Tag: wargaming

January 2025 Report

westburywargaming8 Comments

Bloody hell January has gone! A better month than I thought it would be what with post Christmas & New Year activities to deal with so here are our efforts for the month.

First up was a game from our Reconquista/El Cid project which is progressing rather well.

In this one we had Christian Spanish v Moslem Andalusians, an ‘equal points’ game rather than a scenario driven game – it’s easy to deride ‘points games’ but if you are trying to formulate a set of rule mechanisms that work then this does give a level playing field to work from.

Our terrain was a line of ridges with a stream just behind running east to west, emerging from the hills and ending at one table edge, the ground opposite was fairly open.

As it was the beginning of the month our numbers were low so we actually played the game twice with different players. Strangely both sets of players chose almost exactly the same set up with no knowledge of the previous player choices.

The Moslem forces chose the ground behind the stream & ridge line and in the first game deployed their spearmen covered by skirmishers out of sight behind the hills, in the second they deployed the infantry on the left hoping to move to the stream and deny a crossing to the Christians. With their cavalry; in the first game they deployed their jinettes and two units of retainers on the left and their nobles and two other units on the right, in the second game the jinettes were behind the ridge line and all the cavalry on the right.

In both games the Christians deployed their infantry in the centre – militia spear and militia crossbows screened by skirmishing slingers and bowmen while on the right their caballeros (retainer cavalry) were deployed and on the left the military orders and noble cavalry.

In the first game it was all about the cavalry. On the Christian left the nobles and military orders swept away the opposing nobles and retainers and on their right fought a tougher but ultimately successful series of melees which saw that Moslem flank also collapse. In the centre the Moslem infantry gained the ridgeline and held off the Christian centre but with both flanks swept away it was a clear Christian victory.

In the second game it was a much more even handed contest. The attack of the caballeros at the stream was met by the spearmen who defended the stream with tenacity and despite the the caballeros forcing their way over at one point their losses were too much and they fell back. On the Christian left the veterans and military orders were met by more numerous opposition and a couple of decent class noble units which ultimately proved decisive and the Christians fled with severe losses. In the centre the Christian infantry gained the ridgeline with little hindrance but so what? and in fact the overspill of Moslem cavalry from the Andalusian right started to cause problems for the crossbowmen, one unit of which was ridden down. So with the stream held and the best Christian units seen off an Andalusian victory was declared.

Although two games of the same scenario is not really our thing this did in fact prove very useful in that we were able to prove out the last rules mods and now have something that will see us through some consistent play. The particularly positive outcome was that we now feel confident enough to do the game at the next Partizan so come and have a look if you are there.

Our next effort was a step back in time and a re-fight – the battle of Panium, 201BC.

I knew nothing of this battle until one of the guys pointed out the recent article in Wargames Soldiers & Strategy by Mark Backhouse. As it featured later Successors (Ptolemaics & Seleucids) it talked to one of our loves and as we had just finished up some more cataphracts it seemed very serendipitous!

If you want a detailed read then turn to Mark’s article or if you fancy yourself as a scholar dig out Polybius Book 16 but I warn you it is just as confusing as Mark says! A precis of the battle is as follows; the Seleucids deployed with their cataphracts on the right stationed on Mount Hermon, the centre was the usual array of pikes covered by skirmishing infantry & cavalry plus elephants and the left was a smaller cavalry force; the Ptolemaics were weak in cavalry and so deployed limited numbers on both flanks but had a strong infantry centre of pike & Thracians screened by numerous skirmishers. The Seleucids opened the battle with a furious charge of the cataphracts off the hill which swept away the opposition, seeing this the Ptolemaics pressed the attack in the centre and seemed to have gained the upper hand but the victorious cataphracts returned and enveloped the Ptolemaic left at the same time as the Seleucid left turned in on the Ptolemaic right and the game was up.

Our refight used the order of battle presented by Mark, translated into our rules and lists which came out as follows: On the Seleucid right, 3 x cataphracts under Antiochus the Younger, in the centre, under Antiochus the Great, 4 x pike (including the elite silver shields) screened by a unit of Cretan bow and a unit of Tarentine light horse with 5 x elephants placed at intervals between the pike, on the left a single unit of Agema heavy cavalry and a unit of local formed cavalry under Nicarchus (conjectural). On the Ptolemaic left was 2 x formed cavalry under Ptolemy, in the centre 6 x pike, and a unit of Thracians screened by 4 units of skirmishers of varying quality and out on the right the overall commander, Scopas, with a single unit of Agema cavalry.

Our refight was a classic example of how wargamers can break the historical narrative and the reason why we play.

As is always the case with these kind of games it’s all about the cavalry to start with. On the Seleucid right the cataphracts lumbered off the hill (hardly a furious charge 😂) but the Ptolemaics got the initiative when it came to contact and got in first precipitating a drawn out melee which ultimately saw the one unit of cataphracts fleeing. Fast forwarding, this flank then devolved into the other Ptolemaic unit being routed by it’s opposing cataphracts and the the third cataphract unit advancing to the Ptolemaic camp and begin looting. On the other cavalry flank the clash of the Agema resulted in the destruction of the Seleucid version and their supporting cavalry was shot down by Ptolemaic skirmishers, the Ptolemaic Agema however was in no state do do anything further.

