Wargamingnz

Origins of our fantasy games.

2012-01-29T20:23:00.001+13:00

Even though I wargame the fantasy genreusing the HotT (Hordes of the Things) wargames rules (and more recently the 'Kings of war' rules from Mantic), I haven’t traditionallybeen a reader of fantasy literature. As a university student I was a voraciousreader of the sci-fi genre, but that was quite some years ago. My reading ofthe fantasy genre has really only included Tolkein, a little of John Norman’s “Gor”series (only a couple of books actually), and I guess that Frank Herbert’s Duneseries came close as well.

Recently I discovered the writing of Helen Lowe. Helen describes herself on her blog as “a novelist, poet, interviewer and lover ofstory”. She lives in Christchurch, and has previously written books for ayounger audience including ‘Thornspell’. In 2010 her first fantasynovel for an adult audience (‘The Heir of Night” Orbit Books, ISBN 978-0-356-50008-9) was published. Havingfollowed Helen’s Blog (and taken some of her advice for aspirant writers) forsome time I decided that I should read some of her work. It took a little whileto track down a copy of ‘The Heir of Night’ (bookstores in post quakeChristchurch are scarce, to say the least), but I finally found the bookstocked in a great bookstore in Wellington.

I found myself transfixed by ‘The Heir ofNight’. Helen has created a fantasy world vaguely resembling (as many of themdo) something slightly medieval, but a world that is wholly absorbing. Helen’sskill at creating such a world, her skill at story telling in fact, deserves tobe compared not only with writers like Frank Herbert, but could in my opinionequally hold its own with writers of the stature of Tolkien. Her writing islyrical where it should be, fast paced where it should be, and demanding of thereader’s concentration where it should be. In short, it is a damned good read.I could hardly put the book down. It is little wonder that the book has beennominated for two Gemmell Awards in London this year.

Even if you only vaguely thought that youmight just possibly consider maybe reading something sort of akin to fantasy,READ THIS!!

The second part of the story ‘The Gatheringof the Lost’ is due out in early April 2012. I’ll be looking out for it.

Orc advance halted ...

2012-01-23T20:20:00.000+13:00

Kings of War time again, and this time a largely Human force (Kingdoms of Men), with just a few Dwarf reinforcements, stood before the Orc hordes. The Orcs were keen to get forward and in to contact.

The Humans and Dwarfs had settled themselves on a largely defensive posture. Most of the line was composed of Footguard supported by archers. The right was held by a Dwarf horde supported by a steel behemoth. Knights sat on the flanks, awaiting the time to counterattack. It was all a matter of timing.

On they came ....

The men waited.

Orcs hit archers, there wasn't much resistance.

The Dwarves were determined to resist. The steel behemoth inched forward and blasted the orcs with it's breath weapon.

It was attacked by a winged kruger and a horde of orcs. They bounced off, after all it was a STEEL behemoth.

The main orc attack washed up along the centre and bounced.

Units counter attacked all along the line.

Orc units were smashed and shot away.

But still the onslaught continued.

The orcs made some gains, but as night fell both sides were exhausted. The orcs would withdraw to consider their next move, while the Kingdoms of Men licked their own wounds, and recruited once more to fill the empty ranks.

In game terms the conclusion came at the end of 12 turns (6 per side) with a draw. Considering the combat power of the orcs this was a reasonable result. The Kingdoms of Men had misused their knights, and so their counterattacks had been uncoordinated and lesss powerful than they could and should have been. But the infantry had stood their ground remarkably well.

For all that, a great game of Kings of War.

Northern France 1944 - more 20mm Spearhead action.

2012-01-19T20:21:00.000+13:00

Nick and I played another Spearhead game in 20mm today. This time I composed two forces of approximately 450 points per side, with the game set in northern France in late 1944. The game was an encounter game devised loosely around Keith McNelly's Scenario Generation System. Each side was of approximately regimental strength, with around half a regiment of armour and some off table artillery in support. The British were supported by 3 battalions of 25pdr guns, while the Germans had a regiment of 105mm howitzers in divisional support, and a regiment of 150mm guns dedicated to counter-battery support.

The first view is of the battle field at the start of the game, with the Germans entering from the left and the British from the right.

The British left flank battalion. The British armour can be seen behind in support.

This town sector was pivotal to the British left/German right. The Germans were first to occupy it with 3 platoons, with the reminder of the battalion and the armour and in support. Nick assaulted with two platoons. In an attack the likes of which I've never seen before he won the battle for the town, eliminating all three occupying platoons... extraordinary!!!

The German armour sat in support of the battalion holding their centre. The opposing British battalion took fire from the 105mm howitzers, the tank battalion and the infantry battalion. Despite the cover provided by the stone walls casualties mounted there and on their own left around the town.

Nick then changed orders for his armour and began a push around his left. The defending British infantry battalion then exceeded both 50% and 66% casualties in the one turn, and took two morale tests. It passed BOTH!! This British performance on their left was a day to remember.

The German armour began to push forward to take advantage of the flank that the British armour had presented as it attempted to attack the German right.

At the same time Nick now tried to apply pressure to the German centre by advancing. Nick was also by this stage beginning to make use of his artillery, concetrating fire from all three battalions. However as a consequence the German counter battery observer had been hard at work, and located all three battalions. Counter battery fire had begun, causing casualties on the British gunners.

I had decided to use my reserve battalion to try to take the bridge objective on the German left, and then to attack the open British right flank. However I miscalculated how long crossing the stream would take. This battalion took no part in the battle.

The game ended after 3 hours play, with the Germans scoring 5 victory points to the British 3, and of us having enjoyed a pretty good afternoon's game. Game play had been a little slower than you might expect as Nick learned the rules. The terrain had also hung up both sides, with both forces initially avoiding the stream, and so concentrating the deployment in a much smaller frontage than is usual.

All in all, a great game, and proof that SH will still work with 20mm figures and vehicles. My own plan was actually pretty mediocre, and I can easily imagine that with a few more games under his belt, Nick would have taken me apart quite convincingly. So, I may now need to base all of my old 20mm WW2 collections ready for some games.. sitting in those boxes is a HUGE pile of Russian kit... sigh!!

And here's Nick's version of events ...

Eastern Front 1914 milestone

2012-01-18T13:48:00.001+13:00

As a matter of record, today marked a cool milestone in the Eastern Front 1914 project: the first Russian infantry division is pretty much complete. Currently it has four regiments of 3 battalions which is arguably slightly later in the war (introduction began in 1915 if I have the correct), but it is now a viable game force. Ultimately the Scenario Generation System demands two divisions for Attack scenarios, but this single division is at least usable on the table for basic encounter games.

Completion of this first division was one of my summer painting goals. Now for a wee 'mini' project that has been percolating for a while, with the first figures on the painting desk ready to go. It fits with the Eastern Front 1914 theme.. stay watching!

Italian wars of the 1860s

2012-01-08T12:16:00.001+13:00

First outing last night for Adrian's new armies for the Wars of Italian Unification - Neopolitan Piedmontese, so just a few photos of the action.

The Neopolitans attack a town sector... they were summarily repulsed.. ouch.

Had to photograph this (for me this is a rarity..) - a Neopolitan M5 Shock unit went into the attack, four combat dice needing 5s or 6s to it... here's the roll.. made Adrian's eyes water, I can tell you.

That unit was then attacked by 3 units of Piedmontose cavalry. Fortunately they boys stood their ground and were just recoiled (it could have been much worse!!).

Lastly just a couple of shots of Adrian's units alongside some of his beautifully hand made Italian buildings.

Russian enlistment ...

2012-01-05T20:23:00.002+13:00

A brief update on the expansion of the 1914 Russian forces. Below are photos of the first two regiments which represent half of the fighting stands in a Great War Spearhead division.

This first regiment is painted as a 'conscript' regiment might have looked with old 1904 issue green and white clothing left over from 1904.

This second regiment is painted more 'conventionally' in the regulation 1914 'khaki green'. I have made a conscious effort to vary the shadings of the 'khaki' to represent the vagaries of massed production of dyes and uniforms, and the varying rates of fading of the fabrics. I achieve this by mixing small quantities of paint on the palette as I paint. I take a Vallejo British khaki brown, and blend in a little blue. The blue mixes with the yellow pigment in the khaki to give the greenish hue.

I also occasionally blend a little Citadel Kommando khaki to produce a more faded brown shade.

New look WW2 Spearhead

2012-01-04T20:50:00.001+13:00

I make no secret of the fact that the Spearhead stable of rules rank only slightly behind Volley and Bayonet as my all time favourite rules system. I play Great War Spearhead, WW2 and Modern Spearhead. When friend Nick G was around for a game recently he spotted the WW2 Spearhead rules set on the shelf and after a browse asked if we could try a game. Now I play WW2 SH in 6mm, while Nick odes his WW2 (mostly Crossfire I think) in 20mm. He asked if SH could work in 20mm. Now infantry are fine, but we did discuss the ground scale distortion that occurs with the larger 20mm vehicles. Despite this, we decided to give it a try. I set up a small 'training'; game with a battalion each of 1944 Germans and British. The Germans were supported by a small unit of 2 PzKwIIINs and the British battalion was supported by a 6pdr AT gun.

