I wanted to put this game on at "Carronade" but was persuaded not to by the rest of the club! so after a long wait,I eventually set the table up,issued the Scenario and orders/objectives to the lads,and we played the game last night.
The Scenario-I can't say much more!!
These are the orders/objectives issued to myself and Graham as Scots commanders and Paul and Brian as Russian commanders.
Our "Rules" knocked up by me(who doesn't know a thing about modern warfare!) ranges etc are in our "measuring sticks" which are 300mm long.
This is the map we all worked off,when planning our tactics-the table cloth was our white-out sheet-very atmospheric!
The first,and last(!!) shot of Graham's command tank,peering through the gloom,trying to spot the Russian column-a cute shot from one of Brian's tanks knocked him out on the first shot!!-oh dear not again!!!!
This is how the table looked before any movement(and before Graham's demise!)
As Graham's tank burns nicely,the boys from "Yellow" company gather around to warm their hands,not realising that they now have no support!!
Paul has sent his "chopper"(no jokes please!) to spray my infantry company with "gatling" and rocket fire,I replied with a "Blowpipe" shot which missed and I think,exploded somewhere over Aberdeen!!-things were hotting up,but Graham and I stuck to our plan of holding a defensive line,whilst Paul and Brian stuck to their plan of Attacking!!!!!
Ominously,the Russian tanks roll forward(complete with hand made flags!),can the brave Tartan Army stop them?
In this shot,Paul has just "downed" my Helicopter with a lucky "blowpipe" shot and is sending a company of infantry complete with mortar crew against my Blue company sheltering in the field on the left flank-will Graham send me some support?
The "downed" helicopter and "broken" crew-still,they inflicted a bit of damage to one of the Russian Tanks-hurrah!!!
As Brian and Paul discuss how the battle is going,one of the Russian tanks has rolled onto one of my Pre-set Mine fields(that's the one in the foreground,beside the building) and has lost a track,and is therefore immobilised-hurrah!! Graham,at this stage is losing tanks through Brian's wonderful(lucky) shooting,and the Russian are creeping ever closer to the bridge.
BOOM!! as the Russian tank hits the minefield-one less to worry about!!
Two Russian infantry squads are trying to overwhelm my right flank-however they are just about to hit the other pre-set minefield as they advance!
My right flank is being overwhelmed by weight of numbers(even the minefield couldn't stop Paul's determined attack)-things are not looking good for the Tartan Army-time for the American Air Force(please,no Blue on Blue!!) to make its appearance!!
Even with the bombing run of the Americans and Graham's stout defence of the bridge and sending support to my left flank,we were doomed-look how close that Russian tank is to the bridge and their objective!!
It's all over!!-objective achieved by Russian forces,time for the Tartan Army to retire to Edinburgh,and try again!!
This was a fun game,enjoyed by us all,no offence was intended to our Scottish or Russian readers,and I'm sure no offence will be taken!
Roll on Thursday,son should be out of hospital by then,and we can have another game-probably Ancients,but who knows????
Being a P.O.P.(poor old pensioner) and notoriously mean,I decided to make my own Saxon huts for the Vikings or Normans to burn,when we eventually get our armies on the board.
In all fairness,I did price some Saxon huts from "Hovels", but at £10 a shot decided that I couldn't live on bread and water for the next month,hence the decision to go D.I.Y.
The top photo shows the careful drawing on black card of the plan of the huts,100mm long by 50mm high and 65mm at the gables-the corrugated cardboard is for the roofs,being 100mm by 120mm(allowing for overhangs)
The huts have been scored and assembled,using a piece of white sticky label to reinforce and hold together the ends....................
Sticky label in place-clever stuff!!!
Pop the roofs on,and they are now taking shape.The thatch on the roofs was going to be a problem,but I remembered that Charlie Wesencraft had made some similar huts and used "Teddy Bear" fur fabric for his thatching,so off I went to a fabric shop,and for a price of £4.50 bought enough of the damned stuff to,well, make a teddy bear!!! as well as thatching my huts.
In the best "Blue Peter" tradition,here's a hut I made previously,sitting on Teddy Bear fur fabric-one word of warning,if you're thinking of using this stuff,make sure (unlike me!) that your little wife hasn't "hoovered" the place,because it gets everywhere!!!!-aren't woman funny?-no sense of humour when bits of fur finds itself in food,cups of tea,on carpets,and in drawers!!! not to mention clinging to clothes like a demented Koala Bear!!!!
