I’m a day back from this show and I still don’t quite know what to think.
To put my attendance into context, I had a reason to be there – picking up and dropping off painted figures, the venue is a little over an hour away from home and I had nothing else planned for that Saturday. I’m not a competition player but I read the website info’ and thought “well this doesn’t sound too bad”.
Things didn’t start well. Nottingham is like so many British cities that have in recent years been converted into one sprawling campus, with faculty buildings blocking line of site and an impenetrable one way traffic system which make access a bit of a trial. This was not helped by the website advised parking site, ‘Q Park on Talbot Street’ not actually being on Talbot Street but on a side road off said street but when you are relying on a sat nav, once you have arrived at and gone along the street you are into the one way system circling the city as you reprogram the sat nav and start again. It took me nearly an hour and that was pure luck because it just isn’t signposted. Once out I then had to ask directions because the car park has two exits and there are no signs to the university. My car park fiasco was rounded off when I left, £10+ and that was with a 45% off voucher from the university 😮
The venue itself is great. Like a lot of modern university buildings it is big on glass and height so inside is very light and airy. Facilities included a very well priced coffee bar, a proper bar and a cafeteria, absolutely no complaints there. Internally it is a bit of a rabbit warren and that may account for me missing some things although I think the organisers need to do some work on this, a printed floor plan would have been very useful. I have no interest in the rugby club style performances of the TFL crowd but there was one game I fancied taking a look at but just couldn’t see any signage indicating where it was. There was signage to a ‘Bring & Buy’ but that wasn’t advertised on the website so I didn’t bring anything to sell, perhaps it was just one of those, ‘if you know, you know’ things.
The show is primarily a two day competition fest and that was in full swing when I arrived and unusually, quite interesting to watch. Full marks to the organisers for getting that number of rule sets and players smoothly operating in one space and on some pretty fancy terrain. I don’t want to do it but the games seemed to be being played in a friendly competitive spirit and hats off to all those taking part.
In terms of the trade it seemed, well a bit thin. Now that could have been due to the size of the area allocated or traders having to spread their presence according to the potential returns in these more trying economic times. Certainly a number of bigger names such as, Warlord, Dave Thomas, West Wind, TAG and Sarissa were there along with a number of second tier traders, some I knew and some I didn’t; Mark at M & C Painting deserves a special mention for his dedication to not just selling his extensive range of paints and basing materials but also being every ready with advice and tips on the use of the products. I’m not sure how well any of the trade did over the weekend but there never seemed to be much of a customer presence throughout the day.
Reflecting on the day I’m still not sure whether I’ll go again. The car park fiasco, well lesson learnt. The venue, absolutely fine, the organisers just need to do a better job on the internal signage/maps or I need better glasses. If you are just a punter turning up for a browse then I think you need to consider carefully how far you are travelling and what you are after because as best as I could tell there were no demo games or participation games to distract, unless of course I simply missed them.
Well that’s it. A parsons egg as they say but for others maybe a perfect day out.
Summer is here at last and as a homage to the weather we kicked off with another rules adventure in the El Cid project, this time using ‘On Bloody Ground’
Frankly this wasn’t a good experience. Full marks to the writers for bringing out something ‘period specific’ but the rules were not enjoyable and after 3 turns we gave up in frustration. Back to the drawing board ☹
Next up was our tried and tested Cold War Commander rules, a set we do understand (nearly) and enjoy. This time an encounter battle amid the arid landscape of the Iran Iraq border.
This was a fast and furious brutal game with the Iraqi T62’s & T72’s taking a battering from the small number of Iranian Chieftains. The question of how to stop the Chieftains still eludes us.
Even the air support couldn’t save the the Iraqi’s but they do look good on the table 😁
With too many tanks burning bright the Iraqi’s failed their Breakpoint test and retired from the field. An excellent day’s gaming.
Our next foray was our tried and trusted eastern renaissance collection from which we pitched Swedes against Poles.
The Swedes deployed with a strong infantry centre of the Scots brigade plus support and cavalry on the wings, the Poles deployed with the hussars to the front and just went “yeahah!”
We had some fine cavalry actions where the Swedes did fairly well against the Pancerni and the Finns beat up the opposing German horse quite nicely while the entrenched guns and massed musket fire took some hussars out of their saddles.
We even had the hussars mixing it with the Scots who gave ground but didn’t give up!
The mad hussars even attacked the entrenched guns – the gobsmacked gunners couldn’t believe it and promptly fled 😅
Ultimately the Swedes held on and a very battered Polish army withdrew. Great game, but I did have a headache by the end from umpiring and playing.
The next effort was an away day game of gangster skirmish using a 30 year old set of rules a former gaming colleague wrote. One gang launches a sneak attack on the out of town home of another gang boss.
We rolled some dice and we had some fun.
Next up was a refight of Sedgemoor 1685 which one of the guys has been extensively researching and felt confident enough to game. I love a refight and wished we did more but this is one of those battles where there is only one outcome and that is the historical one 😀
So yes Monmouth’s cavalry did miss the bridge and rode all the way up the river taking fire as they went and yes the royal infantry made a mess of the rebels once they had stood to and lined the river bank. But it was a really enjoyable game and the rules (another club’s home grown set) played well.
Next we took to the Pacific in another game of Victory at Sea.
This time players got to choose their fleets from a preconstructed list up to a certain points value and we diced for a scenario from the rules book. The Japanese opted for a smaller fleet centred around the mighty Yamato, the Americans a more numerous fleet which they split into two task forces. Both sides opted for an off table aircraft carrier.
The fire from the mighty Yamato and the superior Japanese torpedoes tilted the game strongly in favour of them and at one point the US player despaired of achieving any kind of victory but, just like the real war, it was the aircraft that decided the day. Wave after wave of US dive bombers and torpedo bombers attacked the Yamato and eventually crippled it forcing it to limp away.