Nick took the Germans. The tanks advanced down a ridge line in the centre of the table and bumped straight into an infantry company. Further to the rear the 6pdr was sited in support. A combination of platoon AT fire and the 6pdr fire destroyed the tank platoon.. dashed good luck, but Nick had learned the first lesson... make sure infantry and armour support each other.

Nick's infantry advanced in a hook around the British left flank, although in responding to the armour threat I was able to re-orient the British defence to tackle the advancing Germans.

A bitter fight erupted as the two infantry battalions went 'head to head'.

Trying to take advantage of German suppression the British close assaulted a German platoon, thinking that there was no other platoon available to offer fire support. However Nick's HMG was able to bring fire to bear and stopped the British platoon in its tracks.

Bitter fighting ensued, but the Germans were winning the firefight, and it would soon all be over.

I am aware that others already play WW2 SH in 20mm, but for me it was something new, and it worked. This was a 'training' game for Nick with very small forces, and I still have my doubts about games with the more usual concentrations of vehicles where each side might include a battalion of armour, but it will be well worth trying. And I think Nick enjoyed it.. game on!!!

The Forgotten General

2011-12-28T13:46:00.001+13:00

Irecently finished reading ‘The Forgotten General” (ISBN 978 1 877505 07 2),Jock Vennell’s biography of Major General Sir Andrew Russell (Allen and Unwin,2011).

Ifirst became aware of Russell’s extraordinary achievements when reading GlynHarper’s ‘Spring Offensive’, detailing the New Zealand Division’s part in theSecond Battle of the Somme in March 1918, and recall thinking at the time thatRussell must surely rank as one of the truly gifted generals of World War 1.Indeed, Vennell joins Harper and Pugsley in saying so.

Russellwas born in New Zealand and sent to England for his education, at the end ofwhich he passed out from Sandhurst with the sword of honour for the best cadetofficer of his year in 1887. His professional career with the British army cameto an end when he left the army, bored with the frontier duties and attitudesthat he found. He commanded the NZ Brigade at Gallipoli and came out of thecampaign with a Knighthood, and command of the NZ Division that was then sentto France. He commanded the Division right through to the end of the war,turning down a Corp Command suggested by of both Haig and Godley, as his healthfailed in the last few months of the war.

Thisis the story of an extraordinary man who made (and admitted) his share of mistakes (the NZ Division’slosses in their 12 October 1917 attack at Passchendaele would be his worst) butwho learned quickly. He valued the lives of his men, and combined toughdiscipline with tactical innovation and thoroughness of preparation andplanning, to create one of the best performing divisions on the Western Front.

Inthe Preface, Vennell writes:

“… prominent military historian Dr Chris Pugsleywent much further, rating Russell as not only the outstanding divisionalcommander among the British armies that fought on the Western Front, but the onemilitary commander of genius that New Zealand produced in the twentieth century.”

Ifyou are looking for an in depth analysis of Russell’s performances on the battlefield,then you would be better advised to read Harper’s ‘Spring Offensive’, but for afascinating view of the life of New Zealand’s ‘Forgotten General’, you could dolittle better than to read Vennell’s biography. I highly recommend the book to all 'students' of World war 1, and New Zealand military history.

Russian project gathers steam...

2011-12-22T14:27:00.001+13:00

I hadn't intended this blog to become an 'Army Diary'. This week's work however has added the first of the new infantry stands, and a few of the required MMG stands, and as these are the first for several years I thought I'd add them for completeness (but I have no intention of adding photos every time a few more stands roll off the painting pins!!)

These first infantry are painted as reservists might have been equipped - clothed in old reserve (i.e. 1904) uniforms. There are a few (the lucky few) in this batch who have been issued with the correct post 1912 green khaki uniforms too. The bulk of the divisions will of course be painted with the green-hued khaki, but these 'reservists' will make a nice visual break, and a break in the painting tedium as well. The 3 new MMG stands are in the background.

This is the Divisional Command stand, and I thought that painting these guys with blue 'Cavalry Uniform' trousers might represent the probable 'hierachy' that existed in so many 1914 armies.

In Great War Spearhead each infantry stand represents a company, and the base size represents the area occupied by a deployed company in the context of the ground scale used in the rules. Typically a full strength battalion in GWSH would be represented by four company stands, and the theoretical Russian TOE has one MMG stand per battalion (representing the allocation of the Regimental MMGs to the battalions).

All of these figures are from the HaT 20mm range. The infantry come from the Russian infantry set, while the MMGs and the Divisional Command stand use figures from the Russian Heavy Weapons set.

Russian artillery finished ...

2011-12-16T13:18:00.002+13:00

The artillery component of the 1914 Russian force is now finished with the completion of 5 stands of Putilov 76mm with the crew painted as foot artillery. The figures on the end battery show some of the crew painted in the 1904 style green trousers. I also tried to get quite a variation in 'khaki' with varying shades of the theoretical green khaki, some with more of a brown tinge, and quite a few faded to greyer khaki (attained by mixing grey with the khaki colour itself.) I mix the colours on the palette in small quantities so tat I ma mire likely to get differing shades as I work.

When Stan brought along the Putilovs, he also handed me a box of British 4.5 Howitzers (also but HaT), announcing that according to his sources 900 of these were shipped to Russia. Now these were not guns I'd planned on painting.. in GWSH they are most likely to be off table, so no models required. However (as Stan obviously knew) once I'd seen them there was no going back. I'd run out of Russian artillery crew, so resorted to crew from the Heavy Weapons box to crew these guns.

So finally here is the 'artillery park' complete. Five stands of foot artillery, three stands of horse artillery, and 3 stands of heavier Corp guns.

As a final note, a commment on the HaT kits. These are moulded in hard plastic, are historically accurate, and go together like a dream. The crew are the modern gluable soft plastic that HaT now uses, althugh I had no cause to glue anything about the figures themselves. Highly recommended.

Next step - the infantry heavy weapons.

"Restart WW1" .. first fruits.

2011-12-14T11:11:00.001+13:00

I'm surprised at how quickly I've managed to get back into the swing of things with my "Restart WW1" project (although the end of the academic year helps). So here are the first fruits of my labour (and the first 20mm WW1 figures I've painted in quite some time).The three guns (HaT Putilov 76mm field guns) represent a Great War Spearhead artillery regiment, with each model representing a battery. These guns are horse artillery (hence the blue trousers on the crew), while the remainder of the guns I paint will be field artillery.

I thought I'd pose them with some cavalry (Dragoons) to create a little of the feel of these guys on the table top. The foot figures are Hat Russian infantry, while the mounteds are Strelets Russian Dragoons.

My earlier work on WW1 armies can be seen here:

http://www.wargaming.org.nz/

if anyone is interested.

Restart ...

2011-12-12T21:12:00.001+13:00

'Restart' is something of a catch cry for those of us living in Christchurch at the moment. We have a 'Restart Mall', a new beginning for retailing in our quake shattered CBD, and it has now hit my wargames/painting table.

I have restarted a project I began a couple of years ago to complete a 1914 Russian force suitable for playing Great War Spearhead. I played a very cool 1914 scenario with Nick well over a year ago, and the 'Random Morale' status of the infantry regiments (an option, but not compulsroy in the scenario generation system - you can pay the points and take Green, Regular, or Veteran regiments if you wish) makes these guys so much fun. The unpredictability of the random morale status means you can never be sure quite what will happen.

I had already painted one infantry regiment, and several regiments of cavalry (Cossacks and Dragoons). In the time since I started (and stopped) the project, HaT has since released a large number of WW1 artillery guns, and accompanying crew, so I thought that to get the 'gaming juices flowing I would start with the necessary on-table field artillery stands to support the force. The HaT Putilov 76mm (or 3", depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on) is first in my sights. The first four of these guns is neairng completion, with photos to follow: four guns and accompanying crew.

It's good to be back in the saddle (or on the limber!!)

Dwarf gyrocopter

2011-12-11T14:21:00.001+13:00

Well, here it is.. finally... I've already 'vented spleen' at the frustrations of assembling this, so enough said. It is most likely to see service as a 'Steel Behemoth' in the Kings of War Dwarf army, although I may well use some sort of flying hero stat line from another army to model "King flying incredibly noisy and occasionally effective beastie" character.

Dwarf gyrocopter revisited.

2011-12-05T21:15:00.001+13:00

I'm currently undertaking my third (and hopefully final) attempt at assembling the GW Dwarf gyrocopter. My previous two attempts, using two different types of superglue, were to no avail, the complete assembly falling apart on me. The kit was therefore put aside for quite some time (well, over 12 months actually) and I've finally decided to take it out and try again.

So.. a little research on the web first, and I find comment that this may well be rated as the most difficult assembly in the entire GW range.. fantastic!!

The consensus was however pretty clear: you need to pin the model, especially the rotor assembly. So pin it I did. The holes were drilled with a long unused motorised drill of French manufacture, and pins were inserted down the length of each blade, and throiugh the hub itself. It was glued with two part epoxy. I also picked up another very cool tip: glue the rotor hub to a washer - inspired!!

So here is a photo of the rotor assembly from the underside at that stage.

I then went on to strengthen the hub further with a band of green stuff, creating what now looks like an elegantly enlarged hub, perfectly in keeping with the concept of dwarf engineering.

