Another Roman Victory!

There was a gathering in the "Shed of war" on Saturday the culprits from left to right were Big Lee Alternative report click here. , Surgit, Ian, Postie and David or Izzy as he is sometimes called. We all randomly selected our place in the game and I was the Roman Legate, Izzy was my Tribune. The other three were some Pictish barbarian rabble unfit to wash a Romans feet! Ok Big Lee was supposedly incharge of them, and it was his "Daughter" we had captured.... only in the game.... but he did say she was rubbish around the house so I don't think we would have much use for her in reality, maybe some amusement for the lions in the arena.

The situation was that Tribune David Had to escort the prisoner and the loot erhm I mean Taxes back to the fort which was mine to command. The Three oiks you can see on the left where given 2 objectives, to rescue the hostage and to capture the fort. And this is what Happened.

 Thousands of 'em... No but about 300 in all

 The Thin Red Line. Izzy's column of about 50 men.

The Mile Fort I was in command of. Which the Picts were to attack as well as rescue the hostages. 

 The Original Roman Plan was to leave 1 Unit to slow the pict advance. But we soon realised that these Picts could move fast and one unit would be little more than a speed bump!

Adapting the plan  We sent the Prisoners on alone with 4 guards and Tribune Izzy would use all 3 units to attack the Picts.

So Izzy left the road and took the battle to the barbarian horde.

 I lit the distress beacons to notify the nearby forts that we were being attacked. I set the 6 cavalry figures and the Fort standard bearer to assist.

 Chieftain Big Lee Started to move his troops up allowing Ian and Surgit to Battle away at Tribune Izzy's PBI.

 Cheftain Lee kept his troops out of range of my 3 Scorpions but my Oranger crew had obviously had a heavy night and Missed by about an inch on every single occasion. The Oranger killed only 1 barbarian in all the game. Such a disappointment! 

 Tribune Izzy did a fine job in fighting off the Picts. Such a good job that the one battering ram that the Picts had was diverted from it's job of moving to attack the gate and instead attacked Davids Legionaries.  This was clearly not part of their original plan so they adapted it and instead settled on only rescuing Big Lee's daughter.

The Cavalry I sent out to assist were mown down by arrows and wiped out in 2 turns. And the battering ram moved a further 6 inches away. All the while the hostages and loot were getting closer.

 I receiver 6 more cavalry as reinforcements from the lighting of the beacons. At this stage I wish I had nor sent out the first cavalry unit oh well too late to worry about that.

 The Pict skirmish line captures the wagon of Taxes. And is closing ground on the hostages.

 My pitiful Oranger so little damage, but at least it was deterring the Picts fanatics from getting unhealthily close.

 I sent My last Cavalry out to act as a screen to get the Hostages into the fort.

 They charged, now just down to 3 men. And Died very quickly!

 I Moved my archers onto the walls closer to the gate and fired like Billy-o at the skirmishers.

And Managed to do just enough damage to stop them for a turn

while I got the Prisoners/hostages inside the gate.

And That's where we stopped the game. The Gods favoured the Romans and we shall all say a prayer to "Postius" God of Wargames shed.

Final thoughts: I think the rules really did favour the Romans and make them too hard to kill. When 50 troops can hold off 300 it does seem one sided. Having said that it did come down to a single dice roll in the end when my archers did enough damage to force a morale check on Lees skirmishers. So It really could have gone either way. It was in the end a Roman minor victory mostly thanks to Izzy. But it could have been a Roman disaster if the Picts had got the hostages back (-12 Victory points, or lost the fort -20 Victory points). Which would have made the 2 victory point difference completely insignificant.

And a big thank you to Postie for hosting and Umpiring the game. All the figures and Terrain is his and it really was a joy to be part of it.

Thanks for reading and with luck more again on Wednesday.

All the best Clint

More Scw

yes here are a few more SCW stands, Today some artillery. Starting with some 65mm Italian Mountain guns. The crew are wearing militia type clothes, but that does not mean They do not know how to use a gun like this. As mentioned previously as half the army deserted at the start of the war many of them went back to civilian life and many also joined different non army organisations so we can assume that some of the training would have been passed on.