In the centre we got to do the thing we love, shove long pointy sticks at each other 🤣

Both sides advanced steadily and in the initial missile exchanges the Seleucid Tarentines were quickly eliminated. The Ptolemaic levy skirmishers who made up half the total performed surprisingly well which demonstrated that crap troops can do well enough if not overly threatened. The Seleucid elephants had a good start when being used as a shooting platform and assisted in the destruction of the enemy Aetolian javelin men.

Once troops started to close then it became more hard core. The elephants had to start earning their keep and that was a bit of mixed bag. Two elephants (well squadrons) got stuck in with the veteran Ptolemaic pike and paid the ultimate price although it did slow those units down and broke up the nice neat lines. Unusually only one unit panicked and of course that ran into it’s own pike effectively pinning that unit, the other two essentially hung around never quite getting the courage up to get stuck in – well who would!

The battle of the pike battalions went pleasingly well from a game point of view but the Seleucids were having a far harder time of it than their historical prototypes. The Silver Shields destroyed the Thracians, great for them but probably a poor use of an elite unit. Further Seleucid success saw the rout of one levied pike and one mercenary pike on the Ptolemaic side with the loss of only one mercenary pike on the Seleucid side.

As we reached the prescribed number of turns assigned for the game it was clear a Seleucid victory had been obtained. The Ptolemaic camp was looted and so the focal point for rallying was lost and they had more units in the wind. Not the decisive victory of history but a dammed good game.

A bit of a sidebar note, I did speak to Mark about doing a write up of the game as a follow on from his article to offer a bit of a different perspective from his own rules but he advised that WS&S policy wasn’t to publish battle reports. Their loss your gain 😉

Up next was another Cold War Commander this time with our growing 6mm collection, both in terms of hardware but also the terrain, I think we have made some serious progress 🙂

We opted for the ‘Battle of Attrition’ scenario from the rules which is exactly that, kill more of the opposition than they kill of you within a fixed number of game turns.

Given that both sides start in fixed positions, somewhat randomised by the roll of the dice, this is a bit of a cat and mouse game and on reflection I’m not convinced of its historical veracity.

Regardless, both sides manoeuvred to try and get the advantage, the Soviets to use their superior numbers and the potentially devastating Hinds with their onboard ATGW arsenal, the Bundeswehr to get the best out of the superior range and superior armour of the Leopard 2’s.

The vulnerability of the Soviet armour was demonstrated several times although in fairness presenting your flank to enemy fire does tend to result in disaster 🤣😂

Ultimately the game was a NATO (Bundeswehr) victory but probably not one of our more satisfying games. The rules, like any set of rules, have bits where you go “really?” but I think it was the scenario that was a bit self defeating, more of a narrative game next time I think.

By way of a complete change our next effort was a Viking skirmish, two roving/allied bands out to loot a rival settlement getting ready for winter.

The raiding bands had the rather obvious objective of obtaining loot, ranging from livestock to hidden wealth, the settled Vikings the objective of seeing off the raiders and killing enough for them not to try again. Forces were positioned randomly on the board.

The raiders approached from the north and the east under Eanmund and Halfdane respectively. Eanmund headed for the isolated smithy to start while Halfdane skulked around the vegetable patches.

The village guard dogs were completely useless and it was complete luck that one of Hygellac’s crew saw Eanmund’s band at the smithy. Horns were sounded, to battle!

The game quickly became the battle for the smithy – not quite Beowulf level but hey ho 😆

The ‘battle’ eventually sucked in Hrothgar’s band from within the village and a lopsided fight saw Eanmund fleeing the scene bleeding from his wounds, his armour rent and his sword notched.

But what of Halfdane and his band I hear you ask? Well, with the guard dogs having wandered off and Hrothgar having heeded the call of the horn it was time for some easy looting.

In fact Halfdane was the clear winner, livestock taken and some of the lesser valuables looted, a fine day out 😄

Next up, Italian Wars, Florentine and Venetians squabbling about real estate in Mantua.

Both sides fielded pretty large forces. The Florentines were strong in militia crossbows & pike supported by mercenary condottierre and mounted crossbows. The Venetians slightly outmatched the Florentines in cavalry and did have the better quality Lanze Spezzate while their infantry was a more eclectic mix of professional crossbowmen and mercenary pike & crossbows. Both sides had a smattering of skirmish horse.

Both sides deployed their battle cavalry on the right flank, the Venetians screened by a wood and the Florentines planning to use the town to anchor their flank. Given the number of crossbows in their army the Florentines strung them out in one long line hoping to get the best out of their firepower, the pikes they deployed on the right centre. The Venetians had deployed their Provisionati (professional crossbow) opposite the Florentine condottiere so their plan automatically became shoot the heavy guys before they ride you down, the mercenary pike and crossbows were deployed in the centre. Both sides had formed units of crossbow cavalry, so not skirmishers, which they deployed on the flanks – history tells us there were thousands of these guys and generally ineffective they were too.

The initial aggression was shown by the Florentines who got their condottierre moving (after a bit of persuasion) in the direction of the Provisionati.