The landing skids also required pinning, and the assembly is now being painted - photos to follow.
I haven't been this challenged with any model since I used to scratch build models of ships and aircraft as a teenager - those were the days!

And now for something completely different

2011-12-04T19:40:00.001+13:00

Adrian and I had been trying to arrange a Marlburian game for a couple of months, and finally managed it last night. The game was a fictional one pitting Imperialists against French, and we used Adrian's 5mm Marlburian armies. I was too involved in the game (commanding the French) to gather a detailed AAR, so here are just a few photos from the game.

The game was loosely based on some historical OOBs with the French outnumbering the Imperialists, and with a generally lower morale grade army. The battle was fought using the Volley and Bayonet rules.

My French Horse were first to strike, tackling the end of Adrian's defensive line.

The other end of Adrian's line was anchored on a town sector which he quickly occupied with some dismounted dragoons.

The lines went toe to toe in the centre.

I tackled Adrian's right flank with this column style push (must have been thinking about Marlborough himself).

The game ended in a French victory, having driven three of the four Imperialist infantry commands, and one of the two cavalry commands, into exhaustion. Just another damned good game using Volley and Bayonet.... and a nice change away from fantasy to some good solid historical gaming.

Random photos from HotT Carnage ...

2011-12-04T16:25:00.001+13:00

Finally for HotT Carnage a few random shots of my other games... just to showcase a few HotT armies.

First up, Carruthers had to take on some wild stuff from the Lost Worlds ...

The airboat fleeing from a magician's curse...

And the savage warbands closely engaged the British shooters ..

Having disposed of the magician, the airboat came to the support of the shooters, and it was all over really..

Then it was the turn of some pesky dwarves ..

The Dwarf hero seemed mighty interested in the airboat, but couldn't quite reach him... move distance you understand, not a politically incorrect comment on his height...

The imperial flyers did some fancy manoeuvring while the steam robot behemoth stomped all over the dwarves..now that's definitely not politically correct.. oh dear...

HotT Carnage results

2011-12-04T16:12:00.001+13:00

HotT Carnage 2011 was a pretty amazing little competition, even though this year numbers were down to 6 players: Mark, Gordon, Kevin, Stan, Nick and me.

That made the draw pretty simply, 5 games, one against everyone else. I reported last week on my most amazing game against Nick, and Stan's wonderful 'Thomas the tank engine' army (my two losses for the day) but omitted to say that it was Nick who took a well deserved win for the competition - his first since we began the biennial HotT competitions in 2008.

With some time up our sleeves at the end, four of use remained behind to play a Big Battle HotT.. well a double battle actually. Nick and I took the two British VSF armies against a bunch of rebellious adventurers and some swarthy Zulus commanded by Kevin and Gordon. Carruthers being Carruthers, he shared command rather than cede control totally to any 'johnny come lately'!!!

Here are just a few shots from the game which ended in a British victory over the uncivilised hordes (well what else would you expect of Carruthers, eh wot??).

'Thomas the Tank Engine' and HotT

2011-11-30T18:31:00.001+13:00

One of my two losses at HotT carnage was against one of the most innovative HotT armies I have ever seen - Stan's 'Thomas the tank engine' army. Thomas wasn't the rage when our kids were little, so I never really got to know the characters.. if you are a fan, you'll recognise them immediately. However the army certainly included a flyer, riders, a paladin, a knight and a God.

Stan brought the riders into action against Carruthers' line very quickly.

Carruthers' aerials tried to get around the flank ..

But his battle line fell apart far too quickly... ouch!!

A great game, albeit a little short for Carruthers' taste...

Carruthers' big day out: HotT Carnage

2011-11-26T18:56:00.001+13:00

Today was the annual Carnage tournament, the second of the two annual Christchurch HotT tournaments, combining a Warhammer Fantasy battles tournament, and of course HotT.

This year a slightly reduced field of six veteran players took to the tables: Mark, Stan, Nick G, Gordon, Kevin and me. The format was simple: with five rounds we each played one game against every other player.. simple!! Having one the tournament twice before, this time I managed a credible third, with a long overdue tournament victory to Nick G.

I played Nick in my third game of the day, and while Nick beat me, it was perhaps the most memorable game of HotT I can recall playing. While I'll post sundry photos of the other games in another post, I thought I'd offer a detailed account of this game.

Nick fielded an Early German army which included warband ...

and a host of ghostly hordes.. the dead of Teutobergerwald. It also included a dragon... hmmm.. did i mention the dragon? mumble mumble mumble....

Carruthers had at this stage had a successful campaign so far, having used his recently arrived air wing to good effect to beat off both previous opponents. Confidence in the new technology was high...

Early in the game the German dragon arrived, and .. in a rush of blood to the head it appears in hindsight, he ordered the air wing into action, with the airboat, supported by two flyers, hurtling towards the dragon pinning it against the base line.

Sadly, Carruthers had indeed over-estimated the combat power of his air wing, as the German dragon breathed vivid red and orange flame at the attackers, bringing the airboat down in a fiery ball of flame.

In its next turn the dragon clearly felt that it liked the taste of British air, and took on one of the remaining flyers.

The other flyer fled across the table, but was quickly caught by the dragon. Carruthers was heard to scream some curly language at his advisers...

The dragon then decided to take the action to the enemy, and with a flap of its wings, soared across the sky and settled itself behind the British lines in preparation for its next assault.

The British shooters had meanwhile swung around the German left flank, and were kept busy dispatching Hordes as they reappeared adjacent to the German stronghold.

The dragon then began a game of cat and mouse as it tried to attack the British line which included Carruthers himself. Absolutely 'bloody anoyed' at the poor performance of his new flyers, Carruthers himself took the responsibility of dispatching the aerial menace.

'Nothing beats the cold steel, I tell you... blood, guts and cold steel...' Carruthers' voice was heard echoing across the battlefield as the dragon fled from the onslaught.

Carruthers then turned and lead his steam robot against the German hero, but the hero was tougher match, and the end was at hand, Carruthers' army was beginning to dissipate. Carruthers himself was extracted from the battlefield by his loyal staff, filled as they were with admiration for the man who had single handedly dispatched the nemesis of the British air wing.

This was an extraordinarily good game which swung one way then the other. Carruthers' victory against the dragon had looked to be a turning point in the battle, but it was not to be.

Thanks Nick for a wonderful game of HotT.

Orc invasion still unchecked!!!

2011-11-21T18:11:00.000+13:00

Despite calls from the King for Dwarf forces to 'show more steel', the Orc invasion of the Dwarf realm has continued unchecked. This time the Dwarfs had even called upon the Kingdom of Men to fight in support of their warriors, but no avail.

This game featured 2000 points of Orcs, and the equivalent in Humans allied to Dwarves, using the Mantic Kings of War rules. This was the largest KoW game we had played to date.

The Dwarfs deployed on the right, with Human Knights deployed on the flank to attack the Orc flank.

The Orcs deployed.. um, well.... all over the place really.

The Humans were given the left, which they held oddly with archers and mounted scouts. In a rush of blood to the head, Andy doubled the archers forward, putting them quickly in charge reach of the Orcs... this wasn't going to end well!!

Meanwhile the Orcs came on towards the solid bodies of dwarf warriors holding the centre and the right.

Orcs finally hit the Dwarves in the centre ..

While the Knights hit the Orcs on the Orc left.

The first unit was routed, but ..

The knights were then counter charged by Orc reserves (what's this with Orcs using tactics??) and routed themselves.

Dwarf warriors had moved to bolster the attack on their right ..

While Orcs bounced off the bodies of Dwarf warriors in the centre ...

But the Dwarf right was under threat as well.. flanked by some of those Orc heroes...

Humans bolstered the Dwarf forces ..

But the writing was on the wall.... the dwarf unit at the top of the picture was hit front and rear... so that one didn't end well either...

Back to the drawing board...

A great game that swung several times.

A couple of new terrain pieces for Epic and HotT

2011-11-15T20:29:00.000+13:00

Multi purpose terrain .. just love it. At the same time that I bought my Spartan Games Flyers and Airboat, I also bought these two terrain pieces. They are made by 'Itar's Workshop' in the USA (www.itarsworkshop.com ) - a Power Transformer, and a Power Control Station.

I bought them as Epic terrain pieces, but reckon that they will make nice 'Stonghold' pieces for the 20mm British VSF HotT army.

So, I've posed them here with a few stands from the VSF army.

The brand new Airboat overflies the stronghold .....

A steam powered robot clanks its way through the terrain...

Some Shooters stand guard ...

They'll do nicely thanks. OK ... what's next????

Wondrous shiney new thingamy wotsits..

2011-11-13T17:29:00.000+13:00

If some mechanical contraptions are good, then more must be better. Well, that seems to be Maj Gen Carruthers' philosophy. He keeps demanding more from Horseguards, and they seem to be happy to oblige. Their latest offering to Carruthers is the newest newfangled gizzmo watsit.. an airboat from Her Majesty's Imperial Flying Forces.

As she arrived she was escorted in by Carruthers' existing flying forces.

Now considering himself a technocrat, Carruthers couldn't resist the temptation of having his photo taken alongside some of the marvellous array of technological watsits and thingamies now at his command.

Needless to say, the pink gin flowed freely at the after function, and Carruthers pondered whether he should be thinking a little more seriously about the deployment of these fantastical machines in his upcoming campaign (HotT Carnage, 26 November).. just before the clouds (or was that the alcoholic haze) obscured his view of his shiney new airforce.

