Tag: war

November 2025 Report

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Winter is coming. The games however are undeterred.

First game of the month was from our GNW collection – “Action at Sychevka” a narrative game.

In this fictional encounter both sides – Russians and Swedes were heading for the village of Sychevka, the Swedes thinking there are supplies there, the Russians because they have heard that’s where the Swedes are going. Both sides had separate columns heading towards the village; the Swedes had a cavalry vanguard under Horn (above) out in front but they got lost and have turned up on the far right of the Swedish advance and are awaiting orders, in the centre a 3 brigade infantry column under Count Lewenhaupt is advancing on the village and out on the left a 2 brigade cavalry column under Major General Creutz is emerging from a defile somewhat surprised to find Horn in the wrong place! The Russians had a 2 brigade cavalry column under Major General Bauer marching on, the centre and left was under the overall command of Field Marshal Sheremetiev comprising a cavalry & infantry force out on the left – 1 x cavalry & 2 x infantry brigades and a similar cavalry & infantry force in the centre with a cavalry brigade leading and 2 infantry brigades following.

Both sides had general orders of “advance to the village of Sychevka” (except Horn who was sitting around wondering what to do) and so senior commanders were having to issue orders as the enemy became visible and as brigades marched on. In the initial stages this rather favoured the Russians whose centre dragoon brigade under Tiernischov duly advanced on the village and got off their horses.

The opening action therefore centred around the dragoons holding the village which they did remarkably well – partly due to a rules cock up by the umpire (me!) and partly due to the normally aggressive Swedes being over cautious.

While the infantry struggle for the village developed the first cavalry action commenced on the Russian right as Kroptov and Golitsyn committed their brigades against Hard and Armfeldt.

This rolling cavalry melee occupied most of the game with Swedish regiments, Taube, Ducker, Smaland and Ostgota taking serious losses – Taube was in fact lost from the battle, while Kroptov’s horse grenadiers, and regiments, Archangelski, St Petersburgski, Tverski and Narvski took equally heavy losses. Both sides saw their brigades fail morale but the difference that decided the day was the better ability of the Swedes to rally.

Back at the village the Swedes had sorted themselves out and orders had been given. Stackelberg’s brigade (seen above) stormed the village driving out the dragoons and entering a firefight with Pfennigbeir’s brigade which ultimately they lost – both Jonkoping battalions were seriously shot up and the brigade retired hurt.

However the other two brigades of Lewenhaupt’s command, Sparre and von Liewen flanked either side of the village and took on Sheremetiev’s remaining 3 brigades – Sparre in fact took on two, Hallart and Golovin and smashed them both up.

Out on the Swedish right Horn didn’t have the best of days. When he received his orders to advance on the Russian left the dragoons he should have attacked had already dismounted amongst some burnt out buildings and proceeded to shoot him up supported by Hallart’s infantry (before Sparre arrived), forcing him to retire – Ostgota in fact left the table badly depleted. However, in an inexplicable turn of events the Russians got a bit cocky, remounted and came after the Swedes who rallied and gave the Russians a bit of a drubbing (seen above), this did however see Horn and his brigade leave the table giving chase to Repnin’s brigade.

We were now getting to the end of things, Sparre was getting stuck in – none of this shooting nonsense for him!

Bauer’s command was in it’s death throws.

The village was surrounded – buildings removed for ease of play.

It was over. A bloody day for both sides but by the end all the Russian brigades were on the run. Great game.

Next up a return to the Pacific with Victory at Sea. A simple equal points game this time with each side given free choice within the 1943 time frame and both sides having a “free” carrier and aircraft either on table or off. As a bit of a “can I do it?” the Japanese player chose to just have the Yamato battleship and the aircraft carrier off table – meant the air cover was slightly delayed in arriving, the Americans chose a mixed force from destroyers up to their own older battleship.

The game was essentially one of the Yamato keeping enough distance between itself and the Americans and preventing them concentrating fire. It nearly worked!

The main worry for the Yamato was the American planes and if the American player had handled them better it would have been a very short game!

However, the American chose to attack piecemeal and this allowed the Japanese player to “zero in” – see what I did there 😂and take out a lot of the American air strength.

They even got a chance to attack the American carrier.

And damage the Chicago and Houston.

The duel of the “big boys” saw the sinking of the New Mexico.

But you can’t fight against multiple ships and not take damage and the Yamato took some unlucky hits which slowed her and the sharks (aka American destroyers) began to circle.

Multiple torpedo hits and it was the end for the Yamato 😢

Our next game was a return to long neglected ‘modern’ skirmish, this time in our Syrian Civil War ruins set up.

Our basic scenario was Hezbollah and Islamic Front units clashing in the ruins of Aleppo. Both sides had a couple of squads plus a tank – the Hezbollah squads were smaller but better trained and they had a T72, Islamic Front were bigger squads but their tank was a T55, although they did have a truck mounted ZSU.

Both sides advanced cautiously, partly because it was the right thing to do and partly because we were a bit rusty with the rules – it had been over a year since our last game.

Both sides worked their way around the central hospital building utilising the cover as best they could.

One of the Islamic Front squads detoured into one of the wrecked buildings, a bad decision which effectively kept that unit out of the majority of the game as it picked it’s way through the wreckage to no advantage.

The “oh shit!” moment that can only happen in a wargame 😂

Fortune favoured the T72. Scratch one T55.

The bad luck streak continued for Islamic Front continued when their ZSU gunner was cut down before ever firing a shot.

Islamic Front fighters press on.

“man the barricades!”

Oh dear.

Both sides took losses but ultimately the losses were more severe for Islamic Front and they withdrew, ceding this piece of war ravaged ground.

Our next effort was a roll out of the Timurid project. This has been a long running saga of me rebasing (twice!) and reconfiguring all my old Mongol, Ilkhanid, Russian, Persian and Mameluke figures into a representation of the armies of Timur, Tokhtamish and sundry others of the C14th. There are far better and more accurate figures out there nowadays but the sheer expense alone was enough to kick that idea into the bin and frankly in a lot of instances the differences are marginal and the set up is for home consumption only. The rules are a version of the proven Successors rules and as a first run out I was really pleased.

