First out of the gate was a return to our occasional modern day Syrian/Lebanon skirmish campaign. This time the Overwatch team has been sent to rescue a captured diplomat from an oil rich country that keeps interfering in the region who is being held for ransom.
The game played well (Spectre V2) with one half of the team taking up roof top positions for fire support while the second team breached the compound.
All went well in the early turns with insurgents dropping to targeted fire.
Fighting intensified once the operators were inside the compound and the fire support operators ran out of targets. Things got messy, operators died and the insurgents bundled the hostage out of the main building.
Insurgents (or what was left of them!) roared out of the compound to disappear into the anonymity of the town. Looks like we’ve got another scenario ahead of us 😁
Next up, Successors, this time Seleucids v Ptolemaics.
The usual see saw battle which favoured the Seleucid cavalry on both flanks especially when one of the Ptolemaic Commanders bit the dust.
The main event in the centre, the big pike bash, was tense with both sides losing battalions but the real killer was the death of the Ptolemaic General which sealed the game for the Seleucids.
Next on the table was our first proper game of Cold War Commander with the fledgling 10mm Iran Iraq collection – must do a post about this journey 😀
What did we learn? Well, Iranian Chieftains outrange and blow serious holes in Iraqi T54/55’s 🤣 Think we need to read up the smoke rules!
Comedy moment aside, we liked the rules and more models will be hitting the table top in due course while I get to grips with the nuances of play.
May 21st was of course Partizan which we’ve already blogged about, suffice to say an enjoyable but tiring day was had by the team.
Back on home turf we eased ourselves into our occasional western gunfight campaign set in fictitious Dardenell County where Mexican bandidos had their stage coach robbing day spoilt by bounty hunters.
A nice little evenings game using old school rules, no “friction” for us 😂
Next was the 100 Years War away day game with Gareth. I remain unconvinced by Hail Caesar but we had a splendid day and a result was most definitely recorded.
Modesty prevents me from saying who won but…..
Our final game was a ‘big battle’ Carlist War bash featuring the full team plus new addition Gerard who we met at Partizan.
Basic scenario was an inferior (in numbers and quality) Carlist force hold an important crossroads from which the Liberals must oust them.
The opening rounds were all about the cavalry as the Liberal infantry mass lumbered forward. The left wing Liberal cavalry were weakened by some cleverly sited Carlist skirmishers and artillery and then destroyed by the charge of the small Carlist cavalry reserve, led by their General. The right wing Liberal cavalry was just the British Legion lancers who valiantly charged forward but were obliterated by opposing infantry fire.
The infantry action took a while to take place but it was violent and bloody when it got going. On the right centre of the Carlist line the protective cover of the walls allowed the poorer quality line to withstand the opening volleys of the attacking Guards and inflict back heavy casualties in return. When it came to crossing bayonets the first line of the Carlists gave way but the untouched second line were able to send the weakened Guards retreating back across the field – oh what a glorious sight 😄
The Carlists on the left centre didn’t have such a glorious day of it as they battled it out with the British Legion but by the end of the day the the Legion’s morale had collapsed enough for them to retreat leaving behind some very battered Carlists.
We hadn’t played this period for well over a year so it was good to get the collection out again and relearn our own rules 😂🤣 Much fun was had in an all day of intense gaming.
Away from the actual gaming progress has been made on basing up some more future wars figures which will bring this background project to a close soon.
The main progress however has been on the 10mm Iran Iraq project which is coming along nicely and has actually been enjoyable to do.
So that’s it for this month, off to GamesExpo in a couple of days so I’ll share a post about that in a week or so.
Westbury Wargamers 