The Union marches south!!!

2011-11-12T10:54:00.000+13:00

It's 1862, the Union has pushed south, and the Confederate forces have marched out to meet them. Here are just a few shots from last night's ACW game hosted by Keith, with Jon, Andrew and me. The game was created with the Volley and Bayonet Road to Glory scenario system, using Jon's 6mm Ros Heroics figures.

The scenario saw the Union right wind facing the onslaught of the Confederate army on its own for several moves. The wing deployed with one division holding the town astride it's lines of supply, and the other deployed forward, advancing on its first turn to occupy some fields of standing crops. This division took the full brunt of the Confederate attack from its two best divisions and was thoroughly beaten. It was however a Pyrrhic victory for the Confederate forces as, in defeating the Union advanced forces, they spent their own strength and took no further part in the action.

Union reinforcements advanced to occupy heights in their centre, and woods to their left and right.

The Union left was then assaulted, but managed to repel the attack.

A solitary Confederate brigade, repelled form it's own attack on the Union left, sitting in front of a Division of Union mounted infantry, taking some serious short range flank fire from the only repeating rifles in the entire Union army.. ouch!!

And the remaining Confederate reinforcements, having arrived in march column, decided to about turn and 'skedaddle'.. probably a wise choice in the circumstances.

A good ACW game with an interesting tactical situation created by the RTG system.

Dwarf masssacre - king calls for enquiry

2011-11-05T00:06:00.000+13:00

Life has been pretty hectic these past months, and there have been few opportunities for any 'gaming at all. I had to pull out of the recent Conquest DBA tournament at the last minute as the copy deadline for yet another edit of my new student text and work book loomed, and so there was something of a sigh of relief when I seized the opportunity to play a game tonight.

Adrian and I settled on a Kings of War game (the new fantasy game from Mantic) as something light, not requiring too much concentration (or so I thought!!..Ha!!).

My Dwarves were fendng off yet another Orc invasion.. the old foes eh??? Their left was held by a staunch Ironguard regiment, supported by two Ironwatch troops, with a Beserker half regiment in reserve. In the centre I positioned an Ironclad horde and another regiment, supported by two Cannon and an Organ gun, while the right was held by a Shieldbreaker regiment.

The Orcs came on en masse, and the Shieldbreakers were quickly engaged by Orc Gore Riders.

They repulsed the first attack, counter-attacked themselves to no avail, but were unable to withstand the second assault.

The left was then assaulted by a Gore Rider and chariot, and some other nasty guys with lots of attacks (hope the technical language isn't confusing you, I lost track of the Orc unit types).

.. while the centre Horde also came under attack from two Orc hordes.

The Ironwatch were swept away, despite trying to use the woods to disrupt the orc attacks.

The Berserkers counter-attacked, but a half regiment just isn't enough, and they were also swept away in the orc counter-attacks.

The Army Standard Bearer threw himself into the flank of a unit to try to protect the flank of the Berserkers, but the Berserkers didn't hold out long enough anyway.

And then on the right the unit of Gore Riders that had previously shattered the Shieldbreakers regiment managed to throw off a waver test result and assault and destroy the first of the Dwarf cannons.

There was very little left of the Dwarf army. The orcs had lost a couple of units to Dwarf firepower in the first couple of turns but this was nowhere near enough.

"There will be an enquiry" sources from the Dwarf Royal household are quoted as sayng. "Heads will roll". Seemed to me they already had... in large numbers.

So what went wrong?

Usual poor die rolls.. typical excuse.
Dwarf firepower left vulnerable to attack through poor deployment.
Central units (the Dwarf horde especially) moved out from a good defensive position behind defensive walls to try to take advantage of an initial Orc vulnerability.. overall poor judgement as they weren't as vulnerable as I thought.

But despite that a good game, lots of action, and some damned good company and conversation.

Soviet Hordes defeated ...

2011-10-08T23:50:00.000+13:00

It was a last minute affair (other commitments have kept me from the games table for a few weeks, but a small window of opportunity had arisen to squeak in a game this Saturday evening) and it was to have been a Volley and Bayonet Marlburian game. However after a good long yarn and a whiskey or two, we suddenly found too little time left in the evening for the Marlburian affair, so we settled for a short HotT game. It was a chance to give the new Soviet HotT army a try, and we chose to oppose them with the VSF army under Carruthers' able command, fielding the two new fangled fliers that had just arrived from the Admiralty.

I commanded the VSF while Adrian commanded the Soviets.

The Soviet army consisted of:

4 x shooters (sub machine gunners - one was the general)
4 x Hordes (Riflemen)
2 x T34 Behemoth (in other configurations these could easily be used as knights)
1 x God (an artillery bombardment)

Carruthers was fielding:

1 x Behemoth (steam robot)
2 x fliers
2 x artillery
2 x blade (one was Carruthers himself as general)
3 x shooters

Carruthers sent his fliers around his right flank to attack the enemy left and hold it up, while trying to manoeuvre his unwieldy line forward.

The Soviets advanced hurriedly on their own right and a fight began for the wooded ground that was anchoring the British left.

The Soviet behemoths advanced towards the British centre, but one was blown away by the British artillery (a 1 vs a 6 will do that..).

While the battles for the wings continued, the lone Soviet behemoth decided to have a go itself in support of the Soviet sub machine gunners who were attacked the British right. Throughout this mid phase of the game the British fliers were marooned away from the action as I threw 4 x 1s and a 2 out of 5 consecutive PIP die rolls.. mutter mutter.. Carruthers wasn't happy.

The Soviets finally came forward with the behemoth supported by the sole remaining sub machine gun unit on its right. The British artillery should have been a goner but.. another 1 vs 6 ..

The Soviets were successfully maintaining the pressure on their own right, but casualties were mounting, and successive desperate Soviet calls to the artillery Gods had gone unanswered.

Finally the Gods responded, just as the British steam robot clanked and hissed into action and attacked the last remaining Soviet behemoth, supported by one of the British fliers.

The first attack failed, but the second went in supported by the second flier and the last of the Soviet spirit was extinguished.

Maybe these new fangled flying machines aren't so bad after all.

Carruthers gathers wondrous flying machines ...

2011-09-30T21:58:00.002+13:00

Carruthers has been writing repeatedly to their Lordships at Horseguards begging for reinforcements as he attempts to subjugate unknown worlds and gather empire for Her Majesty. Their Lordships have despatched two of the newest flying contraptions to Carruthers, in the hope that this might keep him quiet for some time.

A small addition to the British Victorian Science Fiction HotT army, and just off the painting table (and yet to be based) are these flyers. The come from the Spartan games Uncharted Seas range.

Still to come is a Skyboat from the same range that will do duty as an airboat in Her Majesty's Royal Naval Air Service!! Top hole, eh what???

You can read more of Carruthers' earlier adventures here.

A "belle" of beauties looked on ...

2011-09-24T17:35:00.000+12:00

It was 1861, and a "belle" of southern ladies had gathered on the highest hill hoping to gain some fleeting glimpse of their handsome young beaus as they strode gloriously into battle, intent upon giving those impudent northerners a darned goood thrashing.

The northern army under MacDowell had marched south with the intention of taking Richmond, and Beauregard had moved his forces north to counter the thrust. Beauregard's advanced guard had marched up the valley towards the town of Hillsborough, with second division on their right as flank guard. The left flank guard seemed to have been left far behind in the enthusiasm of the advance. As they moved along the heights, sending a brigade into Hillsborough, lines of blue could be seen advancing in the distance.

The right flank guard moved up intot he woods adjacent to Hillsborough, but the Union commander had been watching the grey advance with interest, and had sent two of his divisions on his left towards the same cluster of woods. Musket shots began to ring out through the trees, and a veil of gun smoke wafted through the branches, creating a sense of confusion before battle had even been joined. In this confusion a brigade of grey on the extreme right of Beauregard's army began streaming backwards. Even worse, an entire battalion of Beauregard's valuable bronze 'napoleons' fell to the Union forces, the ultimate dishonour for any gunner.

In the meantime the Confederate centre held fast with it's own flank now resting firmly on Hillsborough.

Sensing the opportunity, Beauregard had sent his main force on a longer march around to his left, and three brigades now appeared to threaten the Union right.

But MacDowell had seen the threat and one of his divisions was sent into the woods on his own right to hold the flank.

The grey tide advanced rapidly ... there was fighting to be done.

The Confederate divisions moved up quickly and a vicious firefight began on the Union right. The Confederate infantry quickly gained the ascendancy, sending several Union brigades streaming from the field. The ladies on the hill clapped their approval, and there were delicate mutterings of "My, did you see that? Why I do believe that was the 3rd Virginia."

Seeing his right flank disintegrating, Macdowell ordered one of his victorious left flank divisions across to prop up his right, but this would take time.

As the right steadied, MacDowell pushed on towards the Confederate centre, and Beauregard withdrew his centre forces, leaving a garrison to hold Hillsborough. Meanwhile the Southern ladies had long since abandoned their own positions on their hill as a cool evening breeeze began to cut across the battlefield.