Not a huge amount  to say about these. It is perhaps more interesting to talk about their transport.

I have also painted the gun teams moving. Being Mountain Guns they were able to break the guns down to be carried by horses, mules or even men if the situation dictated. Luckily for Me Pendraken also do some pack horses carrying the guns. So it would be rude not to have them as well. We will just have to assume that there are another two guys on horses one to make the third crew member and one to look after the horses who are off of the base at the time.

Needless to say these were painted for Curt's Analogue Challenge and I was particularly pleased that this is a figure range he had not seen before as I know he does wargame the Spanish Civil War.


So with these light guns I have also 2 French 155mm field guns. I have given these regular army crew as being Bigger I would imagine larger political factions would insist on having these. It is still quite possible that they could be on Nationalist or Republican sides as the uniforms don't really give a true indication of loyalty. As with all the figures I could paint Armbands on them, but this keeps it more versatile. I have Two trucks to tow these guns about. And I probably should apologise for the backgrounds being skewiff but I am not going to. Just take the colours from the backgrounds to indicate why I have selected those camouflage patterns.

I promise to put something that has not been on the challenge next time. As I am just basing up some dead markers for this game.

I have two games this weekend, Club on Sunday and Posties Rejects tomorrow. So expect my next post on Monday. So until then take care and have fun. All the best Clint

10mm SCW Guardia de Assalto

During the Analogue Painting Challenge I expanded my Spanish Civil War forces. In this instance a detachment of Guardia de Assalto. These fellows were a paramilitary force before the Civil war broke out and to be eligible to join you had to have had prior military experience. When the war started loyalties were split and thus we see these form of troops fighting for both Nationalist and Republican.

Firstly this is a "Bilbao" armoured car it has a crew of 4 and is able to carry 5 additional troops. It is armed with a 7mm Hotchkiss machine gun. It was the only pre war armoured car built by Spain. I went for a simple very dark grey colour scheme and applied a black wash. Job Done.

I doubt I will need more of these vehicles as they were quite rare, More common than any other type of armoured car to be sure, but never built or distributed in the kind of numbers as we would expect in later years.








The Uniform of the Guardia de Assalto was black shirt and trousers with a black peaked cap. If you have seen the film "Land and freedom" these are seen at one point not as front line troops but in Barcelona entering a mans house and arresting him. They did also fight as frontline troops and were some of the most mobile troops of the war usually going by truck, but there was also a motorcycle detachment.

As I plan a game later in the year (Autumn) I still have plenty of time to sort the forces out. The main thing holding me up is terrain though. "Timescape" do make some terrain for this scale and region there really is a limited choice. Which leaves me wondering if I should make my own buildings.

That's todays update. As these have already been on the painting challenge this feels like a backward step putting them on my blog, But as they have not been seen here it is allowable.

Until next time, take care and have some fun Clint

No Prisoners (Aqaba Arab Revolt Game)

For those of you who cannot remember the film. The history is of course different from the film and the actual battle lasted 4 days.

But as a wargamer I am more drawn to the spectacle of the film. So here is Our game interpretation that we played out yesterday. Some amendments to make to the playing boards and to the rules before Broadside, but no reason not to give a game walk through of one of the games we played.

 Starting positions for the Arabs.

4 foot long Arab camel line and 2 Turks in a trench Not expecting guests

 Mostly a deserted Desert town

Turkish Patrols wandering the town

Over-running the trench line the Camel charge moves on

Laurence of Arabia and entourage.

They reach the out skirts of the town

Moving through crop fields

 And skirting buildings. In the distance you cane see a Turkish Patrol taking cover behind a low wall field boundary.

Another Turkish Patrol taking cover. As the Charge gains momentum.

Turkish shooting starts to take it's toll and Camel riders start to tumble.

Laurence Moves forward in the centre of the board

 Skirting the building a first wave of Camel riders suffers devastating incoming fire.