Our armies were a Timurid force in two divisions both containing formed & skirmish cavalry plus an elephant and an allied division of White Sheep Turcoman. Facing them was a Golden Horde Mongol force in two divisions containing formed & skirmish cavalry, a Guards division of elite formed cavalry and skirmish cavalry and a division of Russian allies containing boyars and Polk.

Both sides advanced steadily and the skirmishers went into the wargames representation of cantabrian circle.

Once players got the hang of the idea that is was a game about shooting – nearly everyone has a bow, the arrows started to fly.

However, the stars of the show were the boyars who hurtled across the table, shook off casualties from bow fire and smashed a hole in the centre of the Timurid line – well that was unexpected!

Elsewhere it was all about the shooting and the person who managed to concentrate the most fire at a critical point had the advantage – in this particular run it was the Golden Horde who grasped the concept quicker than their Timurid opponent.

The collapse of the Timurid centre had enough of a ripple effect for the Timurid player to concede and we had quite a chat about the rules and the game – all positive and some good suggestions to go forward with, next task, rebase all the Russians to take on the Golden Horde.

Next up was a ‘reconquista’ game featuring a Norman excursion into Andalusia where they are met by a united front. The sides were pre set out so it was just a question of writing any orders and having at it.

The Normans were deployed in three divisions, strong right wing of knights, centre of spearmen covered by skirmishers and a left of allied light troops. Naturally it was the knights that started the action and all seemed to be going well.

Into contact, encouraged by their General and still going well. This is going to be easy…..

Meanwhile the Andalusian right gets into action and as the allied light horse fell away the General leads in his nobles to stabilise the situation. You know where this is going…..

“kill!”

And then there were two dead generals and it was all over. Oh dear 😭

Final game was a ‘back of beyond’ away game where the British were landing once again to plant the union jack where it had no reason to be opposed by two afghan hill tribes allied to Red and White Russians – history was a distant second here.

Each side had it’s own set of objectives, some easily achieved, some downright impossible, but the scenery and figures did look very nice.

Hill tribesmen ready for the conflict – they didn’t fire a shot 😂

White Russian Cossacks attacking an armoured car.

And destroying it.

I’m really not sure who won the game, it was more of a case who didn’t. The White Russians and allied hill tribe definitely failed, The Reds obliterated one British force but I’m not sure that was their objective 🤔, the other hill tribe didn’t appear until the end but the second British force disembarked and captured the railway station with minimal casualties so I guess they won. In these kind of games it doesn’t really matter, they are played for a laugh and plenty of laughs were had.

Some painting and modelling was done. Here a mosque for the 10mm set up.

Bridging units.

AA fire support.

Thureophoroi for the Successors.

This months reading. The McNab was an ok generalist assessment of the Roman Army, I wasn’t completely convinced by some of his takes. The Tom Clancy I read because of our interest in Cold War gaming and all I can say is, no wonder we were all paranoid in the 80’s! Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is very much of it’s time and obviously not a Beevor mighty tome but in a slim volume it tells you a lot about the war in the snapshot of time that Orwell was in that particular front, still worth a read.

Well that’s it for November, Christmas is coming but there are still games to play before we drink and eat ourselves into oblivion so keep well and play nice.

August 2025 Report

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Summer is drawing to a close but the gaming keeps on going 😀 Seven games this month, a tidy number.

First outing was an away day game of DAK Attack! with some local gamers not of the group. I’d call the rules ‘Heroic History’, just enough history to make the game immersive enough but at the same time deeds of daring do is the general vibe.

In keeping with the above the players were assigned an LRDG group each and a sector of the German town and airfield to shoot up, get in and get out in one piece. The Germans were controlled by the umpire via a card system but were very much in reactive mode.

So, jeeps rolled in, shots were fired (a lot!), charges were planted and jeeps rolled out again.

Well some of the jeeps rolled out again 🤣 Losses were taken by the Brits but plenty of German kit was blown up so a very successful mission.

As a set of rules they worked very well and delivered exactly what they set out to do, I’d certainly play them again.

Back at base our next game was another of our 1980’s Cold War encounters, this time, Bundeswehr v DDR. Our narrative was that the Warsaw Pact invasion had commenced and in the opening days the BAOR had been displaced north by the Soviets and now the second echelon DDR troops were sweeping forward from the southeast aiming for a power station positioned in the northwest corner of the board, The Bundeswehr had hastily assembled a combat group in the southwest and were scrambling to cut off the enemy advance.

The game was designed as an 8 turn encounter game using mobile deployment in specific areas of the southern end of the board. Both sides had off table artillery but no air cover; the DDR had a full tank regiment – 3 x 9T72M tank battalions and a motorised infantry battalion in BMP1-1P’s, the Bundeswehr had 2 x mixed battalion of 8 x Leopard 2’s and 4 x Marder with attached infantry. The rules were Cold War Commander.

The Bundeswehr got on table straight away – better command values, and positioned the FAO and half a tank battalion on a convenient hill while everyone else headed north utilising the plentiful cover.

The DDR struggled to get on table and this definitely affected their ability to co-ordinate their efforts. The 1st Panzer roared came on and roared into a field where they got bogged down as the Leopards on the hill zeroed in on them and the FAO bought in M109 fire. Eventually the battalion was wiped out without firing a shot 😢

The 3rd Panzer, when they came on, executed a long right hook, utilising as much cover as possible and headed for the road to the power station.

The 2nd Panzer and BMP’s arrived late and were forever playing catch up which wasn’t helped by the panzers failing two first move rolls and rolling two blunders! Needless to say their contribution was minimal. The BMP’s nipped straight into a wood and kept out of the way but their ATGW advantage was negated by the electricity pylons stretching up the board. The pylons also affected the Marders but with their longer range tank guns this was less of a problem for the Bundeswehr.

The DDR did manage to get their off table into action but with zero effect.

