December 2023 Report

Wow! Another year draws to a close and I’ve no idea what happened to it 😃 Not surprisingly December was a lean month for gaming but none the less we got some decent sessions in before closing for Christmas.

First up was an ‘Arthurian’ battle using our home grown rules. On this occasion we had Jutes attempting to breach one of the defensive dykes held by scratch force of Britons desperately hoping the Comes Britaanniae would arrive in time.

Early moves saw the Jutes gain a toehold at the foot of the dyke and try and shoot the defenders from the wall while scrambling up.

Thankfully Arturios arrived but would he be able to save the day?

Undeterred by some fancy git on a horse the Jutes pressed on and breached the dyke in two places, clambering over and taking on the Milites beyond the dyke which generally went badly for the Britons.

Artorius and his cavalry threw themselves on the Jutes outside the dyke in a desperate attempt to drive off the invaders but they were just not enough and their supporting infantry were some way behind.

The deciding factor was when the mercenary Franks forced the gate, cutting down the defending Britons, now they could man the dyke and defy the relief force, who despite some victories over those Jutes who had turned to fight, could not regain the lost lands.

Next up was an Italian Wars game, Florentine v Venetian, again using our own rules.

The terrain was fairly open, bisected by roads and with two hamlets to break up line of sight and provide cover/distraction.

Both sides suffered from command & control problems and so launched piecemeal attacks which saw mini battles within the overall battle.

The Florentines became particularly fixated on one of the hamlets and ultimately committed five bodies of crossbow infantry to it’s capture and retention in the face of Venetian indifference 🤣

The Venetians were much more interested in using their better cavalry to duff up their Florentine opposite numbers, which they duly did.

Where the Florentines did manage to gain some traction in the centre the Romagnol pike stepped into the breach and restored order, game set and match to the Venetians.

Our final game was a return to the Pacific with Victory at sea, this time with some islands to break up the open water, some different ships and both sides having specific objectives; the Japanese to get their transport convoy to the islands and the US to sink the transports.

With the addition of an objective the game was a lot more tactical – as much as our incompetence allowed 🤣 and just banging away with guns and launching torpedoes wasn’t necessarily the answer.

The Japanese were the first to lose a capital ship when the US Idaho pounded the Amagi to pieces in one turn of firing – three successful critical hits sank the Anagi with all hands 😢

For most of the game the Japanese were on the back foot, desperately trying to manoeuvre long enough for the very slow transports to reach the islands.

The Japanese did have some success, crippling the Chicago and Indianapolis with torpedoes when the player finally realised how best to use them 🙄

Ultimately however the plucky transports didn’t make it – seen here just before they were blasted out of the water by concentrated gunfire.

As a game system it does take a little bit of getting used to and I certainly haven’t got anywhere near understanding it properly but it does provide a somewhat different take on gaming to what we’re used to which is a good thing.

That’s it from a playing point of view the rest of the month has been starting the clearing of stuff that just doesn’t get used and never will, first up dozens of sets of rules and some terrain items. This is going to be a long haul into the New Year but it’s got to be done.