When the specified turn total was up for the scenario the Americans found they had achieved a major victory, but it went right to the final turn. Great game.
Next we were in the sweat and heat of the Indian sub continent as we gave the Sikh Wars collection an airing. A simple scenario based on one of the actual battles, British attacking an entrenched Sikh force – this was going to be bloody.
The initial British advance was screened by jungle so they emerged disordered but not very far from the Sikh position – could they endure the shot and shell?
Tribal irregulars stiffened by French trained regulars.
The British closed on the entrenchments in two lines taking serious losses as they came, but still they came!
The British forced the entrenchments and carried the day but the losses amongst their first line were horrendous. Hard fought by all.
Our final game was another Iran Iraq encounter, this time the assault scenario from the rules with the Iranians defending a dominant hill and the Iraqi’s choosing their forces from a points list (by battalion) up to 50% more than the defenders.
The Iraqi’s had an early success when their flank march arrived at the first roll catching the Iranians on the hop. At the incredibly short range they ended up at the usual disadvantage of being outranged was nullified and the Iraqi’s blasted away!
In a couple of turns the Iranian M60 battalion was utterly destroyed – we all agreed we had never seen anything quite like it! Not only was it great fun for this particular Iraqi player but it also unhinged one flank of the Iranian position which would have consequences later.
In the centre the Iranian player had a battalion of Pasdaran hidden behind the hill but when the Iraqi scheduled artillery started dropping around them the only answer was to swarm forward and try and get close enough to use RPG’s on the opposition tanks and then assault – sadly (and historically) this went very badly wrong and the battalion was destroyed.
Iraqi T72’s advance on the hill.
The Iranian M48’s on the left flank did have a little success in holding off the Iraqi mechanised infantry and even managed to filter some of their own infantry onto the important hill.
But frankly they became like fish in a barrel and died bravely.
Despite their battering the Iranians were still clinging to the hill up until the last turn of the scenario but as that turn commenced they had no one on the hill and had to take a Breakpoint test which they failed, giving a minor victory to the Iraqi’s. Another great game which went right up to the wire.
A good months gaming which we can all feel good about. Not much done on the painting front due to tennis elbow, ouch! and I don’t even play tennis!! 😂🤣
A bit of a thin month, holidays and shift patterns rather curtailing our activities, but hey, there are plenty of people out there who dream of having idle time on their hands to indulge their hobbies 😟
Our first foray was the ever growing and ever popular 10mm Iran Iraq project. For this one we had an Iranian town seized by a heli borne Iraqi commando force and reinforcements on their way – all controlled by the Umpire. The players were commanders in the 37th Armoured brigade scrambling forces together to re-take the town so they were given a list of force & points values from which each could assemble his battlegroup to a capped points total – this was all CWC and each battlegroup was 2000 points.
The Iranians chose a tank battalion each (of course!) and then one added a mechanised infantry battalion and the other an armoured artillery battalion – M109’s. Both deployed on their table edge and we set too.
The game was fast and furious with the Iraqis throwing their reinforcements in as soon as they arrived which meant their mechanised infantry were taking on tanks!
In a game that featured SU22’s missing their target, Hinds brewing up tanks, BMP1’s being on the wrong side of a tank duel and an Iranian command element being eliminated – really, really lucky dice 🤣 we had an exciting see saw game that finally ended with the Iraqi command failing its break point roll and retiring from the table.
This went well and the idea of giving the players a limited roster to choose from gave them more of a sense of ownership, definitely going to try this idea again although of course I now need to paint more stuff to offer more choice 🤣
Our next outing was the equally popular Successors project, this time Royal Ptolemaic v Imperial Seleucid so scythed chariots, elephants, wild Galatians, Thracians, camels and of course pikes.
The armies were pre chosen and the terrain laid out – we actually had terrain! The Ptolemaic commander deployed all his foot on the left extending in an unbroken line up to the centre, his cavalry he split into two commands, one led by the army general in column on a road heading toward the Seleucid left via a ford with the intent of turning the Seleucid flank and the other, comprising the settler cavalry, deployed slightly back and facing forward which would join up with the infantry line as it advanced – none of this worked 😥 The Seleucids deployed more traditionally with the pikes in the centre flanked by the Thracians and Galatians and two cavalry commands on each far flank.
Early moves favoured the Ptolemaics, their advance to the ford went well, the infantry advance proceeded as planned. The Seleucids were caught on the hop a bit by the rush for the ford so had to redeploy their cavalry command to counter it but their other cavalry command sensed opportunity as the Ptolemaic infantry had no cavalry to protect the infantry line.
On the Seleucid right the commander launched his elephants and chariots into the attack dreaming of spoils and booty. However, just like history, the chariots were bloody useless 🤣 but they were certainly pretty and absolutely a pain in the arse when they crashed and created an obstacle. The elephants however fared better seeing off the opposing elephant and pinning one of the pike which effectively broke up the Ptolemaic line.
Back at the ford all kinds of fun was had as both sides threw troops into the fray “and the water ran red with the blood of the slain”. Eventually the Seleucids pushed the Ptolemaics back towards their camp but the victory would be decided elsewhere.
It was the centre infantry clash that decided the day. Despite being outnumbered in pikes the Seleucids gained a crushing victory; in part this was due to one of the Ptolemaic pike battalions getting distracted by elephants and in part due to the settler cavalry getting tangled up with the Thracians and so unable to help, but the real fun was the Galatians being able to charge just at the right moment onto already engaged pikes tumbling them into rout.
It really was a crushing Seleucid victory and a fine game.
Final effort was a WWII skirmish on our Dave Marshall cityscape which hasn’t seen the light of day for over a year.
American GI’s tasked with clearing the last vestiges of resistance from the next city on the way to Berlin.