And counter battery fire soon took them out anyway.

The exciting part of the game however was the actions of 3rd Panzer whose right hook had caught the Bundeswehr slightly off guard – they were too busy shooting the shit out of the rest of the opposition 🤣

And so it became a race for the bridge……..

The Bundeswehr threw everything they had at 3rd Panzer as turn 8 loomed.

But eventually 3rd Panzer were swept away and with the end of turn 7 the Leopards were on the bridge and the lights over West Germany could remain on 😁

Next up was a Reconquista game on the arid Spanish hillsides, Spanish Christian v Moslem Andalusian but with both sides having allied contingents from the other faith. Alfonso & El Cid commanded the Christians, co-operating for once.

The Christians had the better cavalry and took the fight to the Andalusians.

The opening skirmishing favoured the Andalusians.

Alfonso had to do a bit of steadying the infantry and the line held.

Meanwhile the Cid was leading his troops to victory with a sneaky flank attack – not very Christian 🙄

The game became quite the cavalry slog with both sides throwing in units and generals.

Ultimately it became a Christian victory with the Cid casting down his opposite number.

Next was the 2nd in our Guadalcanal mini campaign, this time Cape Esperance, influenced by the fallout from our first game. Again the battle was fought at night.

For this one we hade to think a bit. Our resident expert and umpire, Gerard, had us steaming by map in column – yes they deployed in column! Once visibility was determined the models came on but you still had to spot before you could fire and if a target fell out of spotting distance then it was no longer a target – very challenging.

Pretty soon the ships were all over the place and the spotting was a real pain but in a good way.

The Americans used their destroyers very effectively, getting in close to launch torpedoes, even though the early torpedoes were generally useless, but not always 😀

The more effective Japanese torpedoes certainly did their part – here the Boise goes to the bottom.

Followed by the San Francisco.

But American numbers (and guns and armour) told and the Japanese beat a retreat. Interestingly both flagships were sunk but the Japanese suffered higher overall losses.

Our next outing was on the plains of eastern Europe where an Ottoman incursion was being opposed by the troops of the Imperial borderlands.

The playing area was bisected by a meandering stream (representing the border) which was close enough to the Imperial left for them to use it to aid the defence by the Croatian horse and close enough in the centre of the line for the levy and mercenary pike to get to and defend the banks. On the Ottoman left their Tartar cavalry & Delis were poised to cross the bridge while across the centre & right were 6 bodies of Spahis screened by Azab foot.

The Ottoman advance was a bit of a mess, the Azabs wouldn’t move so didn’t provide a screen to the Spahis who advanced through them (at least they had bows) while out on the left the Tartars dithered and the Delis went home! The Imperialists were a bit more organised and on the right the Austrian and Hungarian nobles galloped forward.

Here come the nobles!

First contact was the Hungarian nobles splashing across the stream and hurtling into some waiting Spahi who were dispatched in short order.

Out on the Imperial left the Croatian contingents were doing nice work with their carbines.

On the Ottoman left the last unit of Tartars is about to run away and that flank will be gone.

In the Ottoman centre it all starts to go horribly wrong as the German mercenary horse and pike splash across the stream (out of shot) and start shooting up the Spahis.

Terror is infectious and the Ottoman centre dissolves. The Imperialists are not without casualties but no morale collapses were suffered which was a rot that set in amongst the Ottomans.

Our next foray was a Carlist War encounter. Government troops, being mainly the British Legion plus the Guards battalions, seeking to turf the Carlists out of a reinforced position.

Skirmishing was very much the order of the day for the opening moves with the Carlists having the better of it, particularly on their right wing.

Attempting to force the issue on the Carlist right the Government lost patience and rolled out the cavalry, perhaps a little bit too early…..

In went the Princess Hussars with plenty of “Huzzah!”

So much for “Huzzah!” 😂🤣😭

And then came the cuirassiers, who did a little better but had to fall back hurt.

But they came back for more and a Carlist general died trying to hold his troops together.

The cuirassiers finally chopped their way through and this part of the Carlist line was unhinged.

Out on the government right the lancers from the British Legion hurled themselves into the Carlist line.

And desperate squares are formed as the first line falls.

At them with the bayonet as opposing attack columns close.

Casualties on both sides mount but the Carlists now have three divisional generals dead on the field and so yield the ground. A bloody and pointless affair.

Our final effort was good old Successors, Antigonus v Eumenes.

To try and get away from the usual slog across the open field, historical though it undoubtedly is, a more narrative approach was tried. In this, Eumenes is marching for his camp, placed beyond a fast flowing stream and approachable by a single bridge. Antigonus and his son Demetrious have split their forces in an attempt to out manoeuvre their old enemy and have ended up on the opposite side of the table in two constrained areas, Demetrious upstream from the bridge and Antigonus separated from Eumenes by several low hills. Both sides had constraints about which troops (and Generals) could be where and then drew disposition maps.

Demetrious had all the good cavalry plus a single elephant backed by two pike battalions, which soon got left behind in the rush for the bridge.

Antigonus had the main body of the infantry backed by some satrap cavalry.

Eumenes opted to send his cavalry, backed by the Hypaspists, past the bridge to take on Demetrious and thus create a funnel behind them for the rest of the army to access the camp. But first those infantry were going to take on the host of Antigonus and see if they could do enough to make them pull back.

Eumenes had two elephant squadrons to the Antigonids one and so tried to use them as blockers. Here one crashes into the Antigonid veterans.

The result was inevitable but it did keep the veterans out of the pike clash which was about develop.

At the bridge, Demetrious just about won the race and the cavalry melees set in.

Out on the Eumenid right the big fight was about to happen and as can be seen the Antigonid veterans (top left) are delayed. in the foreground both of Eumenes infantry commanders have joined a battalion, Antigenes with the Silver Shields on the left and Teutamus in the centre. Antigonus himself, seen on the hill to the rear, didn’t commit himself and that would prove problematic.

After a couple of turns of bluster (also known as failure to charge rolls on both sides) it was the Eumenids who surged forward and the fight was on!