After 8 hours of furious fighting night shed its veil of darkness across the battlefield, and the forces of both armies fell exhausted in the positions they had fought so hard over during the day. MacDowell's forces were certainly in no condition to take Richmond.

What would the 'morrow bring?

This American Civil War battle was a fictional scenario fought by Adrian, Andy, Andrew and me using Frank Chadwick's 'Volley and Bayonet' rules (2nd Edition). We were using my 15mm armies (mostly Freicorps figures). The buildings were scratch built by Adrian.

The battle was a typical 1861 battle, many of the troops were, in VnB terms, poorly trained, morale 4, with a scattering of morale 5 troops across each army.

An Epic Titan joins the ranks ...

2011-09-22T21:33:00.003+12:00

A few months ago Adrian gave me an Epic scale Titan (a Warlord Titan). It came from the Old Space Marine set which, if I understand it correctly, was the first edition of Epic (feel free to correct me there). I have a couple of Scout Titans (yet to be assembled), but I'm not a 'power gamer' so hadn't really planned for a beastie like this. Of course once you have one, two things happen:

1. You can't help painting it, and
2. You realise that one may just not be enough.

Anyway, I sat down last week to paint the beast (all a part of my painting catch up strategy). I chose to use the same colour scheme I used for my WH40K Space Marines, I thought it was suitably 'gothic': a combination of papal purple, and bronze/brass. Here is the finished result.

Certainly Titans are very emblematic of the 40K universe.. I have no idea how effective these things actually are in Epic (I haven't re-read the rules, nor played a game, for several months), but they certainly look the part, and for larger games I almost feel that it's obligatory to have a Titan on the table top.

Epic reinforcements

2011-09-11T20:22:00.004+12:00

I'm slowly catching up on the rather large backlog of painting projects. A few weeks ago it was the DBA Minoans, now it's the majority of the long unpainted Epic Space Marine forces. Tonight, a unit of Whirlwinds, another of Land Speeders, and two each of Terminators and Devastators finally left the recruiting depots and hit the table and took the limelight with a photo oppoprtunity.

The remainder of the Epic Space Marine forces are a mix of Chapters, but these reinforcements are all Blood Angels.. no reason other than that I like the colour red on the table top, it is easy to see with my slightly dodgy eye sight.

They were all undercoated black, then given a base coat of Scab red, a highlight of Blood Red, a Badab Black wagh, and then highlighted with a red/yellow mix, before detials were picked out.

There's still a little to go, a Titan and two Warhound Scout Titans, and a Thunderhawk. We'll get there. Now.. where was I? Oh yes, there are some rather cool flyers for the British VSF HotT army waiting for some attention. Stay watching.

Mantic's 'Warpath' rules.

2011-09-10T18:02:00.000+12:00

Last night we played a trial game of Mantic's new science fiction game Warpath. We have played a few games of their new fantasy rules set 'Kings of War', and found that we really like them, so we were keen to try their science fiction equivalent.

The big appeal for us is the simplicity of the rules. We have tried the Games Workshop Fantasy and 40K rules (and have certainly played quite abit of 40K), and the thing we most struggle with is what for us is unnecessary complexity. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't an attack on GW rules. I know thousands play and enjoy them, and good on them. The issue for us is that we are peripatetic in our wargaming tastes, so we might play one rules system for half a dozen games, and then move on to something else that appeals to our interests. The rules book/army book structure of the GW rules systems means that to play the game you must be familiar with the rules book, your own army book, and other army books too, if the game is to play well. This works well if this is your game of choice and you play it regularly, but frankly we just can't remember enough of them from one series of games to the next to make playing the games enjoyable. We found that with Kings of War, after three games, we were playing the games quickly and confidently, and they were good games. So because Warpath is based on similar principles to KoW, it was inevitable that we would try Warpath too.

The game played reasonably easily, although busy work lives for us all meant that we hadn't really read them thoroughly enough before we played. Consequently we made several mistakes in turn sequence. However despite this it was very easy to make our way around the rules. The fact that there are only two 'races' or army lists available at the moment meant that we used GW figures as 'proxies', so my GW orcs were Marauders and Adrian's Eldar were Forgefathers (odd, I know).

We felt that there was a potential balance issue with one of the Forgefathers fire based units in particular, but we also fell into the trap of trying to play the game as if it were 40K, and it's not. This meant that units lasted differently, with a Marauder unit disappearing after one turn of fire, having taken heavy casualties and then failing its nerve test, while other units lasted the whole game. We also noted that vehicles last differently on the table - personally I liked this aspect of the game, although we felt that there was plenty of potential for unlikely vehicle play with vehicles chasing each other to get flank and rear shots.

Finally as we dissected the game afterwards, we definitely felt that, because the game is unit based, it would play very well with Epic scale figures, not that that it helpful because we all like the Epic rules. But the basing system used in Epic certainly lends itself to the rules.

Anyway, there are some initial thoughts. here are a few photos of the game.. it looked pretty much like any 40K game because of the figures we used, so I haven't overdone it.

Sheldon's latest offering..Ypres 1914

2011-09-04T10:51:00.000+12:00

The victors always write the history, and never more so than the history of the First World War. The legacy of the history has perhaps been almost as traumatic as the legacy of the war itself with so much written to be little more than self-serving justification.

The ‘revisionist’ movement of historians perhaps began with the early writings of John Terraine and the late Paddy Griffiths, both of them more interested in looking at the primary sources than in repeating the ‘perceived wisdom’ that had preceded their own writings. And so it is with perhaps some of the most recent material that is now being published.

The most recent to hit my bookshelves is “The German Army at Ypres 1914” by Jack Sheldon (Pen and Sword 2010, ISBN 978 1 84884 1130). Sheldon’s most recent offering is perhaps the history that should have been written so many years ago, using many primary German sources for what may well be the first time. So much German archive material was lost in the allied bombing of 1944/45, but Sheldon has delved into the untouched Bavarian archives, and a great deal more, to piece together a work that is not only analytical and critical, but also, by using a great deal of letter and diary material, offers a deeply personal and moving insight into the trials and agonies of the German soldier in those months of 1914.

Sheldon can hardly be tarred with the brush of German apologist, offering as he does a critical and at times justifiably scathing analysis of the performance of the German High Command, documenting failings at many levels. The one thing he is never critical of however is the willingness of young German men to go forward, to do their duty as they saw it. In this they have everything in common with the young men of every nation, and in seeing them in this light they are less demonized and more humanized than they have perhaps been presented in any preceding history.

Much of the revisionist writing over recent decades has focused on debunking many of the myths that have been perpetuated in those first five decades after the war. Sheldon admirably continues this tradition, and one of the more delightful pieces comes with his debunking of the ‘Myth of Langemark’ which held that German soldiers marched forward singing ‘Deutchsland Deutchsland” to the accompaniment of regimental bands. In a footnote to the peuniultimate chapter ‘Endgame at Langemark’ Sheldon wryly notes:

“So we are invited to believe that on a battlefield, under heavy fire and when they are desperately needed at the front, a band of men stopped for some time to listen to a folksong, some dance music and military marches before joining in for a jolly old sing song round a miraculously surviving piano in the mud of a blasted village. Hmm.” (Page 313)

I grinned as I read this. I am something of a revisionist of the history of the First World War myself, but I hasten to add never an apologist. As with his earlier book ‘The German Army on the Somme 1914-1916’, Sheldon has made an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the events of the battles and the men involved, and of the deep human tragedy that is warfare in general.

Thanks!!

I highly recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the First World war.

Volley and Bayonet action: Frœschwiller

2011-08-20T12:02:00.000+12:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - one of the many strengths of the Volley and Bayonet rules lies with the ability of the rules to play different sub periods within the 1700-1900 period using the same basic mechanisms but with small subtle changes. These changes make a massive difference to the way the game plays. Last night we played a Franco-Prussian War game (actually the historical battle of Frœschwiller).

What is intriguing is that the rules changes seem to capture the feel of these battles that you get when you read the histories, and it is easy to see the origins of the types of battles that occured on the frontiers in 1914. Andy and I commanded the Prussians while Adrian took control of the rench defence. I have to admit that it had been so long since we had played any FP battles that I had forgotten much of the essence of using the Prussians. Consequently our showing on the batlefield was pretty dismal, but the game was a lot of fun.

I had intended to write up an illustrated AAR, but got too involved in the battle to keep a track of the action. So this is more of an opportunity to showcase Adrian's painted 15mm armies again. Just sit back and enjoy...

Minoan and Early Mycenaean DBA 1/18

2011-08-17T20:38:00.000+12:00

I have always wanted a chariot army, and late last year I ended up buying three, being a sucker for the Essex "3 for the price of 2" deals. What I hadn't factored into the army building equation was the impact of our February 22 earthquakes here in Christchurch. At the time, the first of the three armies (the Minoans) had been based and undercoated, and about half the figures had had flesh painted on them.

The psychological impact of the EQs was interesting to say the least, and I found myself having lost the painting drive I'd had for several decades previously (and I have not been the only one). I guess facing the on-going shakes created levels of stress and anxiety that we would generally prefer to forget (until exactly the moment when the next tremour hits, although we seem to have hit a quiet period finally). And now there is the prospect of waitng to find out if our house will be repaired or demolished.. hmm

As interesting as all that might be, I think I have finally regained the motivation (in no small part due to the recent Timaru TAGCon DBA competition), and tonight I finished the Minoans. Now this is the first army I have painted after I had based the figures. I don't think I'll be doing it again, it has been just too fiddly and awkward, especially with 'close order' figures, in this case the pike.