To fast forward a bit the Florentine condottiere weathered the storm of crossbow bolts that met them and ultimately swept away the Provisionati which ended the participation of both combatants for the game.

In the centre we had general disappointment, despite some fairly effective skirmishing neither side could get their pikemen to get stuck in. A mix of poor dice rolling and low rated captains meant that all they did was stand and stare – we did have a discussion about this and although not completely satisfying from a gaming perspective we had to acknowledge that historically these units weren’t that effective in the field.

The game was lost on the Venetian right. The cavalry block advanced late from behind the wood and ran into crossbow fire from the Florentine crossbows on this flank but it wasn’t the casualties that stopped them it was the death of two captains that stymied the advance and led to more casualties and ultimately morale failure.

With the centre deadlocked but the Venetian right stuck and the left lost we gave the victory to the Florentines.

Our final effort of the month was a refight of the battle of Vimeiro 1808 using Command and Colours in 15mm.

My understanding of Vimeiro is that Wellesley, with slightly superior numbers, defended his position at Vimeiro and the adjacent ridge against several uncoordinated attacks by the French under Junot and drove them off with significant losses and ended the French intervention in Portugal.

For our refight the troops were set out as per the historical prototype using the map supplied with the rules.

Being coordinated or otherwise is rather at the discretion of the cards drawn and the playing of them.

In the centre and right the British attempted to get as many units in and around the village of Vimeiro as the cards would allow as well as trying to wear down the French attackers.

On the British/Portuguese left there were a series of moves and counter moves with the French as each tried to seize a village I’ve forgotten the name of and was in fact completely unimportant.

The game was won in the centre where the British just couldn’t get enough troops around Vimeiro to defend it and the French didn’t obligingly launch piecemeal attacks. Conclusive French victory.

I’ll freely admit the rules don’t really do it for me, the card thing is just too abstract and the use of a unique dice mechanism too random. That said though the rest of the group are all Napoleonic fans and there are plenty of battles to fight so we will continue to feature these in our play.

Well that’s it I reckon, not much done on the painting scene although this Iranian armoured recon battalion did get finished along with some road sections, most of the month has been spent on terrain items for the 6mm. So, signing off, please feel free to comment and look forward to posting in a months time.

Dreams For 2025

westburywargaming4 Comments

January is usually a bit of a slow month to get going so with time on my hands I thought I’d reflect on what the group could tackle going forward.

Historical re-fights. Once the life blood of the hobby but not so much so these days. This year we have made a bit of an effort to stage some of these but it has to be admitted they take more organisation than a pick up game or even a narrative game and the reward v effort has to be weighed carefully.

Some of the periods of history in the collections lend themselves fairly well to a re-fight. Our Successors have achieved some good results as have the GNW, Sikh Wars, Wars of Religion and Carlist Wars and there is still more we can probably do with these – fight them through chronologically for example? Other periods suffer from the shear size compared to the scale we happen to have chosen to collect in, others from the dearth of information available, but maybe we just aren’t trying hard enough?

Going forward it would be nice to fight some Thirty Years War battles using Gerard’s 15mm collection under Tilly’s Very Bad Day. The re-vamped War of Austrian Succession in Italy might also be a possible choice, although this may need some additions. On a tricorne theme my French have been waiting patiently for Dave to complete his British for about 5 years now 😂and there are plenty of battles in Savory’s seminal work, maybe 2025 will be their year?

The Victory at Sea collection is most definitely big but the real thing is massive! No way can we fight any of these. Maybe this would lend itself to a mini campaign? Worth think about 🤔

Having conveniently mentioned campaigns above this is one of those things we haven’t tried at all. Certainly they can be a curse for any group/club no matter how big the group or how tight the players – certainly the experience of two of us in a medieval campaign away from home in 2023 was not positive despite the tremendous efforts of the umpire.

Despite the risks I’d like the group to to consider it but choosing the period/campaign will be tricky and the density of the campaign rules would need to be considered carefully. A limited theatre game using our modern collections might work – 10mm Iran/Iraq or 6mm 80’s Cold War or a more formal C18th game.

Weekend game. Or just a longer game. Currently we meet at 10.30am, chat a bit, play until lunch time, break for about 40 minutes for lunch and then crack on until tea time – anywhere between 4.30pm and 6.30pm. Usually perfectly adequate and luxury compared to those who have 3 hours max at a local school/community centre etc and we are well aware of how lucky we are. But occasionally we are left thinking, ‘if only’, a common wargamers complaint and usually when you have bitten off more than you can chew in the choice of the game or you have chatted on too much prior to the game starting – definitely guilty on both counts 😁.

The weekend game is definitely a wargamers holy grail and hiring a hall for a weekend wouldn’t be beyond us financially but would require some organisation by someone. What might be a consideration would be to play in the knowledge that the game is staying up until the next time – next day, next week, whatever. This might allow us to do a narrative where the first day (or part of it) was the initial probe – reinforced recce elements in a modern game, advance guards from C18th & C19th forces, etc.