Back at the bridge the fight was in full swing as both sides fed horse and elephants into the fray. The action was favouring Demetrious but the killer blow was yet to be delivered.

On the hills the killer blow had been struck and the central Antigonid pike battalions collapsed and fled. The presence of Antigenes & Teutamus had kept the Eumenids in the fight at the critical moments.

There was still some fighting to do. The third Eumenid pike battalion was making hard work of finishing some hoplites but the inevitable would not be long and the Antigonid veterans were free and clear but alone.

At the bridge Demetrious was still battling away as Eumenes fed more troops into the fray but with his dad’s forces on the run we concluded discretion would be the better part of valour. The great Antigonous/Eumenes contest would continue for another season.

And that was the month, another fine one. Not much on the painting/modelling front, spare time has been spent on completing the rules for my Timurid forces and rebasing for the third (and last) time, hopefully they will see the table in a trial run next month. Until then, play nice and enjoy the weather.

July 2025 Report

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Two shows and five games, a pretty reasonable month.

Our first game was WWII desert skirmish using our own tried and tested rules set. On this occasion a daring rescue attempt by SAS squads of two captured officers held at an Axis camp before transfer to the Gestapo for questioning.

The bulk of the Axis forces were asleep in their barracks while Askari patrolled the perimeter. The British were divided into 3 squads supported by an armoured car each, approaching from the cover beyond the main gate. Various scenario rules were in place for noise and and whether the guards would be alerted and how long it would take for sleeping soldiers to tumble out of bed.

The British de-bussed at a safe distance and advanced on foot with the armoured cars rolling on behind.

Impatience got the better of the British and before everyone was set the Rolls Royce opened up on the guard house eliminating the Askari inside. Now it was time to get a move on.

With the hornets nest duly disturbed the Axis troops began to tumble out into the square with the Italian tank crews leading the way into their fearsome tankettes 🤣

Unfortunately the lead tankette quickly went up in smoke and the Italians became a little more circumspect.

It wasn’t all wine and roses for the British however when the one tankette with an actual gun dropped a shell into one of the squads and downed two. Things were getting serious now!

As the British advanced into the compound the armoured cars gave very effective support fire.

It was starting to look like bullying now 😂

It was not all British hoorah though as once the Afrika Corps troops managed to push the Italians out of the way some serious fight back started to take place.

However it was all a bit too late by the Axis and with all the armour destroyed and most of the Italians & Askari dead or wounded the Germans had no choice but to surrender themselves and the prisoners.

Next was an interesting Successors game whereby Antigonus and his mighty host took on the western satrap Alcetas with both sides obscured by a belt of woods.

The Antigonids were pike heavy with 5 battalions ranging from Veteran to Levy supported by hoplite mercenaries. They were also heavy in horse with 6 units of formed cavalry. Where they were weak was in light troops, fielding only 1 unit of light horse and 3 of foot, but they did of course have elephants.

Alcetas on the other hand was falling over himself with light troops and that dictated his style of play. His heavy troops were 2 pike battalions and 2 hoplite battalions which he positioned opposite one of the breaks in the woods heavily screened by psiloi while his left was protected by 3 units of Psidian peltasts planning to take advantage of the woods opposite and his by some Thracians and more psiloi. The satrapal heavy & light horse was held back on the left to await orders to be committed to plug any holes that appeared.

The battle opened with a strong advance all along the Antigonid line but a far more cautious one from Alcetas – jibes about dragging his feet had no effect whatsoever 😂

The first serious action was the psiloi annoying the elephants which thy did very well and in due course we had panicking elephants and then dead elephants.

The early cavalry action was on the Antigonid right where Demetrious and half of the cavalry were massively outnumbered by the opposition and were ground down and eventually surrounded – lesson, don’t’ split your cavalry.

The other half of the Antigonid cavalry had a far better time beating up the Psidians.

And disappeared in a wild chase from which they never rallied.

At the two thirds point the game very much looked like it was going the way of the Antigonids. Demetrious was still holding his own on the right and the Median horse on the centre right under Peithon were making headway. Alcetas admitted he was worried.

The woods however were starting to become a bit of a pain in the arse – not least in trying to make sure weapons didn’t break off!

Eventually the heavy stuff got into contact with both sides mercenary hoplites slogging it out and both Antigonus and Menander (commanding for Alcetas) joining their troops to keep the combat going.

Then in a startling development the two Pantodapoi pike battalions, who had previously been protected by the Median horse, found themselves on their own, outflanked and showered with javelins and broke leaving a great big hole in the Antigonid centre.

Some consolation was gained when Antigonus’ veterans punched their way through but that just left them in a sea of enemy troops.

At game end Alcetas had the numbers and we called it a victory to him by a narrow margin.

Our next encounter was the final one of our Napoleonic north Italian odyssey, the battle of the Raab, 1809.

A much bigger game than our previous engagements (well for the French anyway 😉) the result was never really in any doubt, despite some early French efforts to completely cock it up, and it was all about how well the Austrians could do in defeat.

In an early effort to cock things up the French cavalry commander threw Guedin’s dragoon division across the Pancza stream and promptly lost it! Off to a great start.

A more circumspect approach was then adopted by the French and Laureston, supported by Sahuc, scored an early success on the French left.

This then led to a rapidly developing and fiercely fought contest on the Austrian right.

Meanwhile in the centre the French attack had gradually built and holes started to appear in the Austrian line.

Austrian grenadiers were desperately thrown in to plug the gaps but it was all a bit piecemeal.

French mass assaults turn the day.

Total Austrian collapse – every division is exhausted (Volley & Bayonet parlance). History does indeed repeat itself although our French paid a higher price.

Our final game was a GNW piece that stretched into two days. For this battle we had the table split by a major river, only crossable by a bridge leading into a town. A Russo Danish allied army was advancing up either bank of the river to contact a Swedish force reported as coming their way. The Russians and Danes had to deploy either side of the river although who took which side didn’t matter, the Swedes could deploy on either side or split to deploy on both sides and the split didn’t need to be even.

