Alem el Halfa

 As regular readers will know I made the trek up to Posties Shed of war on Saturday to play a game of FOW hosted by Lee (http://www.blmablog.com/) . I have only played FOW once before several years ago so was reliant on Lee to use his knowledge of the rules. None of the other Rejects had played the e rules either, and Ray whom I was teamed with is not terribly up on the period either. John and Postie know the period somewhat more than Ray. We all have gaps in our knowledge.



For a briefing of the Scenario Please check Lees blog listed above. You might also want a more accurate AAR from Ray (http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/) when he gets round to writing it, but until then you'll have to put up with my BIAS account. The two German companies had eight turns to take one of the three objectives. Ray had to defend 3 hills (the objectives) And I as the Cavalry was to arrive in the nick of time and rescue him. And that is where is all started to go right. I had to roll a d6 to determine when my troops  ( a company of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment) rolled a 1 indicating that they would turn up on turn 2. This was done in secret and the Germans were un aware of it. As this roll was before the game began Ray wanted to delay my arrival to let Postie and John get commited to the attack before my arrival so I could hit them in the flank.. Ray Quickly changed his mind on Turn one though and I arrived on turn 2. Far be it for me to quibble with the man. I am quite happy to let my allied players take the beating If it means my troops don't.


 Ray brings on some Hurricanes which were either shot down or driven off by the Vile Huns. In later turns we used out air support only on Posties troops as they lacked Anti Aircraft . We also tended to drop our HE 25lber artillery on him as well and leave John alone as Posties Infantry were in soft skin vehicles while John's tanks were well armoured as tanks tend to be. Although John was the bigger threat we could at least damage Posties troops and that is always a good thing.

 The assault begins Postie would attack one hill and John the other. Which would mean an infantry assault and a tank Assault. Personally I would have made a mixed assault but I was not going to mention that, so I didn't. The Infantry assault never got across the road, as the Artillery and Hurricanes mostly kept them contained. They did however do a very good job of picking of Rays infantry picking the first ridge line clean of troops until later in the game when ray bought up his reserves.

Hats of to Ray though as the centre hill was fighting off the armour very well indeed. John pushed his tanks across the mine flied, He only managed to get 3 tanks involved and one was crippled as it crossed the mine field. I must point out John usually has a great reputation with dice but today Lee's curse of dice rolling had transferred to him.

When John did manage to acquire air support they were mostly driven off and did minimal damage, claiming only one of Ray's Decans.

 There were several nice touches in the game.  Lee had mad dust cloud markers which we could use to indicate moving vehicles. These were brilliant props they worked well and made it clear which vehicles moved and which stayed still and boy did they look good. I NEED to make some.







Knowing a bit of the rules did give me a slight advantage in that I knew stationary tanks could fire multiple times where as moving tanks could fire only once. I was thus able to employ a fire and movement tactic where half my tanks moved and half stayed still. This would mean that 1/2 my force of Grants could get in 5 shots a turn within 24 inches. (2 from the hull mounted 75 and three from the turret mounted 37mm) While John having to move his tanks to counter me rolling up his open flank could only fire once in reply.

The guys look up the rules for tank assaults. While Johns  now Lone (the other having been destroyed by Ray's Deacons firing 6iber shells into it's flank) Bravely pushed for the objective. Ray was never in a position to destroy the assaulting tank, but could force it's crew to bail out if John rolled badly enough. Guess what!

 Rays Anvil and my hammer tactics were working. And turn by turn John had less tanks to control either because of bailed our crews or destroyed panzers. It was not all one sided though as he did some damage back with his platoon of Panzer 3's and reduced my armoured car and 2 Crusader platoons down to 3 vehicles in total. Fortunately for me my Grants out gunned them in the end. As they did his Panzer 4s by sheer weight of dice as mentioned above.

 Johns Bailed out Crew got back in and assaulted the hill again and again John needed to roll seriously low and again he did and they bailed out for a second time. It was not Johns day.

 The last two shots show the black smoke coming from the German tanks. Very nice smoke markers and adding a deal of atmosphere to the game. As once they had brewed up they stayed there for the rest of the game and did have a noticeable psychological effect on us as players.

Conclusion yes it was a clear Victory for the British this day, as it was historically. But If I had not have been lucky with troop arrival times it could have been so different. If I had arrived on turn 7 for example it surely would have been a disaster and almost definitely a British loss. I am not saying it all came down to that dice roll but it was I think the single most significant factor.

Thanks for Reading. I will post again tomorrow to get back on my normal schedule. So until then take care have fun and put a smile on the faces of those close to you.

