff,and Paul assures me he is going to "get the paints out" and start to either finish his 7YW Austrians, or his WW2 Desert stuff-lots going on,I'm the only one with nothing to paint(at the moment!!!!)
I've been reading some back-copies of the Wargames magazines,and am quite amazed at the number of "new" rule-sets that are coming out every month(or is that day/week?)-do we need them? surely clubs and groups,and individuals can adopt and adapt the myriad of commercial rules on the market already, to suit their needs,because,as has been proved in the past,no one set will ever satisfy everybody! Abraham Lincoln's speech about "pleasing everybody" springs to mind,still,I suppose the Dinosaurs didn't progress,and look what happened to them!!
Roll on Thursday(I hope!)
As a great fan of "clutter" on the wargames table,I ordered some Roman "casualty" figs and some Roman Generals,very late on Monday evening(about 4.30pm.) and the packs arrived today(Wednesday) at 12.30pm!! fantastic service and many thanks to Allan at Lancashire Games.
This shows the Infantry figures,as they come out of the packs-there was a fair bit of cleaning up to do,and the swords were very brittle,and a few snapped when I tried to bend them back into shape.
These are the Generals,and horses-great figures,and really pleased with them.
All in all,I'm pleased with all the figures,and now all that remains is to paint them!!
How can I describe the game we had last night?-easy,FANTASTIC!!!
It was without doubt one of the most exciting and tense games we've had for a while-it could be because I didn't actually take an active part in it!!!
This is the scenario and troop dispositions-Brian and Paul were the Parliamentarians whilst Richard and Graham were the Royalists.Both side wrote out their battle plans and away we went.
This is the table before any movement.Paul and Brian had decided to "mask" the right of the Royalists and make a massive attack on their left,moving all of the cavalry to that flank-this was to prove an error of judgement,leaving poor old Brian with no cavalry support,and,of course,Graham took full advantage of this!!
Brian,without cavalry support,moves forward to engage the "Bluecoats" in the field,whilst in the background Graham is moving his cavalry to fill the gap,and if possible,attack Brian's infantry in the flank,if he ventures too far forward.
Meanwhile,Paul is moving sedately forward against the field held by Richard-this looks good,not too cluttered(yet!!)
A general view of the table,showing the Parliamentarian right flank getting more and more crowded,and Graham's cavalry just about to assault Brian's exposed Infantry!-The Royalist pair look quite pleased with themselves so far.
Clash,and there goes one of Brian's infantry regiments!!!-the other has formed "Square",which Graham rode up to and fired his pistols at them-good tactics,because the Musketeers couldn't fire back at him-Brian is now in big trouble!!
Paul is piling more infantry and cavalry into an already over-crowded flank,and what is worse,his magical dice throwing seem to have left him-he's losing fire-fights and melees,as if he was a mere mortal like the rest of us!!!
Brian has managed to get his troops into line,and the whole flank is ablaze with musket fire,but earlier casualties have resulted in his regiments being weak,whilst Graham's were protected by the field wall,and are gaining the upper hand.
Despite a valiant stand,Brian's infantry are a spent force,and Graham is now turning the attention of his cavalry on to Paul's line.
Paul's ragged line is going to prove no match for the Royalist cavalry,gun and infantry about to assail him-time to call it a day?
YES!!-Brian's flank is retiring to lick their wounds,and the game is over,after 16 moves taking just over 3 hours-great stuff,and well done to everyone.Dave and I,who were "observers" both enjoyed the spectacle and spirit in which the game was played-the only down side,for me,was Richard asking at the end of the game,which side he had been on,Royalist or Parliamentarian!!
Oh well!!!!!!
Roll on Thursday,probably Ancients.
After I post my blogs I go to the "overview" and "stats" columns to see how we are doing as far as "hits" are going,and I am always blown away by the number of people "hitting" our blog,and where they live-today is no exception,and I thought I would share the current stats. with you all.......................
I find it fantastic that people in all these countries should be interested in what we do in Westerhope,and am so grateful for their support-a million thanks to you all.In total we have had 80,350 hits since we started the blog-long may it continue,thanks again.
By way of a change,and following the club's recent" upsurge" of interest in WW2 and all things "Tanky",I thought I would involve Brian and Paul in my take on modern wargaming and introduce them to my "solo" rules,to see what improvements they need to make when they eventually come to knocking up a set of WW2 rules,together with Dave,Graham and Richard.
I originally fought this game back in December 2014,so had the scenario and terrain already written out.
This is how the table looked before any troops were put on it-as the defender,all my troops were hidden,and cards showing "infantry","tank" or "anti-tank gun" were placed in all the obvious places for defence(ie woods,fields,farm house etc.) but face down so that even I didn't know what was where!!-Brian and Paul were then given an intelligence report ,and from that report they had to make a plan of attack-the objective was to capture the Farm.