As I’m typing away I’m thinking maybe this would be a way to ease us into a mini campaign, limited theatre, say the Shenandoah Valley campaign, some map movement, forces collide, games ensue, lasts two or three meet ups. Maybe it would work for the Victory at Sea idea of re-creating an historical engagement?

Skirmish games. In a previous incarnation skirmish games were a staple of the group mainly because we were constrained by the 3 hours and you’re done format. Over the last couple of years however the vibe has changed, we are no longer constrained by the 3 hour set up and around half of the group nowadays is pretty anti the whole skirmish thing.

This does present a bit of a problem. As the original creators of the group Dave and I have a ton of skirmish stuff which represents an obvious investment issue and because skirmish gaming is terrain heavy also gives a storage conundrum. The other week we had the hard conversation about what we could get rid of (along with the stuff we just aren’t using anyway) but each period has a level of emotional attachment which is difficult to break.

The alternative is of course to effectively recreate the 3 hour game by playing separately one afternoon or morning with those who fancy a bit of a gunfight or Viking raiding. Discussion to be had.

Joint projects. We have never discussed this in the group as it now stands but I think it could be worth the trip. There is always the risk that someone can’t/won’t commit but a couple of units in a wider project shouldn’t be too much of a stretch especially if we go for the mini campaign idea or if someone says “I’m thinking of doing……” and everyone else says, “I’ll do a couple of units”. The lead would have the task of basing other peoples troops to ensure a level of conformity but no big deal I reckon.

Sharing the burden. The simple fact of life is that 75% of games are played in my games room and therefor I organise the bulk of the games which can lead to creative staleness on my part. Some steps were made last year to remedy this and maybe if we do some of the things discussed above the staleness might go. Alternatively I just need to say, “guys, somebody else needs to organise”

I think I’ve waffled on long enough now and I’ve got NFL highlights to watch. Certainly given myself things to think about and ideas to float with the group, but not all at once 😀. So until the January round up, farewell and have a good new year.

December 2024 Report

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Well the year is drawing to a close and the last game has been played; we managed 56 games as a group this year so we’re feeling pretty dammed pleased with ourselves, hopefully more of the same next year.

First game in December was another of our Successors encounters, this time Royal Ptolemaic v Late Imperial Seleucid, basically around the time of the 5th Syrian War. The Seleucids had a bit of everything, elephants, chariots, cataphracts, Bedouin camelry and of course a core of phalangites & psiloi. The Ptolemaics were also varied but in a different way, yes they had a core of phalangites but lacked significant numbers of psiloi so instead had Galatians & Thracians to supplement their numbers, on the horse front they outnumbered the Seleucids but lacked armour.

The Seleucids deployed their elephants in the centre astride the road that ran between the two armies. On the left was the cavalry wing comprising the line cataphracts, the Agema, the chariots, the Bedouin and the Tarentine skirmishers. On the right was the 4 pike blocks angled diagonally away from the centre with a unit of Thureophoroi anchoring the end of the line against some hills, levy psiloi screened the front. The Ptolemaics deployed their phalangites in the centre astride the road screened by their psiloi flanked to the left by the Thracians and to the right by the Galatians. In a curious move a single phalangite block was deployed to the right of the Galatians and to the right of that the allied and mercenary cavalry, Greeks, Thessalians, Galatians & Tarentines. The Kleruchoi (settler) cavalry were deployed to the left of the Thracians.

As is nearly always the case the game began with the cavalry. The mighty cataphracts trotted forward on the Seleucid left making sure to give the chariots plenty of room 😁. The Ptolemaic cavalry advanced on both wings, the Kleruchoi engaging in a wide sweep to come round the hills and roll up the Seleucid flank, the allies & mercenaries gulped and rode toward the men in tin cans and the idiots in chariots.

For once the chariots did what they were meant to do and blew up the enemy cavalry line. One routed the veteran Thessalians and the other was just a nuisance as the other cavalry tried to avoid it until the single phalangite block trampled over it – oh that’s what it was there for 🤔

The action on the Ptolemaic right continued to be disadvantageous as the cataphracts duffed up the Greek & Galatian heavy cavalry and pursued them towards the camp.

The elephants were fun as always. I completely get the attraction of these lumbering beasts for ancient generals despite their general lack of success, you just weren’t one of the cool kids if you didn’t have some 😂

Our elephants did manage to do everything we wanted in this game, they were a bloody nuisance, they panicked, they fought and they died. Perfect!

In actual game terms 2 of the elephant squadrons died in combat, both against the Galatians, the other panicked across the battlefield.

Still with cavalry stories, the Kleruchoi horse really didn’t fare very well. One got mixed up with the Thureophoroi and that didn’t go well and the other two got distracted chasing psiloi defending the low hills. The grand sweep around the flank was a bust.

As the cavalry side shows wound down the main attraction took place and the clash of the titans began.

The decision to place a pike block out on the wing was now felt by the Ptolemaics, their 3 faced 4, so a plucky Thracian unit took on the extra pike……and died. In the ‘push of pike’ the sides were equally matched so it was all down to the dice.

Ultimately the Seleucids prevailed and two out of the three Ptolemaic blocks broke.

