A couple of weeks ago,I asked the "boys" to help me out with some scenarios,and gave them a generic terrain map that they could work off-the results,so far, have been great.
Last night Brian put on an ancients game,based on Germanicus' German campaign............
This is Brian's scenario,using the generic map-Dave and I were the Germans,Paul and Graham were the Romans.
Let battle commence!-Dave is attacking Paul's legion in the top photo,whilst I am attacking Graham's in the bottom photo-thrilling stuff!
Despite heavy losses from Roman pila,Dave is making good progress,and Paul is on the back foot-hurrah!!
On my flank,the Germans have made contact,and Graham's dice throwing was just a bit better than Paul's,and the fight swayed back and forth-the Roman lines are nothing short of magnificent!!
In the top photo,I have broken both of Graham's flanks,and in the bottom photo Dave is making "in-roads" against Paul-this is when Dave's reserves made their appearance!!-Paul was too weak to resist this new threat,and made plans to retire(it's good being retired!) his legion,marking the end of this stunning game-well done Brian!
One last shot showing Graham's legion,holding its line,but under pressure from my warbands.
Now on to Paul's exciting and colourful 7YW battle which he put on last week,again using the generic terrain.
This is Paul's scenario,Brian and I were the Prussians,Dave and Graham were the Austrians and Russians respectively.
Handing me some notes,Paul led me to believe that I was to expect an attack!-I made my battle plan accordingly,ie to defend in depth,letting Brian defend the far flank-wrong!!! the sneaky swine introduced another bridge over the stream,giving Dave access to Brian's flank with the whole of the known world!!! Graham also had orders not to attack until the original bridge position was taken,so we both sat most of the game watching each other,and the magnificent battle between Dave and Brian!
Dave commenced the battle,using "grand battery" tactics to unsettle Brian's cavalry,both sides moving to their positions,and looking good-what could possibly go wrong?
Meanwhile,Graham and I look on,and have the occasional shot at each other-ho hum!!
Because Brian had moved forward,I couldn't send him any reinforcements-any way he wouldn't need them would he????
Things are hotting up now-Dave has thousands of more troops than Brian,who must have felt that he had been "hung out to dry"-inexplicably he marched a regiment in front of his gun battery,thus preventing them from firing!!-on the far left of this shot,he has launched a "suicide" charge against Dave's massed guns-oh dear!!!-things look bleak(understatement of the year!)
One last shot of the whole table-my troops virtually untouched,and Brian's shot to s..t!!
The game looked spectacular,well done Paul.
The next game is being staged by Graham,next Sunday,and will be a Napoleonic,hopefully the high standard will be maintained.
Because I have been extremely busy this week (new front door, porch,cladding,fixing and shelf building!!) my painting of my new Warrior Miniatures Mongol army has had to take second place,but now that most DIY jobs are finished,I am able to get on with the important things in life ie. wargaming things!!!
These are the five units I've finished so far,4 cavalry and one infantry unit-the colours are conjectural as I've considered two different sources,and,of course, they differ!!-one source says "drab" another source says "bonny!",so I went for a combination,taking into account that they would have access to Persian and Chinese fabrics!
A close-up of the mounted archers,classed as "light" cavalry,with two units of lance -armed cavalry,classed as "heavy",I have two more units of "heavy" types ready to paint,but will need at least another 50 more "light" types......................
This shows the two "heavy" types about to be painted,and then it's onto the Infantry,made up of Chinese and Korean auxiliaries.
They shouldn't take too long-there's only 80 of them!!!
Then I will have to order some Polish,Russian and Lithuanian knights,plus some Teutonics,to fight them!!-will it ever end????
John Holt of Warrior Miniatures sent me some samples,and I have very quickly(does this sound like an excuse for bad painting?) painted them to see what they will look like.................
The red figure is a Polish knight with a winged helm,and the other is a Teutonic knight-they will look impressive "en masse" (I hope!!)
Roll on Sunday-Brian is organising the game,and I will report on this as well as Paul's game which we played last Sunday.
I've come to the conclusion that John Holt of Warrior Miniatures(Glasgow) is a complete Swine!-WHY??? is it because the 200 piece Mongol army that I only ordered on Friday,came this morning?-NO!!! it's because he included in the order some samples of his new range,called Sons of the Sands,and I now want them too!!!-the Swine!!!
