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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!

Some of you may have noticed there was no October report, this was mainly due to me being away in Japan for two weeks and the rest of the gang not bothering to organise anything for the month 🙄 Fear not though we are back on track with a fairly busy month of gaming.

First up was a 28mm Ardennes game using Dave’s recently completed set up – the coldness of the shed rather matched the setting 😂🥶

In this scenario a Ranger squad plus a HQ element were defending a crossroads against some previously rebuffed Germans now coming on at two entry points from across a deep stream.

The German squad advancing over the sole bridge took casualties from the Rangers holed up in a ruined building but managed to take them down and move on.

The cost of doing business.

“Hold your position!”

Ultimately the Rangers were reduced to only 3 effectives and the crossroads was lost but it was a bitter victory for the Germans.

Next up was the ongoing learning curve of our Iran Iraq adventure. Some more terrain for this one which made it a bit more difficult to get a bead on those vulnerable T54’s & T55’s 😁

Much fun was had at the beginning of the game with the Iranians struggling to get the correct die score to deploy which allowed the Iraqis to advance .

Of course once the Iranians got their act together the Iraqis started to suffer.

Unfortunately this was one of those games where players had to be elsewhere after only a couple of hours of play so we called it with the Iraqis having a lot of burning tanks on the table. 😏

Next up was something new for us, one of the guys has recently got into Victory at Sea from Warlord so he bought his stuff over and we played an introductory game with his Pacific forces.

I’m not sure any of us really knew what we were doing so there was a fair bit of stop start as we checked the rules but that is inevitable and like all naval games the ships got far closer to each other than reality.

Ultimately we had a good little game, certainly enough to play again soon, and in fact more ships have been bought and painted up!

Another outing for the Ardennes was next and the last for this year in the arctic shed 😂

This time both sides had off table mortar support randomly generated – the Germans did better from this and certainly made life difficult for the Americans.

Despite an heroic defence the Americans were overrun again – “I think I need to get some weapons support for the Yanks” So looks like the small and contained project is going to grow a bit 😂🤣

Next was an away game featuring galactic monks, armoured robots and some very pretty scenery.

Personally I had no idea what was going on but dice were rolled, figures fell and we had a laugh so no bad thing really.

Returning to more mainstream gaming our next effort was the Successors, later Ptolemaic v later Seleucid.

The main reason for playing was to try out some additions to the collection as seen above 😀

The Ptolemaic army was the most standardised, featuring 4 battalions of Kleruchoi pike on the right centre screened by Rhodians & Cretans and a unit of Thureophoroi and Agema pike on the left centre, both were flanked by formed cavalry with the better horse on the left screened by Bedouin camelry, a solitary elephant squadron took the centre.

The Seleucids were an eclectic bunch. Their left centre comprised two units of Galatians and one of Thracians screened by three elephant squadrons with scythed chariots and veteran cavalry on the wing, the right centre comprised the Silver Shields (the later incarnation) and another battalion of pike screened by some levied psiloi while their flank cavalry comprised Galatians, Bedouin and a single unit of elites.

The battle took some twists and turns. As usual the cavalry actions started and finished first; on the Seleucid right the Bedouin cancelled each other out, the Galatians were destroyed and eventually the victorious Ptolemaic cavalry were on their way to the enemy camp. On the Seleucid left a hard fought affair saw the Ptolemaics seen off and the chariots performed well but not in a way to seem anachronistic.

In the centre much fun was had with rampaging elephants and their ultimate deaths 😄 which broke up the nice neat lines of both sides. The Galatians & Thracians did better against the pikes than anticipated at first but once the pikes started grinding on it wasn’t so good 😮 The good quality pikes cancelled each other out and an inconclusive pushing match was all that was going to happen there but the Thureophoroi performed badly and fled.

Ultimately the Ptolemaics shaded it but it had been a close run thing and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Our next foray was another Iran Iraq effort this time with more terrain to break up lines of sight – and it worked!

On this occasion the Iraqis, comprising a reinforced mechanised infantry brigade, were tasked with seizing a section of railway and the adjoining settlements and had the early advantage of being screened by a large hill for their left flank force and a dried river bed for the right.

The Iranians deployed their tank forces to defend the railway line and settlements and the infantry to hold their end of the river bed. They also had an FAO although the artillery had limited ammunition.