Grenades were thrown, snipers open fire, lmg’s rattled from windows, resistance was tough.
Grit and determination saw the GI’s through and the allied advance continued.
The only painting completed was another battalion of Iranian infantry for the 10mm project – more choice for the next game 😉
A busy calendar this month, plenty of games and two shows – both reported on in earlier blogs, Partizan and GamesExpo, so without further ado….
First up was an away day set in 80’s Africa, Mercenaries v African state regulars using a set of home grown rules. All a bit Hollywood from a certain era (the 80’s!) and with plenty of decent modern rules sets around I was left thinking, why?
Next, the now regular appearance of the WWII Pacific fleets using Victory at Sea, this time we used the night fighting rules – interesting
Chief difference from the more normal daylight game was the need to be closer in to be able to shoot and radar became oh so important!
Next was our trial run of the Partizan demo, Gabene.
The game saw plenty of elephant on elephant action and both cavalry wings were fairly ineffective, unlike the history.
We did however get plenty of infantry action and gained some insights for amendments for the show which turned out right and gave us one of our best show games for quite some time. Time well spent 🙂
Next was a Sci Fi skirmish game using a slightly amended version of Black Ops.
The scenario worked well. Imperial troopers enter a desert outpost looking for something that is in fact a lure for a trap. Trap was duly sprung and all hell let loose 😁
The Imperials got what they came for (a droid containing secret plans – the old plots are the best 😄) and shot up an awful lot of revolutionaries but then had the disappointment of finding out it was useless. The revolutionaries completely failed their objectives.
This worked pretty well with the attendees and I might well run a continuing adventures game, a bit like the western gunfight games, in the future.
Following on from Partizan, Gerard bought along his TYW collection to trial ‘Tilly’s Very Bad Day’ and, spoiler alert, Tilly had a very, very bad day 😃
I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of the take where one big base represents a large formation, in this case an infantry brigade, and an assigned number representing ‘cohesion’ is gradually worn down.
Criticisms apart, we did get a lot of stuff on the table in a way that looked like those C17th woodcuts of the battles and played through to a definite conclusion in a reasonable amount of time in what was our first time with the rules proper.
General consensus was that with a little local finessing and understanding of some of the finer points of the rules we’ve got something with which to do the likes of Breitenfeld and Lutzen in a day. Result.
Next was our second game in the search for the Cid, or, what rules will work for the period?
At the moment we’re still trialling Swordpoint, which has it’s positive points but suffers, like so many sets, from the curse lowest common denominator whereby the rules are trying to cater for all within a very wide age range and we want to make it more unique.
As a game it played ok and a result of sorts was obtained. More work required.
Next was a big and beautiful game set Italy during the War of the Austrian Succession in which an Austro Piedmontese army defended a bridge over the River Po which the attacking GalloSpan army needed to capture in tact.
The attacking GalloSpan army was commanded by two players each with their commands, one French, one Spanish, separated by the central road leading to the bridge. The Spanish, on the right, had a single cavalry brigade out on the wing facing off to some Austrian dragoons, while their two infantry brigades, one of native Spanish and one of Walloon Guards & Irish faced off to the Piedmontese lining the walls opposite. The French, on the left had a dragoon brigade out on the wing facing a Piedmontese cavalry brigade and then two strong foot brigades also facing the stone walls.
The opening moves saw the infantry steadily march forward under fire from Austrian heavy guns over the river inflicting minor casualties and more significant casualties from two Austrian medium batteries protecting the entrance to the bridge. Fun fact; for reasons that were never explained the Walloon Guards marched straight down the road in column, between the rows of poplar trees, in the face of the guns! As it turned out it kind of worked, their superior morale kept them going, they moved faster on the road and once clear of the poplars were still able to deploy into line and give a decent volley. Who knew?!
On the French left their dragoons tried to clear their opponents away and turn the flank – there was also vague talk about seeing if the cavalry could swim the river but this came to nothing. Initially the French were successful which surprised everyone! but as regiments routed, rallied and returned to the fray on both sides the combat merely exhausted both sides and achieved nothing.
In the centre(s) the GalloSpans finally got into range and volleys all along the line rang out and both sides settled in to regimental firefights. Ultimately the Peidmontese started to give way and gaps appeared in their lines as individual battalions withdrew. The hero’s of the day were the Guards & Irish who led the way and took the most **** but overran the Austrian batteries and saw off the supporting infantry.
As the battle raged and started to come apart for the Piedmontese they tried to blow the bridge – the Piedmontese player had been allowed to place engineers on the bridge and upon being personally ordered to by the commander, roll to blow the bridge. The funny part of this to the observer was that, a) at no time did the GalloSpan players query what the guys on the bridge were and b) never asked why the Piedmontese player was making random die rolls and grimacing disappointedly 😂
With the powder for the bridge clearly wet and his brigades starting to falter the Piedmontese commander called it a day and retreated from the other side of the river with his reserves leaving the main army to it’s fate.
Final game was another away game this time an ACW affair, a refight of 1st Manassas using the Bloody Big Battles rules.
A strange set of rules these. Quite a idiosyncratic play sequence which took some getting used to but once we were in the flow then it zipped along fairly well.
I don’t think it had any real affinity with the ACW being more a generic C19th set of rules but that said we got a game more or less done and with a bit more time could have got a proper result.
And that was the month done. Not much got done on the painting side, too much time spent organising games and chasing up on exploding elephants ☹ Until the next time, play fair, play well.
This weekend saw my 6th year of attending GamesExpo at the NEC and it was as much fun as it always is. Expensive yes, very crowded, but still fun.