All the best Clint

Carry on Follow that Camel.

Yes an early post. I'll explain in a bit.

Here however are 6 more Camels and riders for my Arab revolt game. That is a total of 32 done altogether. Only a few more to go! And when they are all together I'll do the whole mob together in one place for you all to see.


 As with all the rest they are IT miniatures 20mm WW1 figures. And they are all on the "standing" pose camel as opposed to the "Walking" pose Camel. I much prefer this pose and have asked Tim the owner just to supply this pose. The Range of Camel colours have resulted in sufficient variation so when they are all together the fact that they are mostly the same pose is not noticed. It helps greatly that there is some greater variety in the riders poses.

So why am I posting early and not tomorrow morning as I had intended. The simple answer is that todays painting for Curt's Analogue Hobbies painting challenge has gone horribly wrong.  I grant you I could work all night on it and maybe get it back to where I want it. Or and this is the option I shall take start on something smaller/easier tomorrow. I have not given up on the figures for the hero/heroic group they will be seen eventually so I'll keep working away at them and eventually they will take a place in the challenge. Maybe in the favourite character Bonus round.

That is probably it until Sunday now. I have a single (simple) figure to paint and bas tomorrow and a game with Posties Rejects on Saturday. So take care paint your hearts out and enjoy what you do.

All the best Clint

A Fist full of Mahdists

 Originally done as part of Curt's Painting Challenge. Here we have 10 stands of Mahdist infantry. 3 random figures to a base all 10mm Pendraken that I purchased many moons ago at a show and never got around to painting. Which is one of the great things about the challenge as it gets you to paint things that have been hanging around for a while.

I did mention on Curt's Challenge that I was not happy with the patches on the Jibbehs. The feedback was that they were not as bad as I had first thought. It was also suggested that I might tome them down if I chose to. I painted a couple more yesterday and have gone for more muted colours and that suits me better.


 There are still more to come though and I will need to buy some British and/or Egyptians to create a counter force.  I originally got these for "Patrols in the Sudan" but following the game on Sunday I am thinking that Black Powder might also be applicable. Either way I will need more and more for an opposing force. But for now I shall carry on with what I own already before even thinking of buying more.

Elsewhere on the painting table I have stuff for the 20mm Arab Revolt game. I have come up with the idea that I can use these as well for A Very British Civil War. But based around the Suez Canal. As needles to say if Pre war Britain Fragmented British colonies, protectorates and other places where we had troops would also be affected. And the Suez Canal would become a hot spot as it was so vital for trade and communication. This is only in my mind at present so I shall say no more.

I am also struggling with my heroes entry. I know what I want, but am struggling with motivation. And have side-tracked myself and started a few more Madhists.... But only a few.

So that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by and next update on Friday. Hope you have a good couple of days and as ever comments are welcomed. All the best Clint

WSS Black powder.

Tims Bavarian Troops advancing up the table.

Yesterday at the club I had a game of "Black Powder" with Tim and Against Peter and Scott. It was mostly an exercise in learning the rules and reinforcing how we thought they worked as none of us had played it very much at all. Tim gave me his French while he took the Bavarians while Scott and Peter controlled the British. Peter played opposite me while Tim played against Scott. As we were playing with 15mm figures we played in CM and not inches.

My remaining Brigade advance and secure the ridge,

Not quite the first dice roll of the game, but within my first command phase I rolled a double 6 and had a command blunder and about 1/2 my force left the table backing off my table edge. They were reluctant to return but did arrive back on turn 4, just in the nick of time!

My troops secure the ridge and take up position to fight against the 3 British Brigades which were approaching. But there is a big hole in the French Centre because half my infantry had already left the table due to my command blunder.

Seeing this hole Peter send 1 of his three brigades as far forward as he can. They ran out of steam a mere 18cm from my table edge. But still left two of His Brigades to assault the ridge I was holding.



Tim on the left tries to plug the gap left by my
 brigade which had retreated off of the table.

Just in time I manage to get my wandering away Brigade back on the table. My two guns were able to pepper Peters Brigade with canister and yet failed to cause any casualties. But my infantry were now here so I could (and did) withdraw the guns.

Peters Brigade close to my table edge.

Knowing the English with their "Volley Fire" could out shoot me. I could either stand still and take it like a man or risk it and charge. I charged and Peter got off his closing fire and my guys went in. It was carnage for both sides. I did come off slightly better than I deserved (all praise the dice gods) and managed to take Peters centre to Battalions out. While he managed to beat me on the wings.  As luck would have it I passed more morale checks than Sir Peter and his Brigade was at half strength and with one battalion falling back.