This shot shows the fur laid onto the roofs to see that the size is okay,and not too big-it is easily trimmed(but this is where the process gets messy and bits of fur keep floating around the house for ever!!!)
The fur has been stuck onto the roof ,using "copydex"(which is also very messy and tends to stick everything it touches including table tops,TV Times and mobile phone covers-well she shouldn't leave these things lying about the place!) and apart from trimming,the job is complete.
The Wife(ever critical,but fair!) pointed out that the huts had no doors or windows!-even my explanation that the hut deliberately didn't have either of these things,and that's why they called it the Dark ages(!!!) because it was always dark inside their huts,didn't seem to work,so I cut doors and windows from black card and stuck them on,giving the final item-Saxon huts D.I.Y.
I have made 4 huts which should be enough to represent a village,and no doubt they will figure in most of our Dark Ages games.
Due to my son being rushed into hospital on Sunday,we didn't have a game,and it looks like Thursday will be out too-he'll probably still be in hospital for a week yet with a collapsed lung,which just keeps on collapsing!!
I have been painting the first 100 figures of my Saxon army(Warrior Miniatures) at a fair old rate,16 figures at a time(each unit will be 16 figs,and so far I have 6 units finished)
A box from Warrior arrives,c/w back copies of the Glasgow Herald(?)-very well wrapped up!
The "Goodies" revealed,wrapped in bubble-wrap for extra protection!
With some "extra bits" in the form of axes and swords,for variation.
After painting this lot,it was down to applying the "flock" for the bases.............
I find this a rather tedious task,and always manage to get paint(used to stick the flock onto the bases) on the figures!!!!
The finished "half" army-only another 100 to go,then I can start on the Vikings!!
As it happens,I "dug out" some Prince August moulds that I had forgotten about,of Dark Ages/Viking figures,and found that they were a perfect match for Warrior figures,being "true" 25mm,so I cast and painted some to see how they would come out..................
I may have gone O.T.T. with the "ginger" hair but I think some of these might just make their way into a few units,to supplement the Warrior figures,there's always a "project" going on in my mind!!-like Dark ages houses which I'm also working on,then there's the Viking ships-but that's another story!!
Before the blog,a history lesson-the Suebii were a ferocious,fearless,barbarian tribe from the depths of Germany;everyone feared them,they scorned death,and the only thing that worried them" was if the sky were to fall on their heads".Well,that was before the Dreaded Brian the Terrible took command of them!!-read on.........................................
The scenario,and map-Brian(the Terrible!) was in command of the Germans(proud and fearless warriors) I commanded the Northern Tribes(Dacians) and Paul was the split personalities of Antipater and Lysimachus!!!!
The table before any movement-it looked spectacular,although the first barrier(note the word,FIRST!) to the Germans seems to be an enormous clipboard!
The Germans(commanded by Brian the Terrible) start to cross the stream on their out-flanking mission-Brian's orders/objective were to cross the stream and out-flank the Successors-a simple enough task for a fearless,Barbarian horde,surely(?)
In the face of light opposition,the brave and fearless German warriors stopped at the water's edge,and I could swear I heard one of them screech in alarm,in a "girly" voice "ooh,I'm not crossing that stream it's got nasty tadpoles swimming in it!!"-SECOND barrier!!!!
Meanwhile,on my left flank,my cavalry and Paul's clash into one another-this swung back and forth for most of the battle,with units of infantry being fed in to bolster when necessary!
Paul was feeling "Gung Ho"(a gorgeous little Chinese lady of easy virtue!!) and decided that he would abandon his ridge and cross the valley to attack my Tribesmen-he would be at a great advantage in the first round of melee with his Pike-armed Phalanx!!
My right flank was waiting for the Germans(fearlessly led by Brian the Terrible) to attack across the stream before they advanced-they were in for a long wait!!
The German warbands are queuing up to cross the stream in this shot,but a "girly" screech went up saying "ooh look a nasty frog!! we can't possibly cross the stream until goes away!!" and so the warbands looked on as I took on the whole of the known world!!!-THIRD barrier.
In the centre I am fighting for my life,as Paul's Phalanx is "chewing" me up,but on the far left I am making headway,and it looks like I could out-flank Paul,and win the game-if only he doesn't reinforce that flank(!!!!)