In the event the Russians took the right hand side with two brigades of foot, one of horse grenadiers and one of dragoons and the Danes the left with one brigade of horse and two brigades of foot. The Danes had the advantage of being on the side where the town was and maybe could beat the Swedes to it.

The Swedes opted to split their forces placing two brigades of horse and two of foot on the side facing the town and one each of horse and foot on the other bank facing the Russians.

In the opening moves the Danes won the race for the town (just) and this would prove to be a crucial event giving the Danes the advantage of receiving the forthcoming Swedish attacks at the halt.

Over on the Russian bank their horse (Kroptov and Tiernishov) splashed across the tributary stream to take the fight to the Swedes who lumbering forward.

The Swedes responded with their horse under Torstensson

The Russians were stopped but not overwhelmed and the Swedes fell back to regroup and the Russians realised they had got off lightly mixing it mounted so dismounted and started peppering away with muskets to keep the Swedes busy while their infantry hurried up.

Over on the other side of the river the Swedes threw in their first wave of cavalry under Hard but found that Danes weren’t quite so brittle as the Russians they were used to and so bounced off. No problem there’s another brigade to throw in.

In came the 2nd wave under Armfeldt and still the Danes held. Phew! The Swedes are now carrying some significant losses.

Back over the river the Russians are making a good show of it.

The Swedes have made a hole. Can they exploit it?

The Russian realise that they have more than enough troops to contain two Swedish brigades and so release Golovin’s brigade to march over the bridge to support the Danes – this will prove crucial.

In the town the Swedes and Danes slug it out. First with volleys and then with the Swedes trying to carry it with the pike & bayonet. Ultimately this is a failure and the Swedish brigade breaks with heavy casualties, ultimately rallying back at the table edge but spends the rest of the battle recouping its losses. The Danes now have the town and the Russians the bridge, its going to need a major Swedish effort to turn this around.

The Torstensson’s brigade breaks from accumulated casualties. It will rally but will need to recover losses.

The Swedes facing the Danes are now starting to gain ground so the Danes throw in their cavalry to stem the tide (see top corner). Sparre’s foot brigade is coming up behind the horse.

This is not good! The losses on Hard’s brigade reached critical mass and it only took one morale test for the brigade to crumble, The Danes breathed a sigh of relief.

The Danish line is finally breached by Sparre’s infantry but it has been an effort and they are not in a cohesive formation.

With the absence of Torstensson the infantry under von Liewen are being surrounded.

And breaks.

Golovin has shook out into line with 5 battalions of fresh troops and his right resting on the securely held town. His left is slightly in the air but about half of the Danish brigade has rallied and they are filtering in. The infantry under Sparre are too scattered to do anything in concert, Hard and Armfeldt are still recovering and Torstensson and von Liewen are lost. Emphatic Russo Danish victory.

In other news shows were attended! I’ve already spoken about Joy of Six but I also went to Attack! in Devizes.

The last time I went to Devizes I said I wouldn’t go again. Not because of the show but the distance, it is way too long a journey from Coventry in one day for what is an OK show, but circumstances meant I had to go so there I was.

My take on the show is that it is very old school and that has some charm but my impression was that numbers were low and two days is a stretch.

I did however manage to get some stuff done. This church and rectory for 6mm Cold War.

A power station for the 6mm.

A cypress grove for the 10mm Iran Iraq.

A copse for the Iran Iraq.

Acquired some pylons for the 6mm. Need a dark wash I think.

Another hill – because I haven’t got any of course 🙄

East Germans ready for action.

And I’ve chucked 3 years of work on a set of rules for my existing Timurid collection in the bin and been energised into doing something based on existing lines but different enough, hopefully!

And that’s it. Long may the summer continue. Be good and enjoy your gaming for as long as you can.

June 2025 Report

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Wow! It’s been a hot one but we have ‘soldiered on’ undeterred by the heat 😎

Our first game of the month was a re-fight of the battle of Oriamendi, 16th March 1837, in the First Carlist War.

In the actual battle the Carlists under Sebastian de Borbon attacked the Liberal Government forces the Liberal Government forces under General de Lacy Evans and routed them, including the sizeable British Legion who occupied the strategic hill of Ormiamendi.

Details are sketchy but we managed to scrape together enough information to put up a reasonable representation. The Government left was held by the British Legion supported by mountain guns and rockets and the right by the main government army. The Carlists had three commands, a force marching on from their right, an infantry centre in front of the town of Hernani and a strong left wing of mixed horse & foot on rising ground.

The main Government attack started on the right and in fact finished on the right. Throughout the game this mixed body of horse and foot slogged away against the Carlist left in what at times seemed like a doomed venture. Battalions routed and rallied but with the help of some well placed artillery shots they eventually stormed the high ground and turned in on the outskirts of Hernani.

On the hill of Oriamendi the British were in pretty good shape at the start of the battle and fired away unhindered.

But as the Carlist flanking force got itself into action that hill didn’t seem quite the greatest place to be.

The guns were in a pretty precarious position at one point but counterattacks saved the position enough for the Legion to hang on while the main army did the heavy lifting.

Our next effort was the first in a hoped for series of naval battles representing the Guadalcanal campaign, first up the battle of Savo Island.

We represented Mikawa’s force ship for ship and the Allied Southern Group and Northern Group ship for ship including the ill fated Canberra.

Our resident expert, Gerard, put in place rules adaptations and constrictions to represent the fact of fighting at night and the lack of co-ordination between the two allied fleets.

It was just as confused as the real battle and the Canberra went to the bottom in a re-run of history along with the Chicago.

The rest however was a bit of a divergence from history; the Japanese lost the Furutaka and the Americans came away with more of their ships intact than their historical forbearers. Looking forward to the next one.

Next up was a big one! We planned a 2 day Cold War gone hot game, an encounter battle between a Bundeswehr Panzer brigade and a Soviet Tank Regiment somewhere in Germany.