For those who are not aware this is a huge 3 day gaming extravaganza featuring all aspects of gaming over 3 halls at the NEC, Birmingham plus competitions and additional events in the on site hotel. By gaming I mean every aspect of the wider gaming world, so board games, collectable card games, hybrid games – part board game part figure game, kids games, family games, traditional D&D, other adventure games, sci fi figure skirmish games, fantasy skirmish games. Then there are all the supporting traders selling all the previously mentioned themes plus others selling items to support those themes – clutter, dice (lots of dice!), dice bags, dice trays, game mats, terrain pieces, terrain ground cover, outfits, swords. You name it and it’s available. This isn’t the 10,000 that Salute might achieve, this is 50,000 plus.
Just to be clear this isn’t a pure figure wargaming event so if your hobby interests stop at the little men in uniforms then read no further 😁 if however your interests are broader then maybe this might be the event for you.
I guess the main difference between our traditional wargames shows and this is the dozens of games on offer that you can just step into and play. These are not like our traditional convention participation games where the game is controlled by an umpire/club, these are fully developed games that the publishers are inviting you to play alongside, or overseen by, staff familiar with the game with the obvious hope of you being so impressed you’ll buy the game – there is nearly always a new Star Wars game (figures or cards), but also (and this is the really fun bit) are games which are first run prototypes of somebody’s brilliant idea that is nearing it’s publication date (or might just have been released) and they want to drive up as much interest as possible by inviting you to play. This was the bit that kind of blew me away the first time I attended (and I still don’t know why I went 😕) but it’s really good fun, the people fronting the game are super enthusiastic, there is no financial pressure because the game isn’t out yet (even if it is there’s no hard sell) and you get to have a go at something that you’d probably never normally play and you’ll probably never play again.
This time around I played six different games; a traditional fantasy card game out of the Magic the Gathering genre, a co-operative fantasy board game, a really clever board game/console game hybrid using smart dice of the old PC game ‘Vampires the Masquerade’, a sci fi skirmish game called Zeo Genesis which had some serious potential and some nice minis which I’ll keep an eye out for, a Crusades board game of factions, a sci fi trading game. Actually I think there were a couple more but my brain shut down 🤣.
No show of course is complete without a purchase or two and so I did 😂 Nothing extravagant this year (I was very restrained) and stuff that I could have ordered on line or in some cases got at a traditional wargames show but the advantage here is that at such a large show traders bring all their stock and you get to see what it really looks like. Also, a company like Gamers Grass, for example, is usually sold by a third party at a wargames show and it is never all the range, so here I got to see the lot and found there was stuff that I didn’t even know they did.
The other very noticeable thing about the show is the inclusivity. Let’s face it, your average wargames show is mainly men of a certain age, generally white and middle class; not so at GamesExpo, the age range is particularly noticeable, young, teens, families, matures, the ethnic mix is a fair representation of the nation at large and who held hands with whom was equally mixed 😊
Now although I have painted this as not a wargames show there are none the less a number of familiar faces from the wargames scene. The redoubtable Annie of Bad Squiddo Games has been in attendance for several years, Black Scorpion and Rubicon are usually there, plus, ABC Brushes, Great Escape, Warlord, Irongate, Gale Force Nine, Warpaint, Deep-Cut, Osprey and Sarissa.
The other plus of the show is the ancillary stuff you can pick up that you wouldn’t see at a traditional wargames show just because the core market isn’t military. Just by browsing the stalls you can come across clutter for skirmish games that is a bit different, the various figures in the sci fi & fantasy ranges on offer can yield eye catching additions to your Viking warband or future wars game, buildings not seen before etc and this has multiplied exponentially with the arrival of 3D resin printing.
Final points. This isn’t cheap (18 quid for a day ticket) so going along isn’t a decision to be taken lightly and it’s the NEC so food and drink isn’t cheap. There is always a queue first thing (I queued for 40 minutes this year, my longest yet) but if you want to get your moneys worth then you kind of have to be there early. It does get busy so if crowds aren’t your thing then that might be a consideration although that said I never got barged into or experienced inconsiderate behaviour. All that said, if your hobby is a broad church then this is well worth the trip, even if only for a one off, I’ll certainly be going back, so maybe see you next year 😀
This years Partizan demo was the battle of Gabene, Antigonus and Eumenes battling it out in their second and final meeting in 316BC and our follow on from last years demo.
We nearly had a bit of a melt down (irony intended) when yet another of the Aventine elephants exploded days before the game reducing our already reduced stock, but the Twitter community stepped up and Simon Miller of To the Strongest fame volunteered half a dozen of his elephants for the day increasing and broadening the visual aspect of the game – thank you Simon!
Anyone who knows their Successors is aware this battle ended tragically for Eumenes for those that don’t here is the condensed version. The two sides faced off, infantry in the centre, cavalry on the wings, front screened by elephants and skirmishers; Antigonus had the numbers, Eumenes had the quality, especially infantry where he had the veteran Silver Shields and the elite Hypaspists. In rough sequence, cavalry from the Antigonid left rode round the Eumenid right, stole the moveable’s from the Eumenid camp and bought them back to base – how I don’t know and nor do the sources really, battle was joined proper and Peucestas commanding the Eumenid left wing cavalry buckled under the advance of the Antigonid right wing cavalry, fell back and could not be coaxed back into the fray – maybe he was bribed, maybe he was a douche, we’re not really sure, in the centre the Silver Shields & Hypaspists led the way in smashing the Antigonid foot back, killing some 5,000 men, on the Eumenid left both sides messed about and not much happened. With his centre busted Antigonus gathered elements from both cavalry wings and ordered them to attack the now isolated Silver Shields & co who promptly formed hollow square and marched all the way back again – these guys had some balls!
On the face of it looking pretty good for Eumenes, and that night he argued for one last push in the morning but Peucestas was still being a douche and the Silver Shields were a bit pissed at losing 20 years worth of spoils. Enter the Greek tragedy; Antigonus sent messengers offering the loot in exchange for Eumenes, the Silver Shields agreed and handed over Eumenes and several other commanders who are promptly executed. The End 😥
The sources give a fairly good indication of the dispositions so we followed these pretty much to the letter and had the troops to fill all the spots, the special events of the camp and Peucestas we left to the rub of the game.