Although it could be argued (by Ptolemy!) that all was not lost it kind of was. The left wing cavalry was dispersed and doing nothing of any tactical value, the Thracians were finished, the centre was broken and the right wing cavalry were either dead or on the run and their commander was dead. A decisive Seleucid victory was declared.

Next up was another from our Iran Iraq collection. This was a narrative driven scenario with an Iraqi commando battalion supported by an armoured artillery battalion holding an Iranian town and it’s highway & rail links; help is on the way in the form of an armoured brigade. The Iranians are approaching from several possible routes and comprised an armoured brigade of two tank battalions and a mechanised infantry brigade plus a motorised pasdaran battalion.

The Iran tank battalions, both of Chieftains, deployed with one aiming direct for the town and the other swinging off to where Iraqi reinforcements were thought to be coming – good guess.

In the early exchanges the Iraqi armoured artillery fared badly, poor armour made them easy pickings for the Chieftains once they got in range.

The Iraqi’s did however have a ace up their sleeve with a flight of SU-22’s on standby.

The aircraft didn’t arrive every turn and weren’t always that effective but they did look so cool on the table 😃

With the arrival of the Iraqi reinforcements the Iranian blocking force got into action and the superior range and shooting power of the Chieftains took a toll on the Iraqi Soviet kit.

The one sided nature of the tank duel compelled the Iraqis to re-evaluate and so they diverted 2 battalions toward the town and left one to soak up the pressure – this worked way better than they thought as the Iranian commander was having such a great time blowing up Soviet armour he forgot about the objective 🤣

Tanks weren’t going to take a town so the Pasdaran dismounted.

And began assaulting the outskirts of the town.

Napalm strike from an SU22 run.

The Iraqi armour now started to reinforce the town.

Mechanised infantry moved up to support the decimated Pasdaran as the fight for the town intensified.

The Iraqi’s held firm whittling away the Iranian attack.

Ultimately the Iranians reached their break point (we use Cold War Commander) before the Iraqis (just) and failed their test. The Iraqis held onto the town and gave thanks to the brave SU-22 pilots.

Our next effort was a French Indian War skirmish – we haven’t done a skirmish game for ages!

In this scenario two bands of trappers decide to wipe out the opposition ie the peaceful village by the banks of the river.

The Indians also had two groups, one in the village and one randomly placed in the woods hunting. The trappers could deploy at the ford (as seen above) and follow the stream down to the village or dice for random deployment, they went for random.

The deployment for one group of trappers saw them just outside the village in the cover of the woods. Without a moments hesitation they stormed forward with muskets held high as clubs and got stuck in – the rational here being that shots would alert the other Indians.

This attack went reasonably well except for the pesky Indian leader who thought meleeing with a perfectly good musket was a silly idea and so extricated himself from the melee and shot one of the trappers dead. Everyone was alert now.

The other group of trappers had wound up some distance away from the village and by the time they got close everyone was alert and the hunting party had returned. None the less they opened fire before anybody could spot them and downed a couple of Indians but then were marked and the the shots started coming back.

The fight continued and both the trappers and the hunting party lost their leader; both failed their morale test and ran; the Indians rallied, the trappers didn’t.

With one enemy gone it was time to settle with the others. Oblivious until an arrow dropped one of their number the other trappers cut and run. The village was defended but not without loss.

Next was a return to Victory at Sea, US v Japan as always, a points game chosen from the rules, so same points but different objectives.

I’ll admit some of the optics don’t fully work for me but if you want to do WWII naval and have ships you can actually see then this is a pretty good rendition.

The Japanese were outnumbered and definitely deficient in aircraft but for a while managed to fight just one half of the US battle fleet with some success.

However once the US air superiority kicked in then large ships like the Kirishima were vulnerable and went to the bottom of the sea.

Once part of the Japanese air cover arrived – it never all arrived, we did manage to have the fun of a dogfight.

Quite a few ships were sunk on both sides but at the end point the Japanese had completely failed in their objective and the US achieved a major victory.

Our final game was another in our ongoing development of an El Cid era set up using Dave’s superbly painted figures.

For this one we had an Almoravid host under Bin Yusuf against a Christian force under El Cid.

Once deployment was done it was obvious that the main game would be EL Cid and all the Christian cavalry attempting a flank march over a stream only to find that this was where Bin Yusuf had deployed his Black Guard and allies!

After two refusals to charge which meant they were sitting ducks for missile fire the Christians cavalry finally got stuck in. Unfortunately the Cid died and some minor successes elsewhere weren’t good enough to offset this disaster. A victory for Islam.

I reckon we’re nearly there with the rules now. A couple more games and we should be able to put on a demonstration game at a show in 2025.

Well that’s it for the year I reckon and a pretty good one it’s been. The Iran Iraq and Successors is done, anything else is just gravy. Our quick dip into 6mm Cold War has seen us table two decent sized battle groups and 2025 should see East Germans, British and maybe Belgians on the table. Dave’s El Cid is going well and Gerard’s Samurai is coming along nicely, hopefully both will see some action in 2025. Plans? There are always plans but let’s just see how the year rolls out. In the meantime a very happy new year to one and all.