Paul is putting in a heavy attack on the Eastern field,where I had a tank-as you can see it burns nicely!!!-I also have an infantry squad in the field itself.
My tank behind the barn has "exposed" itself(now,now!!) because the "seeing" distance was deemed to be 2 of our measuring sticks(about 300mm)-you can see a card in the farmhouse,which hasn't been spotted yet.
Brian is engaging the troops around the Western field and woods.
As Paul is pushing my Eastern troops backwards,I turned over the cards in the woods,and one of them was an Anti-tank gun-hurrah!!(scratch built and crap,but it did the job!) which stopped his leading tank,with just a little bit of help from the bazooka attached to the infantry also in the woods.
This is a general view of the table showing the various actions,and Brian and Paul's battle plan "unraveling" at an alarming rate!!-should have sent the infantry in before the tanks!
The shot of the day!!Brian managed to destroy one of my tanks with this lucky shot-the swine!
My Western infantry,now devoid of tank support,is being attacked by Brian's infantry,who he is supporting with another squad-time for me to retire(oh,I already am!!) and admit defeat.
One final photo,showing the state of both armies-technically I have won because the farm is still in my hands,but realistically,I have only the infantry in the farm left!!!
This was an enjoyable game,giving Paul and Brian something to think about,as far rules go.
Roll on Sunday,we will be fighting the 3rd Battle of Plum Tree Farm,but using English Civil War figures!!-It must be pointed out that all the figures used in the above game were bought from the "pound shop" and cost £5 for 10 tanks and 100 infantry!!
On Saturday,Dave "popped" around to show me his Assaye collection,to date,with a view to putting them on the table so we could look at spacings etc.before the game,to be put on at "Carronade" in Falkirk on 7th May 2016.The collection is not complete yet,but is well in hand for the deadline of end of April.
Dave also brought along a most beautiful model fort/town which he bought on E-bay,which could fit into a dozen periods,but which he thought would look good in Sunday's game featuring the armies of "El Cid" and the Moors.
A map of the battle,a young Arthur Wellesley,commanding the "British" and Allied troops,achieved a great victory over the Indian army,but it was a costly victory,leading to Napoleon calling him the "Sepoy General".
Young Arthur with ADC,beautifully painted and based by Dave,with Sepoy troops in the background-strange pose!!
This shows the first completed Brigade of "British" troops c/w bullock drawn gun-very impressive,the figures are from Redoubt Miniatures,and are a "big" 28mm.The figures require basing with stones,flock etc. and flags,which Dave sources from America!!
This photo shows the Indian brigade fully painted,one of two to be done for the game,and a completed cavalry unit behind-this army is so colourful,especially the command figures.
Another "cracking" paint job by Dave,of an ADC-the whole project is going to be great to see.
How good is this model??-the detail is superb!!-the only draw back is that our bases wouldn't be able to stand on the narrow walkways,so I made a template to fit around the walkways!!
I believe that Dave paid a fair bit of cash for the model,but it was worth every penny!!
Now onto the battle we had last night,6 of us turned up,there should have been 7 but our old mate,Michael,who was down from Aberdeen for the week-end,had to go back home,as his wife had taken ill-we wish her well(and her Father,who was also taken ill!!)
The top photo is the scenario and the bottom photo is the table before any movement,featuring the Fort/Town.
Myself,Graham and Dave were the Spanish,whilst Brian,Richard and Paul were the Moors.
Paul was defending the Town against Dave's attacks-and as usual his "demon" dice throwing denuded Dave's infantry of Officers within three moves!!!-how does he do it??
The "Black Guard" have appeared on the ramparts to gloat at Dave's demise!!-doesn't the template work well?
Brian and I both commanded cavalry,on the flank,and clashed almost immediately-we fought several melees before he eventually won the flank,but my infantry did a bit better against Richard's posted on the hill in the background-hurrah!!
In this shot,Graham is advancing against Richard's Cavalry,which he managed to destroy after an exciting battle lasting most of the game-he then advanced his infantry against Paul's flank-great stuff!!
The "misery" continues on Dave's flank,as his infantry are being held by lighter types,and now Paul has brought the "Black Guard" out of the town to complete the victory!!-woe is Dave!!
Graham's cavalry are doing a grand job of driving Richard back,leaving the flank open for his infantry to march to victory(??)
Although my cavalry are heavier types,Brian has out-numbered me,and things are not looking good(again!)
My infantry are now fighting for their little tin lives-the flank is lost,our only hope is that Brian and Richard don't combine their forces and turn on our centre-they wouldn't,would they??
Yes,they bloody well would,and did!!! It will just take someone to point out that the Spanish are beaten......................
The job has fallen to Richard to do just that!!-It must be said at this point that I have never seen such blatant "gloating" as I saw in this game(by both sides,however!!)
A good game played in good spirit-well done lads.