Like all demo games more time was spent chatting than playing and that’s a good thing but nonetheless we got a decent result. In short; the Antigonid right and the Eumenid left actually exchanged blows amidst the confusion of elephants panicking and stampeding into each other – always good fun, on the Antigonid left (where there were no elephants) it was all a bit cleaner and their superior numbers finally told, especially when the Eumenid commander Philip got himself shot by Scythian bowmen, in the centre the Silver Shields just seemed to get a case of the jitters and didn’t make the impression they should have and when their commander, Antigenes, got himself killed rallying the Hypaspists they ground to a halt.
With two commands paralysed it was now an uphill struggle for the Eumenids and with the show winding down we wound up the game feeling exhausted but very pleased with what we had been able to share with our fellow gamers.
With regard to the show itself it was very busy! My estimation was that this was the busiest I have seen it in all the years I have attended and tellingly the post lunch wind down was not so noticeable, yes it thinned but not nearly so much as previous years.
Of the games there was clearly some cracking stuff on display and in the quick run round I did at 3.30pm (my only time away from the table!) I noticed several I wished I’d had the time to admire properly and maybe ask some questions. Full details are on the various YouTube videos that people have put up and that’s where I’m getting my vicarious enjoyment of the show.
An interesting conversation I had with several people who stopped by was whether some of the games were wargames at all and not just examples of superb craftsmanship. How many of the games would see the light of day at a normal (or even an extended) club evening/day? There is no answer of course, just a dialogue.
That’s it really. An excellent show. Thank you to the organisers for all the hard work they put in and thank you to all those that came and chatted and passed on favourable comments they are much appreciated. Went home knackered and had an early night 😂🤣
Flow interrupted by hospital shenanigans but still managed to a variety of games in, so without further ado….
First up was what has now become our monthly foray into the Pacific for a WWII fleet action.
This time we took a scenario from the book and diced for upgrades and deployment positions which decidedly favoured the US side – all their planes were in the air at the beginning of the game.
Mass dive bombing saw an early sinking of a Japanese heavy cruiser – “remember Pearl Harbour!”
The Japanese were revenged with the sinking of the Portland and the Indianapolis.
Ultimately it was a points victory to the US by quite a large margin.
Next up was a Timurid v Mamluk game using our adaptations to the Hussaria rules. This collection doesn’t get much of an outing but this was a cracking game, so much so I’m finally finishing the units that never quite got done 😂
The largely open plain was broken up by randomly placed wadis which ended up congregating in the middle of the playing area. The Timurids deployed their White Sheep Turks in the centre facing the wadis and then the much heavier Timurid horse screened by rubbish skirmish foot and not so rubbish Jagatai skirmish horse on the wings, the left being weighted for a mighty attack. The Mamluks had their Black Sheep Turks out on the right wing and then 3 divisions of heavy horse spread evenly across the rest of the battlefield each screened by militia skirmishers.
The early action was on the Timurid left where their Jagatai horse were driven off by the Turkomen.
Then it got even more messy when the Turcomen Askari saw off the first line of Timurid cavalry. Could this be an early tea?
Nah. The second line armoured Timurids stabilised the front and the first line rallied. The tide was turning.
Both sides soon became fully committed and arrows darkened the skies. The elephants were largely ornamental very much like their historical prototypes.
Much blood was spilt but neither side could make decisive headway – the Timurids had the class & the armour the mamluks had the numbers. Unusually for us we had to call it a draw.
Our next foray was the ever popular Iran Iraq period. In this game the Iraqi 15th Mechanised and 26th Armoured were tasked with seizing a strategic rail head (seizing meaning they couldn’t just blow it up 😏) within 8 game turns. The Iraqis had scheduled artillery they had to assign prior to the game start. The unknown Iranian defenders were the 92nd Armoured, largely obscured by the terrain at the start of the game.
The Iraqis advanced on a broad front keeping their inferior armour back hoping to tempt the Iranians to reveal themselves and placing faith in their scheduled artillery strikes.
The Iranians did reveal themselves and the feared Chieftains wreaked havoc on the Iraqi armour effectively rendering it useless.
The Iraqi infantry wisely debussed and slogged their way forward taking one of the outlying villages.
The Iraqi armour bravely firing away.
Chieftains start to take losses.
Ultimately the 26th Armoured failed its morale (although it did hang on longer than expected) and retreated which left the 15th Mechanised high and dry at Turn 8 with the rail head firmly in Iranian hands.
The game was the Assault scenario from the CWC book which gives the attacker 50% more points but even so it’s a tough scenario to get a win from.
Next up was a game from the bunker being Sikh Wars, British attacking a defended Sikh village.
The British were in two commands, a right command of 3 brigades of foot supported by a brigade of cavalry tasked with taking the village and a left command of 2 brigades of horse supported by 2 brigades of sepoys tasked with keeping the large force of Sikh irregular cavalry at bay.
The stars of the show! Usually the camel gunners are a bit of a nuisance and then they die but due to over confidence by the British cavalry commander (thinking they’d just melt away) and judicious use of the camels mobility by the Sikh player they inflicted significant casualties.
Once the allied cavalry got stuck in the Sikh irregulars collapsed in the time honoured tradition and 3 brigades either died or fled the field; the allies were however severely mauled by the fighting and the camel gunners potting away and were of no further use.
The British & EIC marched through shot and shell and despite a few pauses finally stormed the village.
“At them with the bayonet!”
The village is taken. God save the Queen!
Our next foray was the first outing for the new project, El Cid. This was the first of what will probably be a series of trial runs with the sets of rules we think might do the job and if they don’t then it’s down to writing our own but that would be a last resort.