September 2024 Report

westburywargaming2 Comments

Slightly late going to press due to holiday away in Spain being cultural – I now know the complete ins and outs of Romanesque and Gothic architecture 🤔

First game of the month was from the Iran Iraq collection, another scripted scenario. This one was set in June 1982 in the Central Front and involved a brigade level clash around the town of Chananeh with both sides tasked with securing the town and its rail link. As with previous games both sides were given an orbat of the basic level force and then a series of options to upgrade/reinforce the battlegroup.

The Iraqi’s chose to insert a commando battalion via helicopter as their option and the Iranians went for additional manpower in the guise of a motorised Pasdaran battalion.

The perennial problem of getting troops to deploy first time (or second time, or third time 😂) was no different in this game than in any other but the Pasdaran were game on and roared into town alone.

The bulk of the Iraqi mechanised infantry brigade soon deployed to contest the town and in the absence of the dreaded Iranian Chieftains pushed their T554/55s forward. The commando coup de main however was being slow to arrive and a vital opportunity was being lost.

Unfortunately for the Iraqis the Iranian Chieftains did arrive and stared taking long range pot shots at the Iraqi BMPs prior to the infantry debussing 😮

Despite losses from the Chieftains and off table 120mm mortar fire the Iraqis pressed the attack from the west and secured the immediate outskirts.

Finally the commandos arrived and started fighting their way into the town from the railway yards, but was it too late?

The battle for the town intensified with the commitment of the Iranian mechanised infantry supported by close up fire from the Chieftains; it was now two infantry battalions versus three but the Iraqis had already been whittled down.

Rightly scared of the Chieftains the Iraqi armour hung back and offered support fire but it was largely ineffective.

At the pre-programmed final turn neither side had achieved its primary objective but the Iraqis had reached their breakpoint and the subsequent test saw them fail their moral and cede the ground. Another excellent CWC game.

Next was another run at the El Cid project which is in danger of faltering due to a lack of a rule set 😔

Against my natural inclination I agreed to do a rough stripped out version of our Successors rules (mainly because they work and we know them well) and adapted them to suit the unit sizes and base sizes Dave had already gone with 😟

Not surprisingly there were some issues, mainly around unit sizes and numbers of figures to a base, but the overall effect was pleasing and we got ourselves a game. The down side, of course, is that I’ve now got another rule writing job 🙄😂

What a coincidence our next game was Successors! Well the mat was out so why not.

For this one we deployed Demetrian Antigonid against Imperial Seleucid – very historical. The army of Demetrius was the more numerous but very diverse in terms of troop types and troop quality, low on pikes but high in terms of Greek allied and mercenary foot an his cavalry were a bit of a mixed bag. Seleucus had the advantage of better shock cavalry and pikes but his lack of numbers might be a problem although he did have the scythed chariots! Both sides fielded elephants.

Demetrius opted to split his army either side of the river that ran diagonally through his deployment area. On the right he placed all of his hoplites screened by levied Persian skirmishers with the intent of advancing on the ford where the road from the enemy side cut the river – the plan seemed to be two fold, 1) prevent a possible Seleucid use of the road to gallop their cavalry up the road and onto the Demetrian flank and 2) to cross the river onto the Seleucid left flank if no such attack manifested itself. The forces on the other side of the river were the pikes flanked by peltasts and screened by elephants & psiloi in the centre and all the cavalry, light & heavy out on the flank to sweep around the Seleucid right.

The Seleucids chose to concentrate their elephants & chariots on the right flank supported by a single unit of Median cavalry mainly because this seemed to be the best cavalry ground – they were right 😀. Next to them and in the centre were the pikes, screened by psiloi and flanked by peltasts and out on the left were the Xystophoroi cavalry and on the extreme left an independent command of Tarentines and Hetairoi. Apologies for the non based elephants, a rare oversight.

Once the game got going it became pretty obvious that Demetrius’ allied Greeks were going to have very little to do and were largely reduced to the role of spectators.

The early blows of the battle were struck on the Demetrian left where first the skirmish cavalry and then the formed cavalry fought it out with the elephants and chariots. This contest occupied the bulk of the battle and was hard fought with elephants dying and chariots crashing, in fact quite a mess 😁

While the elephant/cavalry duel rumbled on the infantry centres closed with the elephants being the dammed nuisance they’re meant to be.

Elephants died and men died but no-one could make the breakthrough that was needed and unfortunately for the Seleucids they couldn’t make their strike cavalry count either.

Back on the Seleucid right it was all going a bit wrong and Demetrius was about to get the breakthrough he needed.

But what of the Demetrian right flank I hear you ask? Well, this was all a bit embarrassing. One of the hoplite battalions got itself a bit isolated and after being softened up by some skirmishing Tarentines it fell to a mighty charge by the Hetairoi. It didn’t make any difference to the battle but it did make the Seleucid commander feel good 😁

Ultimately the battle kind of petered out and once the Demetrian cavalry were amongst the Seleucid baggage it was over.

Our next foray was into the ice cold waters of the Pacific and another Victory at Sea with both sides picking their fleet from an umpire generated list.

Once initial dispositions were made this looked like it was going to be a Japanese walkover, the US forces were spread thin and seemed to have no chance of achieving their objectives – I’ll admit to some low level whinging here as a US commander 😳

As we are beginning to learn with these rules, aircraft can be crucial – here waves of Japanese aircraft roar into action.

