What can I say about last nights game?-colourful,exciting,fast-moving,even controversial at times,but thoroughly enjoyable never-the-less-well done to Graham,Dave,Paul and Brian who actually played the game,and Richard for sitting quietly and handing out the "smoke"(I just sat and looked on in amusement!!)
The usual,top photo is scenario and bottom is the table before any movement.Paul and Brian were the Parliamentarians,whilst Dave and Graham were the Royalists.
Paul "kicked" the game off by loading two regiments into the provided boats and sailed them past the Ship(which didn't have any guns!) and past Hastings,eventually marching them onto Church Hill!!-and they didn't fire a shot the whole game-bizarre!!
As soon as the game started,Graham replaced the defenders in the redoubt,with his reserve troops,and was immediately attacked by Paul-thrilling stuff.
On the left flank of the Royalists,Dave and Brian got engaged in a fire-fight,resulting in one of the thatched roofs, in the town of Battle,catching fire!!(which enabled me to use one of my new "explosions" to simulate the fire-hurrah!)
Both Brian and Dave seemed reluctant to engage their cavalry in the early stages of the game,but is was inevitable that they would eventually come to blows!!
With the house on fire,everything within half a measuring stick had to move out of the way-this caused quite a bit of swearing!!-but it looked good,and only burned for three moves!
The effects of the house fire can be seen,as both Brian and Dave have withdrawn troops to escape the fierce heat!!-Brian's cavalry are moving forward to take on Dave's.
The initial cavalry clash!!-both sides held back reserves,which they fed in when necessary.
In the centre and Royalist right flank,Paul is putting in a magnificent attack,countered by Graham's magnificent defence-great wargaming!!
Paul is being pushed back! the centre is being pounded by musket fire and melee,this might just come down to Dave and Brian's cavalry melees!!
The cavalry melee is in full swing,and Brian's dice throwing let him down in a couple of fights,but won him a melee in another!!-tense stuff!!
During the fight for Hastings,Paul put his brigadier into the fray to boost his fighting points,and got him killed!!!-the whole of the brigade had to take morale,and they all fled!!!
This shot shows the position at move number 15!!-Hastings is still in Royalist hands,so is the central redoubt,however Battle is in Parliamentarian hands,and the far flank is still being contested,although Dave was in the better position,so both sides claimed victory-this of course wouldn't do,and they asked me to decide the issue!!Well,Graham did lend me his circular saw last week,so I had to give the Royalists the victory!!(a very fair and democratic way of deciding,I thought!!)
This was good game,and well played to all,roll on Thursday-probably a 7 Years War game.
Whilst down at the York show last week,I spotted,in the reception area,some "Explosions" for sale @ £1 each!-these consisted of a "plume" of cotton wool over what looked like a "tea-light candle".All the way through the show these "explosions" were preying on my mind,and I determined to get some on the way out-alas,they were all sold!!
However,when I got home I asked my A.L.O.(Amazon Liaison Officer) ie.the wife,to see if Amazon sold L.E.D. tea-lights,and of course they did(about 4 thousand of them!!!),and another project began.
After ordering them they arrived in 2 days(!)...............................
The ones I saw at York were just plain white,but I wanted something a bit more spectacular,so ordered Red ones,and although they don't photograph how they actually look when "lit" I was really pleased,and for £10.99 plus P&P,they worked out at just over £1 each!
When "lit"(batteries provided!) they flicker just like a real candle,but no flame and no heat- very impressive.
I have had this enormous bag(no not the wife!) of polyester toy filling,for years,and I have used it for various attempts at gun smoke etc. so it was obvious what I was going to use for the smoke effect on my "explosions"
A couple of "dabs" of hard plastic glue around the bottom rim of the candle,and...............
"BOOM!!" an explosion-looks alright to me.but how red is the red?
That'll do just fine!!,now to make the rest up,various sizes and shapes.
I then put a bit of black felt tip pen on the tops,for effect............................
Finished articles,now for some atmospheric "in situ" shots....................
I'm sure these "explosions" will add something to our games,and I can see them utilised in most of the periods we play-in fact,look out for a burning building on the next blog(probably this afternoon!) which is a report of last night's game.
Comments welcome!
Paul and I managed to snatch Victory from the jaws of Defeat last night in a thrilling 14 move Roman Civil War game,against Graham and Brian.
This is the scenario,Paul and I were the blue legion of Arsolius,whilst Graham and Brian were the red legion of Ludicrus.
This is how the table looked before any movement,the "testudos" could advance towards the walls without being shot at,could then form line and fight!!-a huge bonus to the reds,which they utilised to the full!!