Our final game for the month was an Italian Wars clash at the bunker, French v Milanese.
The Milanese were on the defensive having a town to defend and so kept their decent cavalry back for as long as they could.
In the town the rot started early with one unit abandoning it’s position after some early artillery fire. This was the shape of things to come and once the Swiss loomed closer it was all over.
The fun part of a French Italian Wars army is of course the gendarmes and despite their small unit sizes (much as history) and casualty accumulation they just kept on coming.
Gendarmes love charging pikes 🙄😃
Swiss smash Milanese pikes.
“Be off with you!”
And with the Swiss bulldozing their way into the town our last game of the month was over.
In other news half a dozen or so more 10mm desert buildings were completed – I think that’s enough now 😁
I also got some FAO & FAC bases done for CWC.
Also got the chance to see Martin Bourboulon’s two part adaptation of The Three Musketeers; serious, gritty, plot deviations that worked (or at least weren’t stupid), worth a look.
And with that we bid farewell to April and hope that May brings some decent weather!
Hospital visits, surgery and recovery slowed performance a bit this month but the front and back end were bracketed by two conventions so I’ll talk about them first.
First up was Hammerehead (photo isn’t from the show, somehow I lost the pics I took 🙄). In theory this is smaller than it used to be as it now just uses the one hall at the Newark Showground but in fact is as big as it ever was pre Covid and you could argue a little overcrowded. The two main attractions are the many participation games and the table top sale rental in the middle of the hall both of which, in my opinion, are ill served by everything being packed into one hall. The table top sale space needs to be bigger to enable more sellers and alleviate the rugby scrum effect – I could have doubled the space with the number of guys I chatted with who couldn’t get a table this year, and maybe the organisers need to look at the people who are clearly traders in one form or another. The games this year were a bit meh, plenty of choice but no choice really and many just didn’t seem to have anyone playing. The second show was Overlord down in Abingdon but I’ve already posted about that on here so I won’t repeat myself.
Our first game was a Wars of Religion affair, Dutch v Spanish at the Bunker.
Both sides were pre deployed and consisted of an infantry wing facing each other and a cavalry wing facing each other. The cavalry battle got underway first and took up most of the day as each side threw in reserves. Ultimately the Spanish prevailed and stood bloodied but victorious on the field.
The infantry wing was a lot slower coming to grips so the bulk of that play was enfants perdus and carabins skirmishing and being a nuisance. Ultimately the Tercio’s got to grips with the waiting Dutch and saw the first line off but the day was done before we could really get a definitive result.
On reflection the battle suffered from being staged as an encounter game but there was no incentive for the Dutch infantry to advance and risk getting stomped on by fully intact Tercio’s so they stood back, lined some hedgerows and blazed away which made it a pretty boring game. The need for a scenario with clear objectives that could be measured at game’s end was obvious but we just didn’t follow the lessons we’ve already learnt from so many games 🙄.
After a medical interlude our next game was another of our much loved Successors clashes – although there wasn’t much love when the pikes on two blocks were broken one after another 😒
The setting for our clash was the Imperial army immediately post Alexanders death marching to chastise a recalcitrant Antipater. The Imperial army had all the good stuff; multiple squadrons of Hetairoi, Hypaspists, Pezhetairoi, Argyraspides, Elephants, Rhodians, Cretans and a smattering of average and not so good stuff. Antipater had his own Pezhetairoi, Cretans and Rhodians plus a single body of Hetairoi, his infantry was built around a couple of blocks of pikes and a host of mercenary hoplites while his cavalry relied upon Greek and Thessalian horse.
Antipater deployed all his cavalry on his left wing, the flank protected by a stream, in a twist away from tradition, and found himself facing the Imperial Hetairoi across the sands. Not surprisingly this became the predominant clash in the early rounds of fighting.
In the centre the inevitable infantry clash took shape. Antipater’s 2 blocks of phalangites (seen here) were facing out toward the Imperial Pezhetairoi and Argyraspides and their flanks were uncovered by the hoplites being spread further out to cover the plain of battle.
In the cavalry clash the Imperial Hetairoi ultimately prevailed (but not without loss) and pursued the enemy to their camp where they failed to rally and were lost leaving the Hetairoi free to indulge in a little looting.
Out on the Imperial left flank the elephants, screened by Asiatic and Scythian horse held up the Antipatrid hoplites nicely and became the first elephants in all our games so far not to, panic or die 😂🤣
The centre smash ’em up took it’s time a coming but was worth it. Lots of back and forth, command figures jumping in to steady the line (Casander died 😢), units breaking; just what we play for 😉
Ultimately class won out and Antipater was forced to cede the field, his cavalry were gone, his son dead and half his infantry in rout. A good day.
Our final game became the game of two halves as we ended up playing it twice but with different players.
Obviously an Iran Iraq game and another with a written scenario. This one was set in 1984 and notionally an action from Operation Khyber where the Iranians are trying to take back previously lost territory. The Iranians comprised the 37th Armoured Brigade comprising the 231st & 233rd Armoured and the 145th Mechanised tasked with taking the towns of Qurnah and Nashwah to the west of the playing area and they could advance from more or less anywhere along the eastern edge. The Iraqi’s were the 15th Mechanised Brigade deployed anywhere in the west up the main highway and featured the 1st & 2nd Mechanised and the 9th Armoured plus an air wing of SU22M’s on call.
In the first game the Iraqi’s took the game to the Iranians, well the tank commander did at least, because ignoring all previous game evidence about how bad T54’s & T55’s were against anything Iranian he rolled out from Nashwah shouting the Iraqi equivalent of “come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough!”