Here is the result. The Essex pack comes with enough figures for the only army option, a Psiloi or an Auxilia.

The four heavy chariots, including the general.

The four bases of pike, with their characteristic 'tower' shields.

The army list allows four psiloi, or three psiloi and an auxilia.

So, what is the next project? There is plenty of unpainted lead and plastic here to choose from - ranging from Dystopian Wars VSF flyers for the HotT army, to another five DBA armies. There are Dwarves, Sci Fi vehicles, League of Augsberg French, Epic vehicles and infantry. and .. sigh.. just far too many choices.

Battle at 'Bloody Ridge'

2011-08-15T10:05:00.000+12:00

It is after all the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, and one could hardly let this go unmarked without playing at least a few ACW games this year. So last Friday night it was, across Keith's table using Jon's 6mm figures, and yet again my all time favourite rules set Volley and Bayonet.

Here is Keith's account of the battle.

It was a hard fought affair, and one of those games where lady luck seemed to desert the Southern armies at every turn. Mind you, maybe the battle plan wasn't that flash either ('Plan? Plan? We had a plan?').

So enjoy Keith's account of the battle of Bloody Ridge.

So that was TAGCon 2011

2011-08-08T20:41:00.000+12:00

Last weekend and we were off down south to Timaru for TAGCon (Timaru Armchair Generals Convention) for 2011. I took a group of College boys, and 3 ex students, as well as son Nick, and good colleague Andrew. Andrew, Nick and I played in the DBA event (Book 1 armies) on the Saturday.

I was using a borrowed Early Archaemenid army (1/60C), and made my worst ever showing I have to admit. Here is Keith's report on his battles, and the final results. Just a few random shots of the day.

My light horse attacking Keith's camp in my first game.. didn't work.. damn it!!!

Brian's Lydian knight General, complete with dogs.. love them!!

This was Brian's camp element.

The DBA crew hard at work ...

The boys all played in the 40K competition. Again just a few random shots. This was Elliot's Guard Psycher unit..

... and his Vostroyans advancing... there sure were a lot of them, and nicely painted!!!

Alex bringing a touch of class to what otherwise might have been an unseemly brawl? No wait, that's the Armoured Corps' job!!

Hordes of Orcs.. my Orcs in fact, being used by Toby.. looking good!!

Some Vostroyan Rough Riders in the distance..

And someone else's Orcs.. highly mechanised... just doesn't seem Orcy really, "all dem weels"!!!!!

It was a great weekend. Thanks to the Timaru Armchair Generals for organising a great event, and my special thanks to Dave B for the loan army (even if the B**y thing wouldn't fight for me.. waddaya mean it was the bad general?).

'March to the sound of the guns'

2011-07-25T17:38:00.000+12:00

I have just finished reading this most extraordinary novel, written by Ray Grover, former head of New Zealand's National Archives.

Grover has brought together the results of 20 years of research from war diaries and other personal accounts to create a remarkable novel which is a story of New Zealanders at war 1914-1918. Grover paints a picture of ordinary New Zealanders at war, one that lacks nothing from the perspectives of either historicity nor readability. Grover demonstrates an understanding of the nature of the conflict that would do Paddy Griffith and John Terraine proud. Yet he has also written a very good novel that has a fascinating and unusual structure and is very readable.

Published by Longacre Press in 2008, perhaps the most telling comment might be:

‘…it staggered me … I can think of no other novel that captures individual New Zealanders in war as skilfully.’
Christopher Pugsley, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst
Author of Gallipoli: the New Zealand Story

This is highly recommended.

Dwarves and Humans at it again: more 'Kings of War' action.

2011-07-23T12:21:00.001+12:00

"Kings of War" game number four, with the forces now scaled to 1550 points as we dug deep into our reserves of figures. The theory: the game gets more and more interesting as you scale the forces towards the suggested 2000 points.

Andy fielded his Humans, while Adrian and I commanded the Dwarves, in a 'Kill' scenario. We agreed to play for twelve turns (six turns each), having previously played games to the other option of a two hour time limit.

Andy deployed with an infantry centre, including five units of archers. We deployed the Dwarves with a solid centre of Ironclad infantry supported by two cannons. We refused the left, holding the flank with an Ironguard Regiment supported by an Organ gun. The right was held by a full regiment of Shieldbreakers supported by an Ironwatch troop, and a Berserkers Half regiment.

Just one turn of fire on the right flank Ironwatch troop (from two units of Human archers) saw them break and flee from the field. Hmm.. this might be tougher than we thought.

Andy pushed around the flanks with his cavalry. Two units of knights supported by some pistollier light cavalry approached the Dwarf right flank, while ...

.... a single unit of knights moved to threaten the Dwarf left.

The Dwarven Shieldbreakers holding the right flank moved into the forest on that flank, hopeful that this would make them a bigger bite than the knights could swallow.

Meanwhile on the Dwarven left the Ironwatch troop fled the field after a very uneven fire fight with two units of Human archers.

The forest on the Dwarven left was witness to a two turn swirling melee, as axes and lances raised and fell, thrust and parried. Eventually however the accummulated casualties took their toll on Dwarven morale, and the Shieldbreakers 'broke'.

Not to be outdone, the supporting unit of Berserkers charged into the fray and, supported by the Dwarven King, forced a waver result on the knights.

The Human centre was looking shakey, with both units of swordsmen having fled the field after a prolonged bombardment from the Dwarven artillery. The archers no doubt felt just a little exposed as the Dwarf Ironclad regiments now advanced against them.

Meanwhile on the Dwarf right, the second unit of knights now entered the fray, attacking the Berserkers in the flank. This definitely was not pretty from the Dwarf side of the table, although for Andy this was one of those glorious moments: 32 attacks on a Dwarf unit with a defence of 3 (less one for the Knights' 'Crushing Strength'. Yep, that hurt!!

Meanwhile on the Human right, the third unit of knights attacked the Dwarf left flank held by a regiment of Ironguard. It was the last turn of the game, and the knights bounced off, inflicting very few casualties.

The game ended in a draw. The Dwarfs were in a position to exploit the shattered human centre, while the Humans must have felt that they were onto something here with their knights in a position to hammer the Dwarven flanks. The game continues to be easy to play (although with plenty of tactical challenges). We have the rules pretty much sorted now, so the game mechanics present no real difficulties.

The scale to 1550 points made quite a difference. The additional points allowed for reserves exactly as you would expect.

I'm not sure that we were as keen on the six move turn limit as on the other option of a two hour game window. The battle was hanging in the balance. I'm not suggesting that games should be fought to 'last man standing'. Rather, the game probably needed another couple of player turns each to allow one side or the other to establish its dominance on the battlefield that day.

Of course the rules don't need to be taken as so prescriptive that players MUST abide by the six turn, or two hour, play limit. Regardless, the game was an enormous amount of fun, with it's interesting tactical moments, and its cinematic moments.

And that's what matters really, isn't it?

A great blog and a darned good read

2011-07-22T18:07:00.000+12:00

For quite a while now I have used iGoogle as my means of managing the huge array of information that interests me. This includes both professional and hobby information. Amongst the gadgets I have on iGoogle is GoogleReader, which allows me to manage the various blogs that potentially interest me, and amongst those is one that I consider to be truly outstanding: Mr Farrow's DBA Blog.

Now here's a guy who enjoys his hobby, actively engages his two children in the hobby, and writes some fantastic and engaging after action reports. This blog covers their adventures within the traditional DBA ancients period.

But they also use the various extensions to DBA to play games that cover that whole 1500 to 1900 period, and the AARs in these periods are just as engaging. Here is a typical image from an AAR (this one from the Franco Prussian War era):

So if you want some inspiration, or just a darned good read, try Mr Farrow's Blogs.

Reflections on HotT ..

2011-07-11T17:37:00.001+12:00

My fame and fortune in the local HotT tournament scene has been earned with my Spider army (Nick G has posted an excellent AAR of our game in last Sunday's tournament here). As Nick comments, it was the only game I lost out of 5, and it was a pretty thorough thrashing I have to say.

The army composition I used was:

1 x Behemoth general
1 x Hero
1 x God
2 x lurkers
10 x Hordes

I have always considered Horde armies to be weaker than most, but now I'm not so sure. The basic approach has been to surround my strongest elements (the Behemoth and Hero) with plenty of Hordes, hoping that the opposing army becomes bogged down in the horde of Hordes, while the two biggies do the business. I generally don't count on the God; if he turns up that's a bonus, but I try to plan the battle in my head on the assumption that he doesn't.

I had traditionally considered Hordes to be weaker elements, but I guess that with a CF of 2, they are strong enough to hold out, and deployed 2 deep, near the baseline, they do indeed tend to wear the opponent down. The opposition's 'mental fatigue' isn't helped by the constant redeployment of lost Hordes as well. This redeployment means that I try to keep my 'battle line' close to my own base line, so that those Hordes brought back onto the table at least have a running (or scuttling, in this case) chance of getting back into the battle.

So, having mentally gone into two tournaments now with the view that the spiders were the tournament 'easy beats', I have had to change my mind. Maybe Hordes aren't too bad a bet after all.