On the Iranian left, despite a gallant defence and the off table artillery, the aggressive Iraqi attack with the better tanks forced the position and by the end of the game the Iranians were totally destroyed. From a rules mechanism point of view (CWC) everything worked fine and as realistically as one can expect which was a positive thing as we progress with the project.

On the Iranian right the two tank battalions took the fight to the Iraqis and we had the comedy show of the T54’s & T55’s boldly advancing from around the hill and almost immediately falling back as the opposition opened fire 😃

Ultimately the Iranians bit off more than they could chew as once they crested the hill the Iraqi infantry swarmed them and made them pay the price for being un protected. Again the rules mechanisms worked well.

Bruised but not yet out of it the Iranians fell back to the rail line to carry on the fight but now their reduced numbers gave the Iraqi armour more of a chance and the losses mounted.

With our physical gaming time drawing to a close we belated consulted the rules about army break points and realised the Iranians were over it so diced and the Iranians beat an immediate retreat. Complete Iraqi victory and a project proceeding in the right direction.

Final game of the month was a western gunfight from our loosely connected campaign set in the fictional Dardanell County.

Bounty hunters came looking for an easy score.

Bounty hunters died 😂🤣

In terms of work completed some additions were made to the Successors project.

The ill fated Thureophoroi

And stuff is going on to EBay in a bid to clear the storage.

So until December, enjoy your gaming and be a good person. Cheers!

A month bracketed by outings.

On one of the hottest days of the year I motored down to Newbury racecourse for Colours 2023 and sweltered amongst the crowds – do they have air conditioning or was it just a cunning plan to get more of us to the bar?

The ground floor was the usual array of traders so I got through that as quickly as possible – the benefit of actually pre-ordering was worth it this time. Some very nice display games on the 1st & 2nd floors and access to the outside for some air and shade 😀. All told a good day and a well done to the organisers.

First game of the month was a Soviet Afghan game using Spectre Operations V2 with the mujahedeen attacking a Soviet outpost.

The game played well. One mujahedeen group decided ‘to hell with cover’ and went full on martyr, attacking over open ground, not surprisingly they died.

The second group went all tactical and used a dried up river bed to sneak up on the Soviets, they had far more success 🤣

Next up was a Successors game, Antipater v Perdiccas, using our new elephants amongst other things. After the ill tempered last outing this was played in a far better spirit and much fun was had with stampeding elephants, dying elephants and pushes of pike.

In terms of losses the Perdiccans most definitely lost the most troops, including all their elephants, however, amongst the Antipatrid losses were two commanders, effectively paralysing the army.

In the middle of the month I took a drive up to Stone in Staffordshire to participate in a 6mm Cold War game organised by the Cold War Commanders Facebook group.

This was a bit of a leap of faith as I hadn’t met any of these guys before and had never played 6mm before but the Cold War Commander rule set is the one I’ve gone for to do my Iran Iraq project so best to learn from those who know what they are doing I thought 🤨

First off I had a fine time with some friendly guys and got a weekend of gaming in, which I haven’t done for a long time, and secondly I learnt a good deal more about the rules so win, win 😊

Back home and the group played out a TYW scenario, refighting Lutzen.

This was a gruelling fight (in a good way) which saw the Swedes take considerable losses (much like the real thing) but were unable to force the Imperialists out of their positions.

On a positive note, Gustavus survived 😁

Our final game of the month was an Italian wars affair, Milanese v French.

The Milanese largely stood firm behind a stream and let the French come on, hoping to wear them down with crossbow fire – actually the Milanese player couldn’t get his troops to move anyway! 🤣😂

It took some time and the loss of a great number of French nobles but eventually the French forced the stream and when the ponderous Swiss smashed through the Milanese left it was over for the Duchy 😥

Game wise that was it for the month, a respectable few games and the ‘new normal’ for us now, gone are the days of two games a week, but hey, at least we’re still gaming.

On the project front the Iran Iraq 10mm continues with another Chieftain tank battalion done (above) and a T72 battalion done (below)

Well that’s it I guess, more to follow next week after a holiday break, so adios until then. 🙂

Well the summer’s nearly over (did it start?) and August’s gaming is done.

First up was a LRDG landing somewhere in North Africa to reek havoc on an Italian airstrip.