To the north the sensible Iraqi player decided to see how aircraft performed (this was a first for all of us) and this was, well, variable 😀 The calling in of the air went well but performance over target was abysmal to start – I was worried we’d got the mechanisms wrong but in fact we hadn’t; having the FAO a long way from the target is a problem.
Later the air power became deadly. The Iraqi player decided to persevere and so called for air on every turn he could and his luck in rolling to arrive continued, well outside the laws of average, and in the turn he dropped napalm the deviation was low and the hits were horrendous. Suffice to say the 145th Mechanised was destroyed 😨
The sheer enormity of the loss did cause a bit of a debate (not an argument) and in the calmness of a reflective moment I did realise we (well me!) had got a couple of things wrong the most serious of which was forgetting that the command elements have in built AA stats which meant that for every run the planes would have received AA fire which could drive off or down an aircraft. Oh well, lesson learnt 🙂
Elsewhere the tank shoot out favoured the Iranians but the Iraqis knocked out enough Iranian tanks to tip the whole force into a Breakpoint test which they duly failed and retired – fortune does sometimes favour the bold.
Because another group of players were coming round in only a couple of days time and I wasn’t completely happy with how I’d played the rules, I reset the table for exactly the same game.
Spookily the Iranians deployed the same battalions at the same jump off points but their advance was a lot more cautious, which ultimately cost them the game. The Iraqis were equally cautious in that they kept their armour hidden behind Nashwah for as long as they could. In terms of the air though the Iraqis went for it early on but it was such a different result. First off they just couldn’t roll the dice to get the planes over the target and when they did the AA fire was effective enough to down one plane and abort another attack, the couple of attacks that did hit were significantly off target and inflicted minimal losses.
Pleasingly this game was a bit more nuanced and the Iranians deployed their infantry to assault the town of Qurnah which we found is nigh on impossible, but in the after game discussion we realised it can be done with the right use of firepower and not wasting units in unsupported assaults.
Hiding the T54/55’s back worked well for the Iraqi’s and when they had to be revealed the Iranians were within range and being fired on by RPG’s from Nashwah so it was a bit more of an equal contest. It didn’t stop the tanks from brewing up but it was a proper lesson of war.
Ultimately we had to call it, neither side had reached their Breakpoint but the Iranians were nowhere near achieving their objective. Iraqi victory.
In other 10mm news my mate banged me out some more 3D prints so that’s me occupied for a while!
In terms of finished hobby stuff, nothing completed at the moment but plenty of things ongoing 🤣 So until the next time, be good, be fair.
The Overlord show is one of those shows I’ve never got to despite being only an hour and a half down the M40 but I finally relented under the badgering of my mate Mark at M & C Model Painting and I was glad I did.
Hosted by the Abingdon Wargames Club this is one of those ‘small and friendly’ shows that used to be the bedrock of the hobby, you wouldn’t travel massively out of your way to attend and it’s not graced by the big guns of the hobby but none the less it does what it does well.
Upon my arrival I was greeted warmly and directed into the labyrinthine corridors of the Abingdon & Witney College where demo games, participation games and traders were mixed together, which I’ll admit is my preference for a show. First stop was the Bring & Buy (nice to go to a show where this tradition is maintained) to see if I could continue my ongoing clear-out of stuff that isn’t being used, well organised, friendly and fair, just the job 😀
Some nice games were on display which were a bit of a distraction for a while, if I was to criticise I would say they did suffer from the old school problem of nothing to explain what was going on and ignoring the watching public like me. There were also a couple of participation games which some of the younger generation were distracted by.
Trade wise it was primarily the 2nd tier traders no insult intended. Warlord were present flying the flag on the big guns, then, Dave Lanchester, M & C, The Pit, Parkfield, Blotz, ROK, Athena, around 20 I would guess. How good a day they had I’ve no idea, footfall seemed fairly light although Mark said he had a good day and there were certainly people with bags of goodies making the rounds.
The photo has nothing to do with it (Mark’s commission work) but an important part of any show is the catering and in this instance it was rather good. The cafeteria outlet had a good range of fresh paninis and sandwiches, cakes, cold drinks and a nice cup of coffee, all at reasonable prices and served up by friendly staff. Also enough places to sit and eat & drink.
For myself it was mainly an mdf and paints day which easily blew what I cleared on the bring & buy 🤣 Blotz in particular did very well out of me when I convinced myself I needed some more 10mm desert buildings to go with the ones I’ve already got – at least I can knock them out pretty quickly 😉
So that was it, a pleasant run out, nice people, nice little show, I’ll go again.
Our first game of the month was a return to our loosely connected cartel campaign. In this game two cartel syndicates met at a deserted jungle airstrip to exchange dollars for white powder.
Unbeknown to the syndicates the airstrip isn’t quite so deserted as they thought and US DEA agents have convinced local police and army units to form a joint task force to stop the transaction.
All was going well, truck was reversing to pick up the powder, money was being counted, when the look out spotted the Federales emerging from the jungle down the airstrip aways and the firing started.
The first casualty was one of the soldados, which was rather fortunate because he had the underslung grenade launcher 😮
It then became a firefight of two halves, the Federales and one gang shooting it out at long range on one side of the airstrip and the other gang up close and personal with the army near the barn.
During the shooting the plane was damaged beyond repair so no taking to the sky’s for the bad guys.
The life of a DEA agent can be a dangerous one and Kate Macer fell in the line of duty.
As the fight went on the soldados realised that concentration of fire was the key and managed to drive the army unit back into the jungle although the RPG guy featured above literally couldn’t hit a barn door 😂
The Federales didn’t fare much better losing agent Matt Weston and two officers including the sergeant which rather screwed their morale throws.
The cartel weren’t without their losses but they didn’t lose the contraband or the money so time to say adios to the jungle rendezvous.
Our next game was eastern renaissance, Ottoman Turk v Poles; lots of Sipahi’s and Winged Hussars.