 Else where melee is joined and while some Arabs slip past others engage in the Melee.

 Having survived, for the most part, the incoming fire the arabs start to get stuck in.

 The Melee is not all one sided and it delays the Arab attack long enough

 Long enough for the Turks to get reinforcements.

 Laurence gets dragged down in Hand to hand combat by three Turks and unfortunately DIES! Graham is a ROTTER!

 The Flag bearer pushes forward but the Turkish reinforcements are to many and their fire power concentrated and eventually he runs to cover.

Arab reinforcements finally arrive, but too late to turn the tide.

 

 

Yes so the Turks managed to defend Aqaba in this game but it was a close run thing. If two more Turks had died it would have been an Arab victory. I(n the first game, the Arabs did win and that was also a close run thing. So I must conclude that the rules and forces are quite balanced. There will be a few changes made but just minor tweaks. The Boards also need a slight revamp, but nothing major. As a teast game it worked very well.

 

 

Thanks for reading and more again as soon as I can. All the best Clint



Slim pickins

Well I have been home for about an hour now. So that must mean it's time to blog. So today I went to Spring Skirmish ( LINK) Where Tim Graham and myself put a game on. Dave and Paul were putting on a different game at the same show so were unable to assist. I will do a Game report Next time out. Two other Bloggers were present that I know of. Big Lee and David Crook. So they will probably do a little bit about the show in the next few days. (Click on their names to view their blogs).

Anyway Mr Crook has an interest in the Arab revolt so he will be joining us a bit at Broadside to Play. That invitation extends to any blogger who attends Broadside and wants to join in. Games take about 2 hours so if that's too long feel free to step in and step out when the mood takes you.

So we used the Skirmish show to play-test the rules I wrote yesterday and the game does work as a participation game if you want it to. I shall just give you one Pic of the game today. This is the starting position of the Arab Camelry before the charge starts. So yes That is 4 foot wall to wall Camels! With two poor Turks in a trench on sentry duty........ They tend to die in the first turn! but it does get you an idea how the rules work very quickly.


It was a good day and despite many temptations I spent only £4.50. Yes I am a cheapskate. So all I bought was 5 plastic Lord of the rings Figures for 20p Each These are for my nephew and with luck it should keep him busy for about 15 seconds! (so money well spent!) £1 was also spent on small round MDF bases.... and my big purchase of a 1/200th scale Ju52. The aircraft will be painted in civil colours and used in my planned Spanish Civil War Game.

That's it for today. I shall do another blog post soon. So until then take care and Have fun. All the best Clint

Building done

I find that when I get near the end of a terrain board everything comes together in a rush. Today is an example. I have painted up the building top go on the board. Yes It's a bit rough in places, but seriously who cares too much about that. Yeah alright I know I do! But it's not too rough and plenty good enough to pass.

Keeping it brief so I can get back on with things. In particular the last few figures for the game.

Hope to talk soon. All the best Clint

Desert Board Update

just a quick update as I wait for paint to dry. I am now at the stage where I just have to wait for them to dry and them dry brush them with a couple of lighter tones and they I can plant the trees.

I will attempt the dry brushing later today once this yellow top coat is dry. Assuming I can dry brush them ok later I will then need to lighten the walls to make them stand out a little more. Then that will be the painting done. So less than an hours work for that.

At that stage I will plant the trees. I want to add 6 trees to each board. These will be palm trees that I have bought from China via eBay. They will simply fit into holes I have yet to drill. At that stage the boards will just about be done.

There you go a very quick update today. Maybe another one tomorrow I'll have to wait and see.

So until then take care and hope to see you soon.

All the best Clint

Half Tracks

Having bought these in June last year I have finally gotten around to finishing them. As you can see these are WW2 US halftracks. They are by the Plastic Soldier Company and come with 5 sprues in a box and each sprue capable of making one halftrack. There are several options on each sprue allowing for different weapons mounts, different bumpers, optional stowage and up to 8 people in each vehicle. With all the options I wanted to peep them fairly uniform though and have just changed the bumper on one of them. This allows me to identify a platoon leader vehicle should I need to. And that is the only reason I changed one.