As I think Joseph Stalin once said (correct me if I'm wrong) "Quantity has a quality of its own."

After all, the rules are titled 'HORDES of the things'!!!

A HotT Winter's day 11-Postscript 1

2011-07-10T19:34:00.001+12:00

A word of warning.. in today's tournament, in my 3rd game, against Nick G, my spider God (Spiderman - well who else??? really, I mean!!!) turned up to play, only to turn around and leave again within a couple of moves. I was not amused...

... so a jolly good talking to was in order. Spiderman was given a very clear description of his antecedents, and a warning about the consequences of any future repetition of this behaviour.

He failed to turn up at all in the following game (perhaps in a fit of pique), but then made a jolly good showing in the final game. Clearly he'd taken the time to think about what I'd said!!

Thanks to Nick G for the photo.

A HotT Winter's day 11

2011-07-10T16:34:00.000+12:00

A change of pace in my 'gaming, with this year's 'A HotT Winter's Day' tournament. This year there were 6 of us playing, so the format was simply everyone plays everyone else once for 5 games each, and a total of 25 games over the day. No individual game write-ups this time, but a selection of photos from some of the games that took place over the day.

This yeea, for a change, we allowed players to change armies during the day. It was all about getting some pretty cool armies onto the table, and having fun, and judging from some of the shouts and jeers (who'd have thought 6 'gamers could make so much noise), there was plenty of fun to be had as those dramatic 'cinematic moments' unfolded.

The armies were:

Nick S - Mythical Indian
Nick G - Victorian Sci Fi
Gordon - Dwarf, then Zulu
Stan - Conquistador
Kevin - Easterling
Robin - Spiders

Spiders vs Conquistadors:

Spiders vs Dwarfs: The spiders had just disposed of the Dwarf general.

Indians vs British VSF:

Spiders vs British VSF (this was the game I lost during the day.. Nick G gave me a 'damned good thrashing'!!):

British VSF vs Zulu:

Spiders vs Easterlings: The spider behemoth general making beady eyes at the Easterling Paladin .. nom nom nom.. eventually he made a meal of the Paladin.

Spiders vs Indians:

The Indian magician general looked ot be introuble but managed to extract himself and have his revenge by driving off the spider behemoth general, and then bespelling the spider hero (on the right). Sadly for Nick S, his God showed up, then left on the very next move, while the Spider God turned up, and proceeded to chomp his was through the Indian riders.

Many thanks to everyone who played.

"Orcs is Orcs" - even in KOW

2011-07-09T13:22:00.000+12:00

Third 'Kings of War' game in 3 weeks, this time against Adrian. Adrian had dragged out a little used Orc army now many years old, and as usual my Dwarves took to the field, keen as ever to seek redress for any wrong doing, imagined or real!! The game was a 'Kill and Pillage' scenario with 1100 points per side.

The Dwarves adopted a defensive positon (now that was a surprise), seen here on the left, as the Orc hordes swarmed forward.

The Orc army was led by a Krudger on a flyer (sounds like something that would make your eyes water, and in this particular case it did!!!)

After inflicting several turns of artillery fire on the Orcs as they advanced, thr Dwarves then launched an attack against the advancing hordes .. SPLAT!!!

The initial assaults routed one unit of Orcs, but bounced off the remainder.

Foolishly (I'm a slow learner) I had yet again placed the Dwarf Berserkers on a flank. They attacked an Orc unit, but were then in turn hit front and flank by Orc units, and routed. They dish out the attacks on the charge, but are not too hardy when the enemy strikes back.

Meanwhile the combats continued in the centre, while an Orc Horde routed on the Orc left flank, after taking too many hits from Dwarf cannon and rifle fire.

The Dwarf Horde of warriors was then hit in the flank and front, and... ouch!! the first Dwarf rout!!
The Dwarf King meanwhile was busily engaged holding back the Orc riders.

The Orc Krudger swooped in and attacked a unit of Dwarves in the flank.. another Dwarf route!!

And the game was over - 6 turns for each side, and a solid Orc victory.

This was interesting. The Orcs (as with other game systems) dish out the punishment, but are also relatively fragile. Their low Nerve value means that they tend to route relatively more easily, but when they get into contact.. ouch. And the Dwarven toughness makes them relatively more resilient.

The Orc Krudger costs a lot of points, but is well worth it.. he dished out a lot of Dwarven pain!!!

The game ebbed and flowed nicely. In the early stages of contact the Dwarfs grabbed the initiative and several Orc units were routed. After 4 turns it was looking like a Dwarf victory. But this is a game of flanks, and it was the ability of the Orc riders to get on to the flank that caused the Dwarf collapse.
At 1100 points these are still small games in KoW terms we think. On the one hand the larger games will allow more resilience for both sides. On the other hand the games may possibly have a feeling of sameness about them (and that's after only 3 games). I'll reserve my opinion on that until we have played more games. Certainly for the Dwarves the Orcs presented a different set of challenges to those met when facing the Humans.

Dwarven revenge ...

2011-07-01T23:11:00.000+12:00

They were back! Across the valley - another human horde, apparently intent on destroying the Dwarf hold. Well, if that was what they wanted, the Dwarves were only too willing to offer battle; after all there was the large matter of the grudge borne of the earlier Human invasion.

This was our second 'Kings of War' game (Mantic Games), a 'Kill' scenario. The Dwarves deployed much more tightly than previously, wary of the Humamn heavy cavalry that had been so devastating when last they had met on the field of battle. Their battle line was enhanced by more artillery, and the army's special standard bearer had come to support the army. Meanwhile the Humans had recruited some of their border Pistolliers to support them.

The Dwarf general did push some of his key units forward in response to some annoying archery fire from the woods to their front (but realised his error, and eventaully withdrew them back to the battle line).

The Pistolliers sat tucked behind the Human centre, looking for opportunities.

Meanwhile a unit of Knights had swung onto the Dwarf left flank, and attacked a badly deployed unit of Berserkers who had been softened up with archery fire.

After initally bouncing back, the knights went in a second time and routed the Berserkers.

They then rolled on into the Dwarf Organ gun battery.. this was going to make someone's eyes water!!!

... and then on into a unit of Ironguard... oh oh!! And now the King is in on the act!!!

Meanwhile the Human Pistolliers had pushed forward into the centre and, after inflicting some casualties on an Ironclad Regiment, were eliminated by a devastating cross-fire.

It took a couple of turns but the Knights on the Dwarf left couldn't take the casualties, and fled the field.

On the other flank, the other unit of Knights hit a Dwarven Ironwatch Regiment, and it should have been all over.

Mother Luck is a fickle lady. Despite the casualties, the Ironwatch passed their first Nerve test. The Knights went in a second time, and again inflicted casualties. This time, the Ironwatch failed their Nerve test, but, with the Army Standard Bearer to hand, Andy had to re-roll the Nerve test, with... 'snake eyes'.. and the Ironwatch held!!

The Knights were then hit in the flank by an Ironclad Horde.. it bounced off the first time, but finally destroyed the Knight regiment, and the field belonged to the Dwarves.

And so it was that at least some of the grudge had been paid off.

And what a great game of 'Kings of War' it had been, all in two hours (the time limit set for the game)..

'Kings of War' - trial game.

2011-06-25T13:02:00.000+12:00

Andy has been on the look out for a set of fantasy rules for a while. He'd tried WFB, and we had played HotT together numerous times, but I suspect that these hadn't quite 'hit the spot'. So last week he mailed me with the Mantic Games rules set 'Kings of War' by Alessio Cavatore. So 'Kings of War' it was, last night. My Dwarves came out of early retirement (I hadn't actually managed to do anything WFB'ish with them in the finish), and out came Andy's 'Humans' (GW Brettonians) .. one of his 'I'll get those painted one day' projects (it's the artist's temperament you know .. he paints divinely!!).

We fielded 1000 points each, and off we set.

Dwarf Berserkers attack a poor unit of Human archers. ouch.. cut through them, like a hot knife through butter.

A head-on clash in the centre, with Dwarves attacking Swordsmen and Spearmen.

Andy managed to get his two units of Knights around the flanks, and first attacked the Dwarven artillery.

Then they took on the Dwarf regiments.

One of the Dwarf units was a 'horde'.. a 40 strong unit. Andy attacked it with both units of Knights and the victory was his.

So, what did we think?

We picked up the rules very quickly (there are only 12 pages in total) , and they played very cleanly. The mechanisms didn't appear to create super units. We had simple armies, so there was little in the way of magic. The specific army rules (and there aren't too many of them) created some character in the armies, and is clearly an area that can be developed and exploited to create 'characterful' play.
We liked the fact that we weren't ploughing through 100+ pages of rules plus army books, trying to mentally collate across numerous pages -- this has always seemed like too much effort for us.

The rules seem to be so simple that we feel that we will be able to pick up a game only every now and then and still find the rules 'accessible' or 'playable'. I also suspect however that they have some subtly that will reward clever play.

These definitley get the thumbs up from us. Adrian will be getting his long held fantasy forces out of a prolonged retirement, and my Dwarfs will now take to the field of battle; that has to be a good thing too.