We planned a 10,000 point per side game using the Cold War Commander rules with 5,000 points coming on table on the first day, but without air or artillery support, and the other 5,000 on the second day.

I wont say it wasn’t hard work, we fought both games during the intense heat, which I think affected our ability to think properly on occasion and it was a lot of stuff to keep track of.

Conditions not withstanding we had a fine game. The Soviets arrived a broad front on the first day with three tank battalions, the elite T80 battalion entered the town at the northern end of the board and remained there for the bulk of the first day. The two T62 battalions entered in the centre and toward the southern end of the board, the centre battalion advanced as far as the main autobahn (on a raised embankment) and the southern advanced on a hill with a church on top for a splendid view.

The Bundeswehr had formed into four combined arms groups, copying cold war doctrine, and on day 1 deployed two of these, one to the south and one to the north. Each group comprised two company’s of Leopard 2’s, one company of troop carrying Marders and a Gepard platoon.

Day 1 was a day of jockeying for position. In the north the centre T62 battalion took on the northern combat group, who had coalesced around a wooded area, and came off worse, retreating out of line of fire. The combat group then got themselves into a shooting exchange with the T80’s in the town which then came off badly in.

At the southern end of the battlefield the other T62 battalion got itself onto the hill and the as the day drew on on exchanged shots with the Bundeswehr below them who were slow to advance – reflecting afterwards the Bundeswehr player saw this as his major error in not pressing the attack (he would pay on Day 2).

Day 2 dawned with the arrival (or not due to the vagaries of the dice) of both sides reinforcements heralded by the dreaded HINDs.

The Soviets came with a motorised infantry battalion who headed straight into the already busy town – everyone getting in some duty free shopping 😂. The rest was off table artillery – mortars and rocket launchers, some self propelled on table guns and air cover in the guise of the HINDs plus Frogfoot and Fitter ground attack aircraft.

The Bundeswehr came with two more combat groups and some M109’s being directed off table. One of the combat groups came on to the south to beef up the push for the hill and a planned sweep up the flank of the Soviet positions and the other came on in the centre planning to push through and link up with the flanking move – it didn’t work out 😒

Although not battle winners in and of themselves the HINDs and air were a substantial threat. The Bundeswehr centre thrust got caught and slowed enough to prevent it making the progress needed to split the Soviet positions. A consolation was shooting down a HIND and forcing it out of the battle area.

The additional southern combat group did turn the tide on the hill and even overran the Soviet command post but it shouldn’t have needed 16 Leopards to take out 9 T62s. In reality this was a bit of a hollow victory because the Germans were now exposed to ATGWs being slung at them from the T80s in the town.

As we progressed it was increasingly obvious the Bundeswehr were on a bit of a hiding to nothing and when we looked at the mandated rules breakpoint check the Germans were well over it and so we called it as a Soviet victory.

A good game but hard work in the heat, The perennial problem for the Bundeswehr player is whether to follow doctrine and counterattack whenever possible or be a sensible wargamer and sit back in cover with better armour and better guns – tough choice.

Our final game was a Wars of Religion game, Spanish v Dutch.

The deployments were pre planned, players just needed to dice for sides.

Both sides had a single massed cavalry wing conveniently placed opposite each other 😁

Elsewhere across the table the Dutch had a strong right wing of English allies/mercenaries and Sea Beggars under Sir Francis de Vere facing off to the lesser Tercio’s – Brabant and Walloons while in the centre the ‘good’ Tercios faced the Dutch centre holding a village and hill.

Not surprisingly the bulk of the action was taken up by the cavalry. The massed regiments came at each other in a rush (mainly 🤣) and then settled into grinding melee, retreat, reform and come again for the whole of the battle.

Initially the Spanish had the edge and saw off a cuirassier regiment and a Reiter regiment but the commitment of the Dutch lancers stabilised the line and the conflict swung in favour of the Dutch ultimately leaving them the battered victors.

In the infantry engagements the Dutch had an early stroke of luck when the colonel of the Brabant tercio was killed and the regiment had a catastrophic reaction, routing back to the camp. Their fellow infantry didn’t really care but the lack of numbers told when they got into harquebus range of de Vere’s command and the shooting started, they simply didn’t have the firepower to sustain the fight.

In the centre the Tercios rumbled forward supported by artillery fire but it was a long journey and the Dutch were in no hurry to come and meet them!

Ultimately the Lombardy tercio got into contact sweeping aside it’s first opponent but held by Zealand, mainly due to the slow attrition faced by Lombardy as it advanced and Zealand being fresh as a daisy.

With night drawing on and 10 colonels dead on the field we called it. From the Dutch perspective they had regained the initiative in the cavalry maul and nothing was going to change that now, on their right de Vere was wearing down the Walloons and the Germans with little loss to himself and in the centre the tercios were being held. A good day to be Dutch.

Holidays and the heat have meant that not much has been achieved on the painting table although I have got some more Iran Iraq command stands done. What time has been available has been spent on my renewed effort at sorting rules for the Timurid collection so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the sun and enjoy your gaming.

April 2025 Report

westburywargaming2 Comments

A third of the year gone but still we keep playing 😊

We opened the month with my personal favourite, Successors. For this one we had, Imperial Seleucid under Seleucus III facing down Ptolemaics under Ptolemy II Philadelphus around the time of the Syrian Wars.

The Seleucids were light on pikes having just the Silver Shields and one other but had the full range of exotics – scythed chariots & elephants, some decent cavalry and those wild Galatians (foot and horse), plus of course sundry skirmish types. The pike deployed in the centre screened by skirmishers, the good horse deployed on the right and the elephants, chariots and Galatians out on the left.

The Ptolemaics were heavy on pikes, four settler units and the Agema, far more cavalry but more variable in quality and a lot of skirmishers. When deployed all the cavalry were on the right, the settler pike took the centre with their sole elephant squadron out front along with some skirmishers while the left was curiously held by the Agema pike and a unit of Thureophoroi screened by more skirmishers.