The LRDG landed at two points, one north near the actual airfield and one south near the barracks and stores so the one game effectively became two.

‘Oop north’ the squad sneaked through the wire as dawn broke (visibility down to weapons close range) and took out the comms building first with a couple of grenades and then quickly moved on to the MMG pit next door to take that out too. Guess what? The alarm was sounded 😂

The rest of the game for this section was spent going from aircraft to aircraft setting charges while exchanging shots with the dazed and confused airfield sentries – the Italians didn’t have a chance here and although a lot of fun was had it really wasn’t much of a game for the Italian player.

To the south it was more of a challenge for the LRDG, most of the Italians were asleep in commandeered buildings and patrols roamed the streets so that when the alarm was sounded Italians started to spill out of the buildings before the LRDG could set all their charges.

The Italians were hampered by having to try and exit from doors whilst being fired on by the British but the odds turned when a randomly diced for patrol of colonial troops (two squads) roared into town on trucks to add their weight to the firefight.

Although not the greatest of shots the Eritrean squads were throwing plenty of lead around and some of it even found its mark! The explosion of the charges that had been set were a bit of a disaster, two of the LRDG section had fallen back to where the charges were set (the player just plain forgot) were caught in the blast and died from their wounds and a further two were captured in the confusion; only the lmg team got out alive and moved north along the beach to join their comrades and exit.

Totalling up at the end the northern section had destroyed, 3 aircraft, 3 tanks, 3 trucks and 2 workshops with stores without loss to themselves; the southern section had destroyed, 2 tanks and several ammunition dumps but 6 men were MIA. Italian losses were significant, 2 full squads killed or wounded plus a squads worth of Eritreans dead or wounded.

As a game it was quite exciting, the early moves were done in limited visibility which was a severe handicap for the reacting Italians which contributed to their poor showing at the airfield. The up close and personal action in the town gave the Italians more of a chance but the force multiplier was the Eritreans. Fun was had though 😁

Our next action was a more traditional ‘big game’ featuring the Carlist Wars collection. The Carlists were defending a large hill and adjacent village against an attack by government troops. Numbers were about equal (4 foot brigades & 1 horse) but the government had the edge in class.

The opening moves saw a general advance by the government troops on the hill and village while their cavalry tried to work round the hill from their left.

The cavalry action favoured the government but that was it because although they saw off their opponents they could make no headway against the reserve infantry.

In the battle for the village the government troops were mainly 2nd Class Line and so although they had the numbers they didn’t have the staying power, they did however manage to shoot a Carlist general off his horse 😏 By the end of the game the village was still in Carlist hands (just) and the government troops were all played out.

The hill was were the government threw it’s best troops, a brigade of Guards supported by a brigade of 1st Class Line and it was a most bloody affair (one general on each side was killed rallying troops) but despite gaining a toehold on the summit both brigades were too battered to continue.

The game ended as a tactical loss for the government, the village and the hill were still held, albeit in reduced strength, and they had suffered significant losses. Reflecting on the game, we certainly enjoyed ourselves but the government side perhaps had too much to do in an even numbers game.

Back to skirmishing for our next game, this time, Western Gunfight, with two Mexican clans (the Jarvos hombres & the hombres from Mochila) with a grudge shooting it out in our loosely connected campaign.

Each clan was split into two, so four players each had two figures and a fifth player controlled the game and the law. The law would only activate from the sheriffs office once any shooting started and the start points for the four players were randomly generated.

The boys from Mochila clan emerged from two separate cantinas and spotted the Reyes, father & son, at the livery, there then ensued a long running gun battle which featured backshooting, falling over when sneaking through the blacksmiths cluttered building and throat cutting to finish off the unlucky Reyes pair 😱

At the other end of the street the other Jarvos pair (da Salvo & Julia) were sneaking down the street when the firing started at the blacksmiths, the law Sheriff Morgan & Deputy Matthews) duly came out onto the porch and demanded guns be thrown down. In a gunfight? No way! Lots of shots were fired and I mean lots, Julia, with the Winchester, had emptied his weapon by game end and both lawmen had reloaded before they finally went down.

At game end the Reyes pair were dead (very dead), Sheriff Morgan was dead and two Mexicans were bleeding in the street, there’s got to be a follow up game of bounty hunters after the killer of Sheriff Morgan 😏 As always in these games there was lots of banter and fun was most definitely had.