Essentially an encounter game the Hussars had a good run to start with.
This unit had a fine old time bursting through a unit of Azabs (of course), then a unit of Voyniks (a bit more impressive) and then riding down the guns.
The Sipahis had an equally fine time killing Haiduks.
The Hussars were however being worn down.
Ultimately it was the Ottoman Tartars that tipped the game, roaming free they were able to gradually wear down the Hussars and the Ottomans hadn’t even committed their Janissaries.
Next was a return to the WAS in Italy a place we hadn’t visited for some time.
We made a conscious effort to get away from ‘let’s have at it’ with this one. Both sides had a written scenario detailing where commands could be deployed but not how, cavalry brigades arriving by road and needing orders, possibilities for flank marches, clues about where roads might go if they investigated; so some decisions to be made.
The GalloSpan army (French & Spanish) had two brigades of horse marching on (and basically that’s all they really did 😏), the rest of their forces they deployed by nationality; the Spanish foot deployed to the right of a T junction, national foot to the front and a brigade of Walloon Guards & Irish in support to the rear, the French foot deployed to the left of the junction and the brigade of French horse deployed astride a road out on the left flank beyond a stream leading to who knows where – they had the option to scout up the road in force which could have been fun but they didn’t.
The Austro Piedmontese had the option for a flank march on their right with Romer’s cavalry and took it (more of this later), elsewhere they deployed their Austrian foot brigade out on the right beyond the stream leaving the ground to their left on the other side of the stream clear for the arriving Piedmontese cavalry; the three brigades of Piedmontese infantry lined the road to the left of the arriving cavalry partly obscured by a line of Poplars.
The first action was on the Piedmontese left where two of their brigades advance rather awkwardly against the solid Spanish line coming toward them – by awkward I mean the Piedmontese deployed their battalions two by two and one brigade behind the other which although fine for depth did mean that the solid Spanish line (all very historical) inevitably overlapped the end of the Piedmontese and at some point was bringing more muskets to bare.
Further up the road the Piedmontese took on the 2nd Spanish line brigade in a fire fight which lasted most of the battle and left both brigades shattered.
The arrival of Romer’s cavalry was a bit of a high point for the Austro Piedmontese although on reflection the player had planned for it a bit late in the day – design note; if the French player had sent his cavalry off down the road then both brigades would have been lost fighting off table somewhere, if there had been no opposition then the French would have arrived in the enemy rear but late in the day.
Although the French were in the right place for the flank march they didn’t know one was coming and so were still caught on the hop and ultimately lost the fight although a desperate charge by their brigadier commanding a lone regiment did delay things slightly.
Back on the Piedmontese left the Italians finally forced their way through the Spanish line and advanced on the Spanish reserves who received orders to advance and although it looks pretty above the tired Italians were no match for the Walloons & Irish and the attack came to a grinding halt.
Following their long march and a delay in reading their orders the Spanish cavalry hooked up with a supporting French brigade and advanced against the Piedmontese cavalry who despite some heroic charges were hopelessly outnumbered and yielded the field.
Romer was by now in the rear of the GalloSpan line and the one uncommitted French brigade scrambled to redeploy to face his admittedly damaged brigade.
Unfortunately we ran out of time in what had been a hard fought battle. Summing up, the GalloSpan right was secure and the Walloons & Irish were poised to crush the weakened Italians, further along the opposing Piedmontes and Spanish had fought each other to a stand still, the right centre of the Piedmontese line was desperately vulnerable, the cavalry were done and even a battery of guns wasn’t going to stop two brigades of horse and a brigade of infantry.
Over on the Piedmontese far right the Austrian foot brigade was advancing in a disorderly manner but had achieved nothing of any note and although their horse had turned the GalloSpan flank it’s ability to exploit the opportunity was in question. The players were still arguing (good naturedly) about who won when they left 😂.
Next up was an away game of ACW using ‘Rebels and Patriots’
Rebels hold a small town against attacking Union brigades.
The opening moves favoured the Rebels, they held the town and a walled field outside of it which served them well and it took time for superior Union numbers to tell in the firefights and in the cold steel encounters within the town.
I’m not a fan of the Osprey blue book rules, the extreme randomness, bizarre shooting angles and event tables just aren’t my thing but that said we had a fun time, so silver linings.
Final game of the month was good old Carlist wars.
British Legion hold a town and outlying defensive works and await relief as numerically superior Carlists close in.
As is almost inevitable in these kind of games the the play split into two different games within a game, one was the assault on the town and one the fight to delay the column.
Frankly the fight for the town was the more fun game (so glad I was playing it 😀). Two brigades of Carlist troops threw themselves against the walls and despite losses and a tremendous stand by the British Marines finally broke in and took the town.
The commander of the relief force was on a hiding to nothing; there was only one road over one bridge of an unfordable river, roving Carlist cavalry were randomly appearing on both sides of the river (how is a very good question) and a strong brigade of Carlist infantry were easily able to march from the baseline to their end of the river because there was no discernible opposition.
Don’t get me wrong the game was full of action; fighting in the streets, rockets, cavalry charges on hastily deploying infantry lines, assault columns trying to burst through defences. All great stuff but the result was inevitable.
We discussed the game at length once the town had finally fallen and the column was stuck and agreed the basic game was fine but only one bridge over an impassable river was an impossible ask. Better to have two bridges, one upstream and one downstream or no bridges and just a water barrier with the usual slowness and disorder. Sometimes the obvious isn’t obvious when setting a game up.
Away from the fighting a few things got finished, some more built up areas for the 10mm Iran Iraq.
Palm trees done.
Wars of Religion stradiots
Wars of Religion Spanish lancers
Italian Wars Escopeteros
Well that’s it for the month. Hammerhead coming up so maybe some bargains to be had there! Until next month, play nice 😀
Westbury Wargamers 