We opted to use the terrain and scouting sections from the rules rather than just bang the armies down on the plain and this should have favoured the Ptolemaics with their superior scouting strength but they fumbled and ended up with a terrain board that helped rather than hindered the Seleucids.

Being inferior in numbers the Seleucids opted to hold back their pikes and rely on the exotics to make a mess of the massed Ptolemaic cavalry wing while their own cavalry swung round a convenient ravine to menace the centre. Some of this worked 🤨

The Seleucid elephants managed to get themselves between two woods which had the effect of drawing the Ptolemaic cavalry into a funnel of disorder while out on the extreme edge of the wing the chariots did exactly what they were supposed to do, charge in, crash, cause casualties and become inconvenient wreckage.

Sticking with the Ptolemaic right, the chariots soon shot their bolt (as expected) but the Greek and Thessalian cavalry took losses and more importantly were slowed down.

The Seleucid elephants had a good game, they frightened the children (oh no, sorry, the horses), had their mahouts killed and went into panic, rampaging about randomly – exactly what you want to see 😂

Ultimately the elephants died but their nuisance value had allowed the Galatian warbands to get up and get stuck in. The Galatians in fact had their best game so far, they duffed up a settler pike battalion and routed it, they saw off charges by both the Agema and the veteran Thessalian cavalry and killed the leader of the cavalry wing which paralysed it for the rest of the game. Result!

In the centre the Ptolemaic pike mass moved confidently forward but slowly (fairly obviously) and given the decision by the Seleucid general to hang back their only bright spot was the success of their Rhodian and Cretan mercenaries in driving off the opposition skirmishers.

Out on the Seleucid right the cavalry didn’t have the battle they hoped for, the rather odd deployment of Thureophoroi, pike and elephant initially worked and both Seleucid Xystophoroi regiments were seen off, one by the Thureophoroi and one by a combination of pikes and elephant. Unfortunately the Seleucid Hetairoi regiment sneaked through and opportunistically charged a shaken and disordered settler pike battalion and routed it – the stars really did align for that combat.

As we approached the end the Silver Shields were unleashed and……..failed to charge! What an embarrassment 🤣

The embarrassment of the Silver Shields not withstanding it was clearly a Seleucid victory, the Ptolemaic cavalry were paralysed and the settler pike were not having a good day.

Could it have gone differently? I think yes. The terrain decisions by the Ptolemaic general were definitely a factor effectively limiting the ability of the big cavalry wing to do anything and having all the cavalry eggs in one basket as it were definitely was a tactical limitation for the Ptolemaics. But so what, we had a fun game and that is what matters.

Next up was another Victory at Sea game but not the war in the Pacific this time instead we fought the Battle of the Denmark Straits. Yes two ships per side and that’s it 😲

Gerard came up with an intriguing little scenario for us and it really worked. First off we didn’t know what action we were doing until we were allocated sides and then we had restrictions on what we could see, what we knew and what we could do, all reflecting the original action.

Fairly obviously this wasn’t going to last us all day so we had one game in the morning, broke for lunch and then swopped sides for the afternoon session, sometimes it pays to go small.

In the first session the Hood was sunk quite early on in a repeat of history and Prince of Wales had its rudder jammed so was reduced to steaming in circles as the Bismarck sailed away with minimal damage leaving behind Prince Eugen at the bottom of the straits.

In our second game the British co-ordinated their efforts a lot better and zeroed in on the Bismarck ultimately crippling it to such an extent that all it could do was sail back up the straits into the arms of patrolling destroyers. The Prince Eugen was ultimately sunk.

This second game was a far more hard fought fight and at the end both Hood and Prince of Wales had serious damage but were still in the fight. A really good game and different.

Our third game of the month was a welcome return to the skirmish genre, this time we dusted off the Soviet Afghan collection and put together a mujahedeen attack on police and army units on the edge of a town.

The police started the game on duty outside the station, across the road was a government official and his bodyguards, inside the police station an army unit was resting prior to going out on patrol. The mujahedeen started at randomly generated points around the table edges.

One squad of Mujahedeen advance through an orchard.

A second squad nears the edge of the police station, local boy offers water fresh from the well. Have they been spotted?

Shots fired!

No need for cover now.

The army opens up from the police station – this is getting serious now!

This guy tried to three times to blow open the doors to the government building. Literally couldn’t hit a barn door 😂🤣

OK this isn’t looking too good. Time to change sides?

Government official makes a quick exit.

“He got away!” Mujahedeen withdraw with no casualties. Afghan police 3 x KIA, 1 captured. Afghan army 1 x KIA. It was nice to get one of the many skirmish collections out but truth is some of them need to be sold on now, just taking up too much space.

Next was another in our relatively new 6mm Cold War project this time giving the newly painted BAOR their first outing.

Like our March game this was another riff on the narrative in Jim Storr’s, ‘Battlegroup’. This time the 7th Armoured Brigade has been rushed forward from the divisional reserve to stop the Soviet 7th Guards Tank Division crossing the river Innerste.

The game was essentially an encounter game with battalions deploying to the table based on successful command rolls. The BAOR deployed one Chieftain brigade and one Challenger brigade along with a mechanised infantry brigade and some SP artillery. The Soviets deployed three tank battalions, one T80 and two T62, one of which was under strength, plus a trio of HINDs. Both sides had off table artillery.

The HINDs deployed early and, as usual, caused some heart stopping moments for the Brits – these damm things really are difficult to deal with.

As the Brits obligingly sat back the Soviets made a dash for the main suspension bridge.

Some decent shooting from infantry LAWs stops the Soviets on the bridge.

British infantry occupy villages on their side of the river.

Soviet advance continues.

The second bridge, ripe and ready for the taking.

Ultimately the Soviets seized both bridges and the British failed their breakpoint morale role so it was on to the Wesser for the Soviets.

On reflection this wasn’t one of our better games. The British overall commander was getting to know his army and so played an overly cautious game which manifested itself in some curious deployment decisions.

What turned out to be our final game of the month was a War of the Austrian Succession game set in northern Italy with a French army on one side and and an Austro Piedmontese army on the other approaching a town where there is thought to be a supply of shoes – sound familiar?