Our next effort was French Wars of Religion, with Huguenots defending the high ground with levied foot, massed reiters on the right and cuirassiers on the left. The catholic royal army deployed it’s Spanish & Swiss in the centre, it’s lancers on the right and it’s own reiters on the left.

As is almost always the way the initial fighting was between the cavalry wings; on the catholic right the fight between lance and sword & pistol came out in favour of the cuirassier with Nemours being killed with the wreck of his gendarmes.

The initial success of the Huguenot cavalry gave them all the impetus they needed and they crashed into the second line of catholic cavalry and sent them on their way despite a desperate attempt at rallying by Montpensier who was killed in the rout. The catholic right wing now no longer existed.

On the other wing both sides reiters got into action after some cautious manoeuvring and then proceeded to shoot the shit out of each other! Several colonels were killed on both sides but ultimately the catholic reiters ceded the field, not due to any particular differences it just wasn’t their day.

From an infantry point of view it was all a bit of a damp squib, the Swiss & Spanish were at the foot of the hill and despite some casualties from fire were pretty much odds on to beat the levies, however their cavalry wings were gone so time to ground pikes. Game over.

Our next effort was an away game of ‘What A Tanker’. I really don’t get what the deal is about this set of rules and the whole Lardy cult thing but hey other peoples house other peoples rules.

Anyway, a KV1 and a T34 went hunting a Tiger. The Tiger lost. Game end.

Our final game of the month was classic SYW, Prussian v Austrian. The Austrians had fallen back over a pontoon bridge leaving a light brigade disputing the far end with an advance guard of numerically superior Prussian lights. The Austrians were deployed in four small brigades beyond the river awaiting cavalry support and were tasked with retaining control of the pontoon and the road leading back into their positions.

The Prussians were tasked with seizing the pontoon and clearing the road from it into Austrian territory, a tough task but their full force ( two strong brigades of infantry and two strong brigades of cavalry) was available for immediate deployment at the players discretion.

The Prussians made really hard work of the ‘petite guerre’, their jaegers were better shots and the infantry were backed by two regiments of cavalry but ultimately they did get onto the pontoon.

On the Prussian right the dragoon brigade was ordered to keep pace with the infantry brigade that was heading toward the Austrians behind the river and on top of the hill. This was a classic case of being transfixed by something that is nothing to do with the objective and the Prussians paid dearly for it, ultimately (at the end of a very long game) the Austrian cavalry that deployed to face them were driven off but the hill and the village on top of it remained in Austrian hands and the attacking Prussian brigade was knackered.

On the Prussian left the three regiment strong cuirassier brigade held its position opposite an undefended ford for most of the game until the Austrian cavalry brigade opposite marched on, negotiated its way through the villages on the Austrian side, reorganised and attacked across the ford against the stationary Prussians. Inevitably the Prussians broke but by sheer good fortune were not pursued and so were able to rally and come back to dispute the crossing with the Austrians as night drew in but it was way too late.

The second Prussian brigade made good progress in the face of heavy fire from Austrian guns on the hill and then musketry fire from Austrian infantry coming off the hill to dispute the crossing but ultimately fell back with heavy casualties.

At the end of a very long days gaming we called it and reviewed where we were. The pontoon had briefly been in Prussian hands but the rump of their light brigade had been driven off by a dispatched Austrian brigade and so the road and pontoon were securely held by the Austrians.

In our usual review of the game the Prussian commander claimed he couldn’t win and this is always worth looking at. The Prussian team definitely had it all to do but they had all their troops on table at the beginning of the game and had two powerful brigades of cavalry which in a straight up fight would make mincemeat of their opposite numbers but having one keep pace with an infantry brigade and the other hold when there was nothing in front of them was a terrible mistake particularly from an experienced player. At the end of the game I totalled up the number of order change chits issued by the Prussian commander, ten! Oh well 🤨

In other news, reinforcements were added to the Successors collection, 4 more elephants and some Persian levied bowmen.

The Iran Iraq project got some more Iranian infantry done, regulars and pasdaran.

Air support for the Iran Iraq project also got itself completed.