I also had lost half my Brigade, but my guys had two artillery pieces to aid them and the threat of Tims cavalry taking them in the Flank. Unfortunately Tim Could not motivate his cavalry and rather than closing at the gallop they just milled about looked threatening.



After the battle at the base line.

Meanwhile Back on the ridge. 2 English Brigades took on my single Brigade.  Due to being out numbered and bad initiative making me move first when I really needed to move second and get out of the line of Fire. Peter was able to concentrate fire power on one of my Battalions. This hurt as he was able to enfilade them and thus get double dice. Well they survived one round fairly well taking casualties but refusing to give ground. I was able to concentrate on one of Peters Battalions and force them to retreat with a bad morale check. I was also able to move my horse all the way to Peters base line. Scot sent his horse towards them and turned his guns to face them before they swept into the rear elements of the British army.

The Battle on the ridge.

I was able to turn my brigade on the ridge to stop being enfiladed but Peter was able to charge home and the badly mauled Battalion disintegrated.  Woops!

My Horse Hit the retreating British of Peter who were able to form square, but it did them no good what so ever and my horse rolled a stupidly large number of melee dice and got nothing less than a 3. So his retreating battalion evaporated and my horse were able to do a sweeping advance into another battalions rear. While this worked it was not quite as effective. But they did their job and those infantry also gave up the fight.



Tim Gets involved.

Scot got his cavalry to charge and with a failed command roll mine could not move at all and as a consequence were  both hit in the flank. And that was the end of my horse!

Peter and myself had fought each other to a standstill neither of us was in a position to press any very marginal victories and we had run out of time.

Meanwhile at the other end of the battle field Tim and Scott had not really engaged in the fight. One officer was never able to get control of his spare brigade and as  such they pretty much failed to move all game. While the British were reluctant to push forward and even get in shooting range. But in the last turn they did get involved and Tim was able to charge the British line. It was messy and very bloody and did seem to end in a draw with each force loosing 1/2 a brigade due to morale failures.



Goodies from Tim.

And this is where we ran out of time and needed to pack away. At this stage it was so even it really was anyones game. But at least we learnt a few more of the rules. And a good time was had by all.

I also managed to pick up a few more goodies for the Arab Revolt game, from Tim who owns IT miniatures. Expect them painted next week. Yes two more camels but only 2 more in this batch to replace the two I used for Laurence and the Banner bearer.


Thanks for reading. Hope you had a great weekend and got a shed load of painting done. All the best Clint





10mm Mahdists

 This was my last submission For Curt's Painting challenge. Click on the Wild Bunch Painting challenge picture top right to take you there. 33 figures on 11 bases. Each 20x20mm base has two figures with rifles as the rules I am basing these for differentiates between Shooting and melee stands so I could not just mix and match them as I originally thought to do.






I will be submitting a few more from this force later today. But this time the first of the melee stands. It would be wrong to say too much about them just yet and too be honest not very many in the first batch. There will be more than one submission of the melee bases though. As you can never have enough tribesmen.

Yes I will do a group shot towards the end. As someone always asks for one.

Elsewhere on the painting table I have started the Hero/Heroes bonus round submission as well as the Casualties Bonus round submission. I hope to turn them both into Vignettes but that will depend on time.

I am also working on some more camel riders. Yes more and hope to pick up the last bits and bobs for the Arab Revolt game on Sunday at the club. So the end is in sight.

And the last picture just because I found it funny. No real reason just an excuse to look at a few tidy bottoms!

All the best Take care and hope to see you soon.

Cheers Clint

Infected

Sorry guys. That seems to be the best place to start. I have picked up a spam email. So if you receive an email from me with no chatter and a link. PLEASE do not open the link just bin the email. It is only advertising weight loss and let's be honest. Eat less and move more. There that covers it all you need to know about loosing weight in one sentence and no link involved.

 Wargames wise I have re-based these to fit my Mahdists You have seen them before on different bases, so don't think they are new, just a re-base. I have submitted some more Pendraken 10mm Mahdist to the painting challenge but they only went on to Curt's blog yesterday so I should be able to show them on Saturday.

As I have mentioned the challenge I should say I have now exceeded my points target so will need to set a new one. As this is my first time in the challenge I have no idea of what I can get done. So I am open to suggestions of points totals. I know I will not be entering all the bonus rounds..... Last stand... is one round I will not be intending to enter. I will also need to make two terrain boards which will obviously eat into my time.