It wasn’t planned this way but this turned into a two day affair and it’s probably worth talking about that.

This was a lot of troops; the French fielded 6 brigades, the Austrians 5 and the Piedmontese 4, all marching to the table and in some cases getting each others way (that was the intention). What this meant was that by the end of the original day the battle had only really just got going and we were stuck with falling back on that old staple of “well I think this brigade would probably do this and that brigade would fall back…..” Then in a kind of epiphany moment, which we really shouldn’t have had to have, we realised that we could just leave the game up (because that’s what a permanent wargames room is all about 🤔) and because we’re retired we can game whenever we damm well please! And there was me thinking we were all pretty bright blokes 😂🤣

Anyway. The two brigade strong Austrian cavalry brigade marched up the right hand road aiming to pass through some walled gardens and smash some French cavalry seen deploying near some woods. On the opposite flank the Piedmontese single cavalry brigade was repeating the same scenario. In the centre all roads led to the town; the French foot had a only a single road to march down so were more strung out but there was less of them, the Austrians and Piedmontese had a road each but it met at a fork outside of the town and a road block was inevitable – the columns had to come down the road to enter the gaming area.

The first action of the game was the clash of the French and Austrian cavalry at the walled gardens. The French caught the lead Austrian dragoons as they shook out of column but failed to bounce them back and fell back themselves, a potential disaster which was rescued by the second French unit that charged in to stabilise the line and send the Austrians themselves packing. This set the tone for the whole game, the Austrians were stymied by the walls and gardens and just could not make enough headway against smaller and weaker opposition.

Out on the other wing the Piedmontese and French cavalry had a more even contest which ultimately saw the Piedmontese bounced back behind their gradually developing infantry lines which later in the game would save them.

In the centre the fight for the town was developing. The town consisted of two built up areas at the sides and one central walled garden area into which the French were establishing themselves just ahead of the Austro-Piedmontese who had been held up by the now infamous fork in the road.

The Austrians just keep on coming! Numbers are beginning to tell at this stage and the French have already recognised they don’t have enough to occupy all the built up areas.

It’s about what would be seen as the mid point of the game. The French hold the central gardens and the whole of the right built up area, the left is contested with the Austrians. The cavalry on both flanks are holding their own. This is the high water mark of the French effort.

Emboldened by their success the French cavalry right spurs its horses forward scenting victory. An infantry brigade is supporting to the rear. What could possibly go wrong?

In a bizarre turn of events the French left cavalry received orders to pull back to their original starting point allowing the Austrians the opportunity to sort themselves out and exit the gardens. The reasoning of the French CinC was that he thought the cavalry would be overwhelmed in due course but what this order did was to allow the Austrians to fight with the advantage of their numbers and it also exposed the left flank of the infantry brigade trying to stop the Austrian juggernaut coming round that side of the town.

The right hand side of the town (as seen from the French side)has fallen to the Piedmontese assault. Frankly they made hard work of this, this part of the town was only held by two skirmish regiments as the French didn’t have the numbers, none the less the French in the central gardens were now under serious threat.

The situation worsens in the town. The left hand side built up area has been given up to the Austrians and the weight of Austrian fire on the centre (look at all those battalions!) has driven the French out allowing the Piedmontese to begin occupying the ground.

Out on the Austrian right, their cavalry prepare to seize their moment, now it is their time!

“Onward to victory!”

Oh dear 🤣😂 In a stunning turn about the Austrians lost their bottle and retired without even crossing swords!

And it got worse. It just wasn’t the Austrians day. The French breathed a sigh of relief.

However out on the French right the cavalry brigade has all but been destroyed by Piedmontese musket fire and the supporting infantry brigade has also collapsed. Yes the Piedmontese have suffered losses but the French are in no position to do anything about it.

With night falling the French are finished. Despite the unlooked for success on the right the rest of the army is spent and retreat is the only option covered by the very lucky right flank cavalry.

I for one was really glad we carried this on to a second day. There was plenty of fight left in the game, in fact the bulk of the fight was in the second day. We had some knife edge moments, some lucky moments and some disastrous moments, in fact everything you could want in a good game. Well done all!

In theory that should have been it for the month but not for me because I went down to Basingstoke for a refight of the battle of Malplaquet hosted by Mark Freeth at the Wargames Holiday Centre. I say ‘at the Wargames Holiday Centre’ when in fact the WHC comes to you, because these days Mark sets up the 27 foot long playing area in an extended conference room at the local Holiday Inn, so you stay, eat and drink in the hotel and game in the conference room all very convenient.

I’d love to give a detailed account of the ebb and flow of the grand battle but I can’t. The one disadvantage (oh the trauma of it all!) of playing on such a large table is that you only really know what’s going on in your six foot square of action.

I can say that on the Friday night and all day Saturday we played a series of games that were a loose simulation of contacts leading up to the battle but were in reality a means to get people used to the rules – Kampfe In Reihen by Steve Thompson. Personally I think this this was a bit too long and it kind of took you out of the moment, maybe Friday night and Saturday morning would have been enough.

Sunday was the main event and as best as I could tell it went something like this. The French left cavalry (me) fought a long and bloody battle against superior numbers of allied cavalry but finally gave up the struggle. Way down on the French right a mixed force of horse and foot made little headway against inferior opposition. In the centre sheer weight of numbers drove in the French centre.

I’m, glad I went, it was an itch that I had wanted to scratch for years. I had been to the WHC in the very early years under Pete Gilder when I was a callow youth and then continued with it when Mike Ingham took over from Pete and amongst other things instigated the Marlburian period as a staple on the menu but despite meeting Mark at the centre under Mike and forming a friendship I had never been able to attend under his stewardship so that’s done now.

This kind of mass gaming can be seen as a bit of a relic of a different time in wargaming and I get that, certainly it’s not for everyone and it does have a cost attached to it. I’m glad I have finally got to play in it’s third iteration, whether I will again remains to be seen, but it was a nice note to end the month on.