Brian's flank starts to move towards my flank-I had "fixed" the fighting points of the attackers so that they had a very good chance of beating the wall defenders,but of course they then had to face fresh troops behind.
This is move number 3 of a 14 move(!) game,and all along the line the reds are attacking-could we hold out?-it was nip and tuck!!
Hell's Flames!! they are in,albeit just a couple of cohorts,but Paul and I had to now use our reserves,and Graham is "pressing" our left flank with a combination of cavalry and archers.
Paul is "firefighting" and rushing reinforcements to his left,as Graham is looking grim(so what's new?)-look at the reserve cohorts that the reds have!!!!(note: dead figures-more of them later)
Hurrah!! on my flank,Brian has been ejaculated!!! and is retiring(it's good being retired) to lick his wounds.However in the centre his Auxiliaries are doing grand work and have broken Paul's Auxiliaries-help!!! Graham looks distressed,or is he straining????
Paul is now under a lot of pressure,but has a cunning plan-Graham has failed to attack our far left flank,which has allowed Paul to get his cavalry to turn and will eventually charge Graham's disordered cohorts-another hurrah!!!
Brian's heroic attack against my weakened defenders has driven one cohort away from the wall,but as he climbed over,a well aimed shot from my bowmen,saw him take morale and flee!!-only another 4 cohorts to deal with!!!
In the centre,it looks like "Red Square"-luckily Paul's cavalry(just out of shot) are about to charge,and re-take the position-phew!!
Move number 12,and all along the line the weakened Red Cohorts are reeling from our onslaught-you can see that we are holding Grahams combination of cavalry and archers with just one cohort,in the gap,on our far left flank.
Brave little fellows!!-is it all over?-YES it is......................
One last push saw Brian's cohorts collapse,and the game was won,but not before casualties had been inflicted on the blue defenders..................
Oh dear! it's going to take more than an Elastoplast and a good doctor to fix him up!!!!
This was a tremendous game,thrilling and tense from the start,with both sides standing a good chance of winning-great stuff!!
As far as the "casualties" are concerned,I have been painting them up since I got them from Lancashire Games-here are a few shots.............
A couple of shots showing the figures painted and put on their bases,bought from York,just needing "flocking".
Flocked and ready to die for the Empire!!!!
All of the cohorts in the game were Prince August (cast your own) figures,whilst the cavalry and archers were Lancashire Games,as were the Red Auxiliaries,and of course the Testudos were from Warrior Miniatures.
Roll on Sunday, an English Civil War game,possibly fighting over the same terrain(??)
Paul,Dave,Brian and I visited the York show today,and having successfully returned,and been fed and watered,a full show report follows.
I don't think that this year had more visitors than previous years,mainly because I found I could walk around fairly unhindered by crowds of wargamers eager to spend their cash!As usual the "door staff" were friendly and helpful,and there was no queue to get in,the stands were full of "goodies" and well stocked of almost anything we gamers wanted/needed,and so the spending frenzy began!!!
No queues!-because Brian and Paul looked so incredibly young they were asked for I.D. to prove they were over 60(and hence eligible to get in for free!) but I wasn't!!!
A couple of shots of the traders,and you can see how much space there is-still the traders were doing a roaring trade!!
There were some great looking games and manned by people who actually wanted to talk about their game and the hobby in general,which I found very refreshing-a couple of more good games...........................
Two superb games,top is the Alamo,and bottom is what I considered to be the best looking game at the show,put on by the South London boys,a battle of the South American war of Independence .
There were also a good many Participation games,with both young and old encouraged to take part.
There were also the competition games-I personally think that these "Wargamers" should be taken outside and flogged!!-the state of their tables was a disgrace and did nothing for raising the profile of Wargaming................................
Agree or dis-agree??
Each to his own,but fecking snowmen? fecking hell!!
There was also a Bring and Buy section featuring all kinds of friendly characters,as you can see!-This particular seller was called Knobbie Roddis,I think,and is telling me he wants an extra £2 for some Gun Emplacements that I bought from him!!!
And so to the catering,which as usual was up to a very high standard,with lots of choices and very ample portions at reasonable prices.........................
Even Wayne,of Wargames Illustrated,had time to eat!!-maybe could have stopped eating to serve this guy though!!!!-sorry Wayne,see you at Falkirk.
The venue entrance-devoid of people-a great location,and a great day out.
Back home and all my purchases-paint brush,bases and gun emplacements.
One last photo,could the owner of this big,baldy head please send me money or it will go "viral".
A clue: runs a small wargames group called Independent Wargames group!!!!