What's this? a German warband is across the stream!!(apparently they were chasing a Kingfisher bird to get its feathers for decorating their hair!!) However they have hit the FORTH barrier in the way of an Elephant!!-no need to worry though,after two rounds of melee,the Elephant went on a rampage,unfortunately,towards my lines-bloody hell!!!!-surely Brian the Terrible will reinforce the winning warband and start to amass his Germans on the Successor side of the stream and win the game(!?)
Oh hell,three tons of uncontrollable flesh coming at me at a rate of knots(sounds like my wedding night!!)-this of course upset my cavalry who had to flee out of the way,opening up my right flank-woe is me!
Paul's phalanx is pushing my tribesmen back into the woods,and all is lost in the centre!On the left Paul has reinforced the cavalry melee and is also driving me back-all depends on the ferocious and fearless Germans led by Brian the Terrible,no more barriers please!!
FIFTH barrier-sticklebacks!!!
SIXTH barrier-slimy mud!!
All is lost,time to change sides! Brian had the audacity to ask for a draw-I offered him "water wings" to get his troops across the stream!!
This was by any standards a great game,full of laughs,hard fighting and it looked good,apart from a win,what more could you want from a wargame?
Roll on Sunday,don't know what type of game yet.
We get very "used" to putting on rather large and spectacular-looking games at our small club(it's just because I have the time to spend on the games!) but last night's game,involving Paul's Austrian army and my Prussians and Russians,combined with Brian's Hanoverians was up there with the best.
This game has literally been planned for months,but we haven't been able to get it sorted until last night! I changed one or two things about the terrain and troop dispositions,but the main theme was kept.Brian was Russian commander,Paul was Austrian commander,whilst Graham and I took combined command of the Prussians and Hanoverians.
A happy Paul is surveying his troops-he had to start the game in column of march,along with Brian's Russians .
Graham and Brian in deep discussion-Brian's "marooned" troops were a bit of a concern to him,especially as he had limited ammunition for his gun batteries(as it happened this didn't really matter,as he lost one battery early on in the game,and he had thrown a high dice to determine the number of shots he had with his other gun!!)
Graham had decided to march all of his Hanoverians and two units of Dragoons across the bridge to attack Brian's small,but beautifully formed, force-he was later to regret this move-talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut!!!!
Graham's Dragoons have charged one of Brian's batteries,and,despite being cannistered and losing an officer,he bravely put his Brigadier in charge and completed the charge,destroying the battery-hurrah!!!
Brian has been behaving very strangely lately,I hope he doesn't start standing with his hand on his hip..................
Oh my God,he's turned!!!! stop it Brian,stop it!!
The Russian Dragoons have counter-attacked and Graham is in trouble-a fire-fight has broken out on the far flank,and the Hanoverians are not doing well-still Graham's got enough troops over there to finish the Russians off-hasn't he?
Meanwhile on my flank and centre,both Paul and I have moved forward and a furious fire-fight is in progress.Paul has moved an Austrian battery onto my flank and is giving me hell!!
In this shot I am moving a brigade through the field to try and out-flank Paul's Austrians,however Paul is too good a wargamer to allow this to happen,and countered this move with a brigade of his own-the swine!!!
Paul "retired"(it's good being retired!) some cavalry in the centre of his line,which caused a gap to appear between his Austrian troops and Brian's Russian troops,and, sensing victory,I ordered my Cuirassiers forward into the gap,hoping to win the game in one fell swoop(fool!!)
A general shot of the table-movement and firing and melees going on along the length and breadth-great stuff!!
As my heavy cavalry crested the ridge,they were subjected to a flank fire from Brian's Russians who had been ordered forward to fill the gap left by Paul's retiring(it's good being retired) cavalry-this caused them to take morale,they failed,and back they came!!
On my left,my infantry are being shot to pieces-despite being given an extra one onto their initial dice throw for firing,and are being slowly driven back!-this is not looking good,but Graham,with all of his troops,will surely win his flank(?)
No!!! working on a narrow frontage,the Hanoverians couldn't get all of their fire power into play,and being matched one against one,with Brian throwing the better dice,they were getting beaten.
A mass cavalry brawl was taking place on the left of the river,and once again the Hanoverian cavalry were not doing terribly well!!(ie were getting "hammered!!)
With my flank in tatters and the centre looking like it would have to form a defensive line against the cavalry,and Graham's attempted attack across the river failing,we had to admit defeat,and hand the victor's laurels to Brian and Paul-well done lads,we all played well and enjoyed the spectacle.
Roll on Thursday-don't know what we'll be putting on yet.