Anyway that's it for today sorry If you have received any spam email from me. Next planned post is Saturday. All the best take care Clint

My Laurence of Arabia.

 Well that is the vehicle bonus round submitted. If you have yet to check it out please do and vote if you wish. But be aware there is a lot of really good stuff and it will take you more than a few moments, Link .

AS you can see I have continued working on the Arab revolt project. In the top picture you can see some Arab troops in Uniform. This clearly shows the official flag of the Arab revolt. Varieties of which are still used today for various Arab nations. The design itself was created by the English no doubt with consultation from locals. I am in no way an expert or the flags of the Arab revolt but I recreated this flag purely as it was easier to paint than the tribal standards which I could not find a very good image to copy. I hope that it will make a little talking point in the game set up as I  only anticipate 1 standard bearer. And makes a clear indication of where Laurence would be on the battle field.

I have also done both a foot and mounted Laurence. The foot Laurence is a standard Arab officer from IT miniatures. Just painted in a similar manner to Peter O'Toole costume in the film. I differed from the gold headband and used black as at several times in the film a black band was used and contrasts well against the light colours of his headdress.

I had to do a very minor conversion on the Mounted version. Just a hand swap. I wanted to show Laurence with a revolver as I know that is how he went into battle. Additionally there was an incident where he accidently shot his own camel in the head while riding into war. It was not until after the battle that it was discovered that he had pulled the trigger that killed the beast but in game turns that is definitely a fumble!

As the bonus round was for a vehicle I did take the opportunity to paint a Rolls Royce Armoured Car. Larry did have his own Armoured car which he named. This one is slightly out of date being a 1928 Pattern Armoured Car, but the differences are really undecearnable at this scale partly because the external changes are minimal but also because they became modified when in the field. Thus only serious "Rivet Counters" would even think to look for the differences. Where us as wargamers would just accept it as it is. I do not intend to use it in the Game for Broadside, but it is always nice to have the option.

Other than this I have sent some more figures of to Curt's Painting challenge so with luck thy should be on here in a couple of days. And Work in progress includes some more Camel mounted troops and my Hero bonus round entry. I know it is most unlike me to not leave it for the last minute. The Hero Bonus will not have any Camels and that is a promise.

Anyway thanks for looking today. Comments are always welcome and now I need to get on with some painting. So all the best, take care and talk soon. Cheers Clint

Catch up!

 Well a week has gone by without an AAR about the game at the club. And to be honest I have forgotten a lot of the details so this will be very sketchy.

Graham and myself played a game of "Square Bashing" the Peter Pig WW1 rules. As Graham has Russian Civil War figures we both took random opposing armies. Which gave me a "Red Army Shock Assault Force". I usually am happier in defence then attack but decided to "go for it" in the pregame. The result of the pregame was that I was 30 points ahead of Graham which meant he had to roll 8 d6 for each unit to determine if that unit would arrive and if so in what condition. The result was that most of his troops would begin the game off table.

The first few turns saw me take 1 of the 4 objectives in the game and prepare to assault two more objectives. My off table artillery brought down a barrage and stopped any White army reinforcements arriving until turn 3. Alas both my assaults failed and Graham inflicted heavy casualties on both forces as well as pushing my elite troops back to my base line.

I did manage to regroup and my cavalry forced Grahams command from the table. They then attacked a single mortar. Two Cavalry battalions and somehow the mortar won and the cavalry had to retreat. But they passed all there morale checks and were able to join in asulting  the second objective along with my now returned elite unit and a militia unit from the flank. This time the dice favoured me and Grahams objective was beaten. He could not retreat due to my cavalry and thus took more and more damage instead.

I did manage to take the third objective but for the loss of my 2 armoured cars. But Graham was able to bring his reinforcements up and reinforce objective no:2. And then we ran out of time.

Overall a really good game and a Minor victory for me, but with very heavy casualties. From my point of view the off table artillery was the decisive factor in my Victory as they disrupted Grahams efforts to reinforce and even sent a unit from the battle field due to failed morale checks. They were also able to keep objective no:2 Pinned down and having to take morale almost every other turn. Grahams Armoured Train did very little in real terms but I was worried about it's potency so did not even attempt to attack the 4th Objective. This was more my reluctance that it's effectiveness in combat. And as the first time we had used the train was an interesting addition to the game.

Additionally I picked up a few goodies from Tim (Frontline Wargaming and IT miniatures) Some of which are already painted and Pictures sent off to Curt and the painting Challenge which shall no doubt be put on his web site later today.
Not going into details at this stage but you should be able to work out what I have submitted based on the picture and knowing that it is the Vehicle Bonus round.