Unless your anti aircraft fire is effective you are going down to the bottom of the ocean.

No further comment required 😏

The Missouri goes up in smoke, this was a seriously depressing moment for the American commanders.

But, in a late comeback, the Americans took out the big ass Kongo – what a glorious site!

And then the Mogami got torpedoed. It’s getting better and better!

It was a hard fought engagement and when time was called at the prescribed point the Americans had rallied and won a major victory which they sure as hell didn’t look anywhere near to doing for a good half of the game.

We returned to skirmish gaming for our next effort, Blue and Red teams from the SAS infiltrating a Taliban compound to capture a senior leader – the emphasis being on capture.

All proceeded well for the first few turns, entry into the town was made undetected and overwatch positions were set up. The clever bit would be finding which building the target was in.

Sooner or later someone is going to spot something not quite right and this guy did. Que gunfire.

Taliban start charging out of buildings – might be a good indicator of which buildings might house our man.

Grenades are your friend 😊

In these games (Spectre Operations V2) the advantage definitely sit with the elite tier troops – more accurate rates of fire, better resilience, but they can still die.

With bullets flying and his men dying the target made a break for it with his bodyguards.

Sometimes there are just too many of them – ultimately the SAS teams suffered 50% losses.

The target looks like he’s getting away. Can they cripple the vehicle and not the man?

Nope. The hail of bullets that bought the vehicle to a halt caught the target and he died as the SAS reached the crash site. Technically a failed mission particularly given the SAS casualties but there was a lot of dead Taliban and we did have a great game.

Our final game was our first game with our newly done 6mm Cold War Gone Hot collection again using Cold War Commander. The forces were an understrength Bundeswehr panzer brigade v a Soviet tank regiment.

We got so involved in this that the time just whizzed by and not enough photos were take, better luck next time.

Essentially the Bundeswehr were defending a main road route over a river and the bridge was the critical objective but in accordance with their historical tactical the Germans decided to attack and blunt the Soviet advance.

Soviet mechanised infantry on the move.

Soviet air cover was largely ineffective much to the relief of the dangerously exposed Leopards.

The Leopards were very effective against their Soviet counterparts and importantly could shrug off most damage.

Soviet T80’s taking some pressure – we ran out of suppression markers 😂

For reasons I cannot explain a whole load of photos of a Hind getting serious with ATGM’s have gone missing 😥 but suffice to say they were very effective.

This played as a very different game to the Iran Iraq affairs despite being the same rule set. First off the smaller scale means more stuff can deploy on the same square footage but move and shoot at the same ranges which has both it’s positives and it’s negatives. Secondly the kit is a lot better (and I mean a LOT better) despite the same time frame and that offers a real challenge to both sides. Thirdly terrain is key, we already knew this from Iran Iraq but here it is really important and we need to do some work both in terms of quantity and quality.

Anyway that’s it for the month, I leave you with a random battle painting from my holiday in Spain. See you next month.

July 2023 Report

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Another month drifted by and the summer is at it’s height 😏 A good few games played and several projects added to.

First up was a WWII skirmish, a French town held by Fallschirmjager being attacked by US paratroopers – a recent re-watch of ‘Band Of Brothers’ might have influenced this decision 🤣

The Germans were pre positioned and diced for off table mortar support and how many rounds that would be. The Yanks deployed their initial force (a short platoon’s worth) on the high ground sloping down to the town – two squads going through the orchards and the HQ proceeding along the road, they also diced for support but had a choice ranging from limited heavy mortar fire to additional support elements – they diced well and ended up with the mortar & heavy machine gun elements plus a couple of off table shoots.

Initial moves saw the HQ squad proceed down the road as far as the church graveyard and barricaded road without drawing fire, dropping off their mortar crew early and setting up an observer to call the shots. The two infantry squads advanced with an excess of caution toward the edge of the orchards.

With some of the Yanks now visible the Germans opened up and a general firefight ensued, casualties were light, the US platoon mortar couldn’t hit a barn door but some very heavy German ordnance was dropping uncomfortably close to the HQ squad, including the mortar team – who the hell was calling it in?

After much cajoling (or shouting into the radio 😀) the infantry squads got forward into some ruined buildings and traded shots with the Germans as they revealed themselves but took several casualties themselves. The HQ split up to flank the church but then started receiving fire from entrenched Germans on the outskirts of the town – the swine’s!

Paratrooper grit finally kicked in and a charge across the town square got the Yanks into a better position to winkle out the Germans who were now taking significant losses – the off table mortars were being called in house by house along with the platoon mortar which either killed Germans or drove them out of cover.

The answer to the question “who’s directing the German fire” was answered when a sniper opened up from the church bell tower, downing a Sgt and a Corporal, who was silenced by the bazooka team and amongst the rubble was the FO 😀

Ultimately German losses were too heavy and they broke contact, retreating out of the far side of the town leaving the Yanks to claim the town.

If a wargame can reinforce any real life lessons it’s that forcing decent troops out of a defended position can be costly and time consuming.