I found them quite fiddly to put together due to their size but would happily get more if I needed them. The instructions were clear and concise and once you had worked through the process once or twice you knew how to do them. They did not come with the decals though but I had some spare. As already mentioned you could put up to 8 figures in each M3 Halftrack I settled on 3each though as I want to use these more in a battle taxi role. So my three figures are the driver and co-driver (a one piece casting so easier to have them both than just a driver) and a guy to operate the .50 Browning. 2 of these are just sitting and "relaxing" in the back, the other three are poised at the guns. The soldiers manning the machineguns are two piece castings allowing you to position them and the weapons at different angles should you choose.  I felt no need to do this.

This should bring my US PBI force to a logical end. Well as much of an end as any project has as there are still more options I could select and knowing me I will want to tinker and try out different things. As I type this I immediately realise I have no flame throwers or mine detectors or anti aircraft support. But for now this is enough and I have reached critical mass on this project.

Thanks for reading. I may update tomorrow with some terrain board information as the last two boards are now dry and I just need to colour them up and do the edging and plant trees. So I hope to see you all soon. All the best Clint

Yesterday

As sometimes happens we are just not in the mood. It was club day yesterday and I was just not in the mood. Maybe it's Curt's painting challenge taking it's toll, or maybe it was because the rugby was on or maybe the stars were just not right. But unfortunately I was just not in the mood. Which means I did go to the club and had a chat with the good folks (and some of the less good) and instead of having an AAR today I just have a few snaps of 2 of the games that were being played.

Firstly Dave and Paul put on a huge 28mm Ancients game of Greeks vs Galations. It stretched the length of 2 table tennis tables with hundreds of figures on each side. It really was a spectacle to behold. There were so many figures that it did look like a show game as opposed to a club game.

They used the fantasy "Kings of War" rules as they wanted to be able to finish the game in a single day. My observation is that the rules worked very well with such a horde of figures and combats were quickly resolved.

In addition to Paul and Dave, Ian and Kevin also played and having never played the rules before understood them and got to grips with them very quickly.  I left after they had each only had 2 turns so I have no idea how any of the games were resolved but they had gotten into contact and casualties had been inflicted and Dave had even lost a whole unit from a failed morale check.

Overall it did look like a good game and they would have made room for me if I had wanted to join in. But as already mentioned I just was not in the........ you know the rest.

One game I did not take any piccies of was the new Peter Pig dark age rules. The reason for no pics was that they had just finished the pre-game so the terrain was in the process of being set up. I am sure I will get to play this fairly soon so I will keep an open mind about it.







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Following the ACW game I played last time, Tim had tweaked the rules a little and was having another game with 3 other chaps. Including a guy who had never played any wargames before but wanted to try one out so came along. This is great any club can always use new members and he seemed like a decent bloke and I hope he enjoyed it.

The rules were a tweaked version of "Honour and Glory" with Tim having amended the mistakes from last time and lessened the effect generals had on units shooting as well as evening up the turn distribution. I would imagine these amendments would improve the game.

Tim also mentioned some linked games of ACW and is planning some kind of campaign. More of this as/when it happens. But if anyone in the club can Tim can.



I managed to scrounge 2 sets of rules to flick through as well both of which I am interested in. That is the great thing about clubs someone will either have it, be that a set of rules or armies for a certain period, or if not they will know someone who does and they will be able to point you in the right direction.

Anyway the rules in question are "Body Count" an old set of Vietnam rules and "1644" by wargames foundry. This later set as Tim wanted me to read through the campaign system as I would be interested in doing a campaign as well, and he thought this was the best place to start.

And Finally It's wrong I know but,

 ENGLAND

Beat

WALES!

Thank you

Thank you to those that took part in my small poll  The results were quite conclusive:

British 5
Arab    2
Indian  1

Thus it looks very much like I shall do a small British force for the game with the rejects.
Cheers Again Guys. Next post Monday.