Well I guess that’s it for this month, see you next month and play nice 😀

Well the month started with Games Expo, about which I have already blogged so nothing more to say other than give it a go next year 😀

Our first game of the month was a Dark Age brawl featuring the forces of Uriens and Morcant Bulc. Three leaders died in a tough battle which could have gone either way but ultimately Uriens was forced to retreat.

Next was a large GNW game featuring our recently finished Danes – many thanks to Neil for his dedication with the paintbrush 😁

Just because we could we had all the Danes on the field facing off to the old enemy, the Swedes.

We fought an encounter style battle across a plain field interspersed with marshes which gave both sides a bit of a challenge.

Both sides deployed in a fairly traditional way, infantry to the centre cavalry on the wings, the only difference was that the Danes deployed their Guards brigade on the right behind the cavalry rather than in the more traditional centre, partly due to terrain but also to act as a right hook once the more numerous Danish cavalry had neutralised their opponents.

The bulk of the game was taken up by the cavalry wings; we had plenty of units on the table (around 20 regiments) so there was plenty of back and forth.

On the Swedish right the cavalry melee’s occupied most of the day as units attacked, retreated, rallied and returned to the fray but ultimately the day belonged to the Swedes although the battle decision was made elsewhere.

On the Danish right their horse made some headway against their opponents but their flank was turned and the Swedish horse crashed into the Guards brigade, who were in some disarray from retreating horse, and after a brief and bloody clash the bulk of the brigade routed, seriously affecting the neighbouring infantry.

The decisive decision was in the centre where, after a long walk, the two opposing infantry divisions clashed, volleys erupted all along the line and then the Swedes got stuck in.

It wasn’t pretty and the Danes routed – not all of them but enough for the constituent brigades to fail their morale checks and leave the field. A hard fought Swedish victory.

Next was another Successors game, this time Macedonian civil war, Polypercon v Cassander.

This was not one of our better games; one of the players came with his ‘spoiler head’ on and the game was played in what could best be described as a ‘niggly’ spirit. Unusual for our group and hopefully not to be repeated, best forgotten.

Final game of the month was a Wars of Religion affair, Dutch v Spanish.

A strong Dutch force held a ridge of high ground with cavalry on the left plus an English contingent holding a village on the right flank. The Spanish were deployed all along the front with the Tercio’s in the centre and cavalry on either wing.

The Spanish had a tough job on their hands; the English were well positioned in the village, the Dutch foot were on the ridge line protected by walls and hedges at the foot of the ridge and beyond that a marshy stream, the best option was to neutralise the Dutch cavalry facing the Spanish right and then swing in.

The cavalry action dominated the early part of the game with both sides throwing horse regiments into the action. The early engagements favoured the Dutch and at one point it seemed the Spanish would be swept aside but the death of several Dutch cavalry colonels slowed the advance and the Spanish were able to regain the initiative.

The English contingent fared quite well to start with, exchanging shots with the advancing Walloons and Germans, but once the Spanish had got their Reiters up close and personal the weight of fire drove the front units back into the village streets and the Walloons and Germans were able to occupy the buildings and fire out into the street. Ultimately the English abandoned the village and march off the field.

In the centre the Spanish slogged their way across the ground, taking a steady casualty toll, but finally carried the hedge line forcing the defending Dutch back.

By now it was late afternoon and there wasn’t much left in the game so we called it. Although the morale of the Spanish had kept them going over the hedge line and through the first line of defenders it was debatable how much further they could go. Elsewhere the Dutch were done, the village was lost and Spanish cavalry were now cantering down it’s streets while the Dutch cavalry out on the left were exhausted. Agreed result was that the Dutch would cede the field but the Spanish were in no state to do anything other than recover.

It had been a tough and long game but played in a good spirit and thoroughly enjoyable.

That was it for the month really. A slightly shorter schedule due to me being away in Venice, hopefully July will feature a few more game and some more 10mm will get completed; in the meantime, play nice and we’ll see you next month.

Not such a busy month what with holidays and a show to distract us but we did our best 😀

First up was an Italian Wars game, Venetian v Florence, so lots of crossbows and condottierre 😁

The focal point of the game was the monastery on the hill which the Florentines made a key part of their attack sending 4 units of militia crossbow to scale the walls and occupy it, the Venetians decided to ignore it and advance across the plain towards the waiting Florentine pike.