The complete list-awsome!
The samples-cleanly cast,good animation,and a good range.
Close-ups of the samples-John will usually do a good deal on his figures,if you give him a ring,good luck to him and this range,but I'll paint my Mongols first!!
We fought the Battle of Minden last night,using my 40mm figures,and what a game it turned out to be!
Top photo is the scenario,bottom is the table before any movement-Paul and Graham were the French commanders,whilst Dave and I were the Allied commanders,and Brian sat this one out and acted as referee.
Graham opened proceedings by attacking the village on my left flank,with cavalry(!!) and infantry-my troops, and a couple of blasts of cannister,put an end to the first attack-hurrah!!
On the other flank,Paul was more subtle,and poured artillery fire into the village held by the British,under Dave,before venturing in to volley fire and melee-great stuff!
Seeing Graham's infantry "wavering",I launched my German cavalry,to be met by the French cavalry-this was to prove a crucial encounter!
Dave has ordered his cavalry to engage the French cavalry,and forward they go!!-however,Paul had ordered his cavalry to abandon their central position and move off to his left,consequently,Dave had to follow!!!
Paul's attack on the village was furious and unrelenting,putting Dave under all kinds of pressure,but he was a match for anything that the French could put up against him!!
The British cavalry look to be in a bit of disarray in this shot,but Dave assured me he knew what he was doing!!-with attacks on gun batteries and volley fire,combined with cavalry melees,this was wonderful wargaming,and knife-edge stuff!!
An uneven cavalry melee is taking place behind my left flank village,which I lost,but was able to reinforce and eventually drive Graham's cavalry back-another hurrah!!
Over to the right of this shot,Dave is advancing his British infantry,so I advanced my Germans,to form a beautiful line-only for Graham to destroy one of my regiments with gun fire,leaving a nasty hole in the beautiful line!!!-could we recover??
Of course we could!!-this flank was now stable,and it was up to Dave to drive the French out of his village and defeat Paul's cavalry-simple task!!
This is a general view of the battle field at about move number 12!-the referee looks too relaxed for my liking!
Paul's dream of victory turned into a nightmare,as he put his brigadier into the village to increase the morale of the French troops,and got him killed!!! his whole brigade then took off back to Paris,leaving the village and flank firmly in British hands,and an Allied victory assured!
This was good game,colourful and exciting to say the least-well done lads.
Roll on next Sunday-Paul is organising the game,probably another 7YW battle,but using our 25mm figures.
"As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean" so the Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner goes,and in an idle moment(there's lots of those when you're retired!) I decided to re-visit some ancient old ships I acquired about a million years ago,and try to write some easy and fast rules for them.
I already have two sets of rules for Napoleonic ships,but they are not "user-friendly" and,to me, are far too complicated for a relaxing and fun night's wargaming.
This is one of my ships,made of metal with a few bits of thread added,and a quick paint job.
As most of you will know I am a complete "skinflint" with an eye for a bargain,and when I tell you that it is a "pencil sharpener" you shouldn't be surprised!!
Just to prove it,there's the hole for the pencil!!-I bought these about twenty years ago from a guy in Durham market,who couldn't believe why I wanted twelve of them and for what purpose!!
Ah,domestic bliss-the wife's doing some housework,and I'm "fannying about" with toys.
This a photo of all the ships I have,which cost me under a pound each-well,I'm not made of money!!-I saw, at Vapnartak, on Sunday a beautifully painted and boxed sailing ship for £12 at roughly the same scale!!
The rules in "early" stages-the ship profiles are covered with a plastic envelope,and can be written upon with a felt tip pen(not "permanent" marker!) and therefore wiped off for casualties etc.-a record of the number of Guns,Crew,Masts are written on the sheets,and any other information needed can be written on the sides-simple and effective,what could possibly go wrong?-Turning into the wind,that's what!!!
Who on earth can wrap their minds around this??-Actually,once you've cracked it,it's quite simple!(Hmm,right!!) a protractor and a careful eye as to where the side of the table is,is all that is required.