As of last night I have a War of Spanish Sucession game planed for next Sunday so I am putting the 10mm Ansar to one side yet again to do some lace covered frilly figures in 15mm. So expect them in the paining challenge this week.

Thanks for reading and more in a couple of days. Take care and have some fun.

All the best Clint

More 10mm Sams. and BROADSIDE news,

 My latest additions to Curt's Analogue Painting Challenge netted me an additional 24 points. Comprising of 12 mounted Samurai with three to a base. These are clearly destined to become part of my RED Samurai army. 3 figures to a base and 4 bases to a unit.

Not really a whole lot more to say about them really except perhaps that unlike my previous samurai they have all been painted in the same red armour. Historically there are several commanders who dressed there armies in Red so the uniform appearance is a little different for me with Samurai rank figures as opposed to ashigaru which always look better in a uniform.

BROADSIDE NEWS: The Swallows Leisure Centre, the venue for the last two years has at short notice decided that we cannot use one of the halls (the Wyvern Hall). They have not provided us with an alternative so the show this year will need to fit in a single hall. As we have already paid for the advertising in magazines and on flyers it is too late this year to seek an alternative venue. Consequently space will be tight, about 70% of what we have had for the last two years. One of the ways we are getting round this issue is that we are having to limit the size of the display games to 4'x6'. We have sent out emails to all the clubs concerned and informed them of this new situation and have been very pleasantly surprised with both the promptness of their replies and their understanding. Needless to say it is not ideal for any concerned, but we are getting there. It is possible that we shall look at alternative venues for next year. Chatham Dockyard has been suggested but at present nothing has been decided.

Well that is it for today. Thanks for reading  this blog and hope you found something of interest here.

All the best Clint

Challenge Fee

 As I do not think I will get a chance to blog tomorrow, I thought  I would add this in today. So I will hope to do the next one on Saturday.

I thought I should show you the figure I have already posted to Curt as part of the Wild Bunch Painting Challenge. This is a single heroic 28mm Reaper Chronoscape figure. It was given to me (unpainted) by Anne O'Leary when I won a prize on her blog. And as it makes a suitable "Wild Bunch" figure it was painted and dispatched to the wilds of Canada.

Obviously armed with two hefty revolvers the figure is quite intimidating. He has a confident no nonsense stance and a bit of a Tom Selleck Moustache. His Grey trousers have a yellow stripe up each leg and with the two large revolvers he gives the appearance (I hope) od an ex Confederate Cavalry officer. Curt will no doubt make up his own back story should he ever use the figure in anger. And I hope he does.

I chose a simple undecorated brown coat for the chap, maybe it is leather or suede but defiantly something hard wearing. With his gun-belt and holster fastened over the top to allow fast draws should he need. There are cartridges in the gun belt so he can reload if in a long gunbattle or at the end when all his enemies are dead. (Or maybe he is and then no need to reload at all, leave that to someone else, I know I would).

I went very simple on the base just 2 dry grass tufts and a flatish stone. Actually it's not a stone at all it is part of a broken plant pot repainted. Broken plant pots make great base ornaments as they are far easier to break to the correct size than actual stones and they have a strata across them much finer than normal rocks. The base was textured with building sand and painted the same colours and tones at the rock. All in all very quick and simple to do and yet not overdone I hope as I do want to keep the focus on the figure.


Today has been a much better painting day. I have submitted the 10mm Samurai to Curt already so I hope to be able to show them soon.

I have resprayed the 10mm Sudan figures. And Be based my few stands of British to marry up size wise.

15mm Half tracks nope not touched them today.....

20mm I have re-painted my vehicle and attached it to a base and started painting a foot command figure for it.

20mm Arab Revolt. I have finished the two very minor conversions . Just an arm swap and a hand swap, but they are now primed and ready to start paining. One will eventually become Larry of the Sands, or Laurence of Arabia if you prefer a more formal title.

So all in all far more productive then yesterday and I hope to get Larry of the Sands ready and submitted over the weekend as well. I make no Guarantees at this stage as tomorrow is pretty much written of with Counselling and Doctors and the like. But all in one day so I can get it out of the way all in one go. I should get a few hours on Friday and with that be able to get the vehicle the vehicle commander and Laurence all finished.

Thank you for looking today and I hope you get a chance to pop by again soon. I might do the AAR of the game I played at the club next time, but it is fading into my memory as I type this so I will just have to wait and see.

All the best folks Cheers Clint