I’ll admit it was a painfully slow game; both commanders were overly cautious, trying to keep their troops aligned rather than striking out with a select few, a tactic that suited the Florentines and negated the Venetian strength in better cavalry.

Lots of crossbow shooting was the predominate feature of the game which blunted the Venetian piecemeal cavalry attack and made the Florentines almost impossible to dig out of the monastery. When time was called we ruled a narrow Florentine victory, not because they had done anything outstanding but because the Venetians hadn’t done anything at all 🤣

Next up was a clash from our Timurid collection, Muscovite v Golden Horde, lots of cavalry zooming about.

The Muscovites deployed all of their Boyar cavalry (6 units) on the right behind a hill with the intention of sweeping up and over it to turn the Golden Horde left. Their centre was weekly held by Polish spearmen and Prussian allies out on the left covered by a wood.

The Golden Horde deployed their Cuman allies to cover the hill (not realising an avalanche of steel was coming their way!) and deployed their own Mongol troops in the centre (light horse covering the heavy horse), leaving the right devoid of troops, reasoning that the woods would slow down whatever the Muscovites deployed there.

The main part of the battle was the fight for the hill where the Cumans did a fine job of holding up the Boyars with some deadly arrow storms which halted the lead units. This in turn negated the Boyar numerical superiority as they traffic jammed behind the lead units.

Eventually the Boyars were able to drive the Cumans from the field and swing inwards to attack the vulnerable Horde centre – or so they thought……

In the centre the sheer volume of arrows did serious damage to the spearmen and a couple of well timed charges from the heavier Horde cavalry sent them packing after a brief fight. In the time the Cumans had tied up the Boyars the Horde had swept away the Muscovite centre and left.

Undeterred the Boyars swept down the hill seeking glory and exposed flanks but the Horde now committed it’s as yet unbloodied Guard for the decisive encounter.

The Guard were the decisive factor, one charge, one round of melee and their opponents were galloping away pursued by the triumphant Mongols who then ran over another unit and Boyar morale collapsed. The battle was over and the Golden Horde was triumphant.

Next on the agenda was an away day sci fi game with friends in the Coventry & Warwickshire area.

I can’t say I really had any clue what was going on but fun was had.

Back at the ‘eagles nest’ we indulged ourselves with a big SYW game featuring our Prussian and Austrian collection.

In our scenario an advance guard of Prussian Frei Corps and other assorted light troops had seized a crossroads and nearby hill in anticipation of the advance of the main army. The Austrians had been alerted by their scouts and their main army was closing fast, hoping to crush the advance guard early and gain the initiative.

The game became a race against time as both sides tried to push troops piecemeal into the combat zone.

The big moment was the crash of two Austrian cavalry brigades into the lately arriving Prussian ones. The fight went back and forth and by the end of several turns the Austrians were triumphant.

Unfortunately for the Austrians however the Prussian infantry had formed a decent enough line to dissuade any further attacks and as the Austrian infantry had been fairly dilatory elsewhere the day was the Prussians and the road junction was held.

Our final game was a multiplayer FIW game with British regulars and Rogers Rangers trying to get to an abandoned fort before opposing French regulars and allied Hurons.

Entry points were randomly chosen – which rather favoured the British, and off we went for an enjoyable couple of hours of sneaky Hurons, volley firing British and dying Frenchmen.

Clear winners were the Hurons, who occupied the fort with the loss of only one brave although, as the British player pointed out, “what the hell are they going to do with it now they are in it?” 😂😂

March of course is also Hameerhead month and so we ambled along to Newark and met friends we hadn’t seen for a while, caught up with the Twitterati and even spent a bit of money. Some nice games on offer which we just didn’t get round to playing in and an eclectic collection of items available at the table top sale. A good day out and worth the trip.

In other news some more of the 10mm Iran Iraq project got finished, not far off doing an actual game soon I think 😉

Also some pack animals, Danish troops for the GNW collection and Austrian artillery. Slow and steady wins the race 🙄

We’ve also spent some time talking about slimming down the collections to a manageable size. The Prussians that featured in this blog are definitely going so if anyone is interested in a sizeable Prussian army (mainly Front Rank) please get in touch. The rest of the ACW collection is going to go as well plus some of the skirmish themes that just never went anywhere. Maybe I’ll do a separate blog post prior to banging stuff on eBay.

Anyway, that’s it for this month, see you next month 😃