Two shots of the "fleets" being put through their paces-my early thoughts about shooting at the masts of the enemy,proved too effective,so it's back to the drawing board for that bit of my rules,but,I am assured that play-testing and play-testing and play-testing again is the secret,so I'll persevere until it feels right!
One of my two Spanish ships,coupled with 4 French,and against them 6 British ships.
Any comments?
As I mentioned in the last blog(Vapnartak) I bought an Anglo-Saxon church at the bring and buy sale-when I first saw, and handled the Church,I thought it was resin,although a bit heavy!
However it turned out to be a glazed pottery item,which,because of the glaze, turned out to be a bit of a bugger to undercoat!!!
This is how it looked after I had cleaned off the paint,with soapy water-very shiny,and a sort of dirty brown colour.
Under-coated at last!-two coats wouldn't cover it,so I turned to the old favourite-PVA glue and water-worked a treat!!
Initial dark grey colour on the main building,the roof was always going to be a problem,as the tiles on the facing side weren't very well defined,but in my world,there are no such things as problems-only solutions!!
I plumbed for a light grey roof,with the intention of dry-brushing it white and brown and finishing with a black wash(neither of these two skills are very high on my CV!!!)
I have painted the Gravestones light grey,and the whole area around the Church with a light green-it's now beginning to take shape.
I have "flocked" the grassy areas,to give it a bit of depth,so now onto the hard bit(as far as I am concerned-dry-brushing and washing!!)
I dry-brushed the church with a light brown first,followed by white,and finally touched up where necessary with the original grey...............................
The finished article!-although not 25mm scale,I'm sure it will do for the Vikings,Saxons and Normans to fight over!!
Consecrated by a Bishop-can't be bad!!!
I'm quite pleased with my attempts,but I won't go looking for more buildings to paint in the near future!!!
An early start from Newcastle,saw Dave,Paul and I arrive at the York Racecourse about 20 minutes before the doors opened.Standing in the queue we were greeted by some stewards who issued free tickets to the over 60's and took payment for the "young'uns"-a very efficient system,that proved its worth when it was time to go in-I had the company of Charles S Grant whilst waiting in the cold,and a lively chat about all things wargaming ensued-we'll see him at Falkirk!
The queue!-once inside it was apparent to me that the "foot-fall" was considerably less than last year,but it picked up during the day.
There was a good spectrum of traders,who all seemed to be doing a fast and furious trade,combined with the Cafe,which was always busy.
The demo games were,I feel, a little disappointing-two games in particular were very much the same type of theme as last year.I approached one table(you know the one,with lots of buildings,a ship and harbour,and a few figures,and asked the guy standing there which battle it was-he turned his bloody back to me,and muttered something that sounded like "Inverlochy"(?)-some things never change!
This photo was taken about fifteen minutes after the doors opened,and shows the space,and lack of people-this was to change in about half and hour or so!
All the traders I talked to were helpful and enthusiastic,although the general consensus seemed to be that 75 to 80 % of their trade was now done on the internet,and that shows were mainly a chance to meet their customers and chat about new products.
Things are starting to liven up a bit in this shot-I did want to take a photo of the "Bring and Buy" section,but it was chaotic!!-to say the least-perhaps the organisers could look at this aspect of the show,and give it more space-you had to queue to get in,shuffle around with a million other people,and shuffle out again-not good!
Dave and Paul buying a WW2 desert trench system.
This is our mate,Chris,who is coming up to Falkirk with us in May-he lives in Leeds,and his club were playing a Demo game of SAGA using bronze Age figures-this was on the second floor,where most of the smaller games were-I promised not to mention the fact that Chris thought Falkirk was on the West coast of Scotland,so I won't!
Dave and Paul,buying me a cup of coffee,just before we left-you can see that the crowds have "thinned" and seats were available in the cafe.
All in all,I thoroughly enjoyed the day,spoke to some old friends and new faces,and spent a bit of money too!
My favourite purchase was actually in the Bring and Buy,and was an item I have been looking for-an Anglo-Saxon Church.The church was dirty and dusty,and not very well painted,so I put it in dish of warm,soapy water when I got home,and all the paint "fell" off leaving a glazed pottery item,which I think is great,and will look forward to painting.
Roll on next year,but in-between then and May we have Falkirk to plan,busy,busy,busy!!
Next game will be Minden on Sunday.