Our next game was an eastern renaissance affair with a Cossack boat born force besieging an Ottoman coastal fort to which a relief force is marching as Cossack land reinforcements arrive.

This was a colourful swirling affair. The Ottoman relief force was made up of regional Sipahis of fairly average quality backed by central Janissaries while the Cossack reinforcements were all veteran cavalry of many a campaign.

The siege pottered along for most of the day (which was the intention) and only got interesting when the one wing of the relief force started getting up close and forced a couple of the Cossack foot units back onto their boats. The main clash was of course the cavalry and to cut a long story short the Ottomans got a bit of a stuffing and left the field – reflecting afterward, the Ottoman commander conceded that wasting half his cavalry force amongst the siege lines probably wasn’t the best decision.

By game end the Janissaries were doing the C17th version of Custer’s last stand and although a couple of the besieging foot units had hopped it in the boats the objective of relieving the fort had not been achieved.

Next up, a firm favourite, our post Roman Britain armies took the stage as the Romano British took on a force of Jutes expanding out of Kent.

The Jutes were in three ‘battles’ of roughly the same composition fronted by skirmishers, the only difference being the inclusion of Frankish mercenaries in the warlord’s battle. The Britons had two infantry battles of varying troop quality and for a change a decent sized cavalry battle – no, not Arthur 😀

The infantry advances were predictably slow so the ‘British’ cavalry got out ahead and mixed it up with the one flank of infantry which, surprisingly, lasted most of the day. Although the cavalry routed a unit of ceorls no one else cared and so they charged and fell back and charged again but by game end many brave warriors were dead and the remnants were limping home.

In the centre, much hacking and slashing and committing of personal guards to stabilise positions availed neither side much as night drew on the battle closed with no clear victor on the field – sometimes you just don’t get a winner.

Next on the calendar was a Sikh Wars game which we hadn’t played for ages.

For this encounter we had the Sikhs occupying two villages, one on each flank, and a central hill with a redoubt. The villages were held by tribal units and their older artillery while the redoubt was held by Sikh regular infantry and guns. The bulk of the Sikh irregular cavalry were deployed behind the hill planning to advance out onto the plain and a further two commands were hidden in trees adjacent to their right hand village; further Sikh regular infantry were entrenched in reserve.

The British, outnumbered as always, had the unenviable task of storming the villages but set to with typical grim determination.

Taking a leaf out of the history books the British cavalry went straight for the enemy! Two brigades set out across the only piece of open ground available to them on the left of the hill and firstly ran into the irregular cavalry who they duffed up rather smartly sending one after another reeling to the rear. Such intense fighting was not without its consequences and the lead brigade finally had to withdraw in good order but the rear brigade followed its example and crashed through a Sikh regular unit that didn’t deploy into square in time and then smashed up a formed square which in fairness was already a bit battered.

The ‘poor bloody infantry’ struggled with their task and suffered heavy casualties from the redoubt in particular.

Ultimately however the right hand village and the redoubt were taken amongst much British blood spilled.

The left hand village was never taken; the hidden Sikh cavalry launched an ill coordinated surprise attack which although it stopped the British didn’t do anything else and ultimately the cavalry were forced into retreat.

At game end the British were in control of one village and the redoubt which was good enough for the Sikhs to concede.

Our final game was an away game playing ‘Arab Israeli’ – I hate that phrase 😣 in 10mm. We were playing 7 Days To The River Rhine with Israeli’s driving forward off the Golan Heights only to be ambushed by Jordanian and Iraqi forces.

We only got two full turns in, which isn’t as bad as it sounds given that it was only the second go with the rules and both sides got to move and shoot enough for a lot of Israeli tanks to go up in flames 🤣

I don’t know what I think of the rules, there certainly seems to be a lot of ‘token management’ which does take you out of the zone a bit, but that said I’d give them another go.

Well that’s July done. A pretty good range of games and enough to satisfy the urge to play. On the non playing front the 10mm Iran Iraq project continues, various bits of terrain are being dabbled with and 2nd hand book shops continue to tempt 😂

So for now goodbye, enjoy your gaming and be nice.

A skirmishing we will go!

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For years (many, many years!) our Dark Age skirmishing has been done using an old 1980’s set from our Scimitar Wargames Group days  ‘Oshere’s Helm’ and completely adequate they have been given that we would only skirmish every now and then. These days we skirmish more and more (probably reflecting our advancing years!) and as we’ve collected not only more figures but also more ‘stuff’ the thought of writing a new set has become a reality and so I thought it might be nice to share the initial process. Why? Well, probably the delusion that someone thinking about giving rule writing a go might get a bit of inspiration and also anyone reading might think about chipping in an idea or two. Who knows!

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Welcome!

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Despite our advancing years we’ve decided to embrace more of the technological world – Twitter was a big enough leap for us but we think we’ve got a handle on that now!

We hope to use this just to randomly comment on ideas for gaming, maybe share our latest direction on what to game next and share rule writing tips (from Ian)  and painting tips (from Dave).

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The main point is to get a bit of community chat going, a bit like when some of you are kind enough to rock up to our games at shows and chat about wargaming stuff – we kind of miss this.

Anyway here we go!