Bashin' dose sissie hoomies

2011-06-11T16:49:00.000+12:00

Yeah, dat's wot we luvz doin', bashin sissie hoomies.. er well, bashin any hoomies.. well, achually bashin anyone.. so let's doooooo it!!

Friday night, and it's 40K time with Andy and Adrian, since it has been a wee while since we pushed the GW (am I meant to say that no challenge to copyright is intended by using these two letters?) plastic around the table top.

Anyway, out came the Orks again, and they faced off against Adrian's Sisters of Battle in an objectives based game with Spearhead deployment. Andy ran the battle for the Orks and I joined in at totally inappropriate moments (it's a gift I have, really!!), while Adrian commanded his Sisters.

Andy deployed first and managed to keep first turn, so started with a mobile left of bikes, acccompanied by a truck loaded with Nobz. His intention was to strike behind the Sisters and attack them from front and rear around the objective on his left.

Adrian had deployed Inquisitor Lord Karamazov on his own right flank, and the Lord Inquisitor soon moved to head off the fast Ork attack coming in from his right.

The Sisters had a unit of three Penitent Engines in the centre, and the Ork looted wagon with boom gun spotted these and had a crack straight away, with a shot that was bang on target .. one Engine exploded, but nothing else was quite close enough to be taken down in th resulting explosion.

Meanwhile on the Sisters' left a squad of Sisters, supported by their Exorcist and two squads of Seraphim, moved out to claim the objective on that flank.

The Looted Wagon fell to fire from the Exorcist in turn 2.. before a single Ork had managed to fail his 'Don't touch dat' roll.. bother!!! We were looking forward to yet another laugh (the game had already been filled with quite a number!)

The Sisters advanced their centre against the other objective ...

which was held by a unit of Grotz hunkered down in the ruins.

After a couple of rounds of fire there were too few Grotz left, they failed their leadership test and fell back.

Meanwhile Karamazov was having fun playing with the Bikes who kept passing their saves... much to his annoyance.

The second of the three Penitient Engines then fell to rocket fire from the two Killer Kans, and the war buggy, leaving one Engine, which then proceeded to assault a unit of boyz supporting the Grotz. Adrian then assaulted the war bugy with a unit of Seraphim and.. yep, destroyed it comletely!! Damm!!!

In all fairness to the Sisters, in their next turn they hit the Killer Kanz with a barrage from the Exorcist, and both were destroyed.. one blew up, quite spectacular as it took several boyz with it).

Meanwhile Karamazov was still tied down in combat with the bikes... gahhh!!!

The truk borne Nobz were now within range of the Sisters Squad on the Sisters' right flank, and Gazghull declared a Waaaagh, allowing them to make the assault.

... and Gazghull charged into combat with the Penitent Engine (would you believe that we forgot that he had a power claw?) so he made hard work of this combat.. he was locked there for the remaining turns of the game.

The boyz mob on the Ork right flank used the Waaagh to charge into contact with one of the units of Seraphim (before they got shot away!!).

Adrian pulled them out of the combat hoping to eliminate the unbti with massed fire. There were still a few left though (and they still passed their leadership test) and next turn Andy pushed what was left of the mob into a squad of Sisters. This was ugly (for the sisters). Despite their low numbers (yep, they'd managed to pass every leadership test.. whew!! I wasn't used to this with Orks) they inflicted enough casualties to win the combat. The sisters failed their leadership test, and were run down by the boyz.

The Nobz were still slugging it out with the other Sisters squad.

A unit of Burna Boyz had meanwhile been trying to creep up on a third unti of Sisters (mwahahahahahahaha). They took fire, and these were their saving throws!!.. Don't see that very often.. since they needed 6's!! Yep, there are only two 4's, the rest were their saving 6's!!

However this same unit of Burna Boyz then took fire from the Exorcist, which proceeded to wipe out the unit... an ignominious end and such poor reward after their deft avoidance of bolter rounds from the Sisters squad.

The game ended after 5 turns, with a hard fought draw.

Interviewed after the match, Gazghull could only say "Wot a bashin' .. yeah right.. sissie girlies, come on den bring 'em on, eh!"

Just pottering ... with the Royalists.

2011-06-11T14:35:00.001+12:00

I've finally started to get the painting pottering bug (well, maybe). Having played a few DBR condensed scale games lately, I decided to give the Royalists a little TLC. When I'd originally acquired them (previously painted by someone else) I based them on thin card bases (as was my habit at the time).

With the troops back on the table top the thin bases have been annoying the beejeebers out of me (as they tend to slip and slide over each other all too easily), so I cut enough thick card bases to rebase them all (by gluing the exisiting bases onto the new rather than detaching figures from the old bases.

While we were at it I gave them a small subtle make-over with a couple of layers of a Citadel wash (Badab Black) to bring out the recesses on the figures.

Voila.. the final result.. slightly better than before, nothing fantastic. Those close-up camera shots tend to be pretty unforgiving though!!

Royalist Horse? Damn them sir!!

2011-06-05T13:10:00.001+12:00

A condensed scale DBR last night with my Royalists taking the field against Keith's Parliamentarians. This time I felt somewhat let down by my Horse and their inability to deal with their parliamentarian opponents.

A nice battle report can be found here on Keith's blog.

The Anglo Sikh Wars ..

2011-05-28T13:59:00.000+12:00

The Anglo Sikh Wars are a new sub-period for us, an application of our ever faithful Volley and Bayonet rules. The period is one that Adrian has been beavering away at for a little while, and so this was the first outing of yet another two beautifully painted 15mm armies on the Friday night table top.

This image from the web site 'Second Anglo Sikh War' gives an artist's impression of warfare on the Infian Sun continent during this confict. See if our game photos create anything quite like this..

Adrian had thought through a few modifications to the VnB rules to cater for this sub-period and so, with modifications and armies in hand, it was indeed 'game on'!!

Rather than give a blow by blow account, here are a few photos from the game, and comment on a couple of notable events.

This was the inital set up, Sikh forces on the right, British forces on the left.

The British were attacking and stormed forward.

Included in the British forces were the elite 17th Lancers (M7!!) and a unit of Indian cavalry (who were no slugs themselves, I hasten to add).

The Sikh forces included General mounted on elephant, and a couple of war elephants.

The Sikh forces also included Warriors.. fearsome guys, but no firearms!!!

... and a couple of rocket batteries.. here is one attached to the Sikh cavalry.

Action was soon joined...

... and Adrian's British attacked the Sikh left flank.

In the centre an intense firefight developed.

A Sikh cavalry attack against their Indian counterparts was foiled, and then the Sikh cavalry division driven into exhaustion in two quick turns of combat!!

The Sikh calary division failed it's exhaustion check, and so became a sitting duck for the British cavalry to pick off at will.

The British infantry broke through the centre and attacked the warriors waiting behind.

The elite Sikh fanatics were attacked by British infantry with Shock (bad timing on my part) .. not pretty ..

... as were the remainder of the Warriors ...

And it was all over.

A fascinating introduction to a brand new sub period. We will be play testing the rules modifications a little more (we weren't sure that things panned out quite as they should, but it was still a great game).

Wars of Religion .. with Armati

2011-05-15T11:23:00.000+12:00

The usual Friday evening 'gaming turned into a Saturday evening of 'gaming this week, and we decided to play some more Armati Renaissance. The first game featured French Hugenot (Adrian) against Austrian Imperialist (me). We were once again using Adrian's 15mm armies.

It was a close fought game in which I misused the Austrian Hussars and allowed Adrian to tackle my centre at his leisure. Misjudgment on my part allowed his pike blocks to slam into my lines of arquebusier (and all a turn earlier than I'd planned).

Hugenots advancing!!

French Millars and Reiters....

The lines at the point of contact.

It was initially a 'push of pike' in the centre as we jostled each other.

The Millars took on the Imperialist Reiters.

While some Imperialist Hussars got in behind the French lines and attacked their artillery .. my misjudgement was to use them in this attacking role, in which they are not particularly strong - they are Horse Archers, Robin.. for goodness sake!!). Bad die rolling and they took a casualty from the artillery. never a good sign!!

And then the French mounted arquebusiers hit them in the rear... this may not end well (especially when I rolled a 1)!!!

The French Gendarmes hit an Austrian pike block in the rear, but by a miracle of die rolling (two 6s in two successive rounds of combat) the pike block held!!!

However the cumulative losses for the Austrians finally took their toll, and the day belonged to the French.

We played a second game using the French against a Moldavian army. This was a dismal affair in which I had my head served to me on a platter... Adrian used his horse archers to good effect, harrying my flanks and causing large numbers of casualties. The army fell apart.. urrgghh... Here are just three random photos.. all that remains to record a dismal defeat, but a great night's 'gaming!!!

1813 Prussia re-emergent!!

2011-05-07T13:09:00.000+12:00

1813 and Napoleon is under pressure on all fronts. Peoples from across Europe are crawling out from under the heel of his rule and re-asserting their independence - their voices shall be heard!!

The Prussian people are no exception, and a slightly raw Prussian army has confronted it's French tormentors, the pain of past defeats still keenly felt.

This was a Volley and Bayonet game generated using the Road To Glory scenario system, played using Keith McNelly's 6mm armies.

On the plains of central europe pastoral idylls are about to be rent assunder.

The day began with bold advacnes by both armies, and the French commander (Andrew) pushing his left wing cavalry out to threaten the Prussian right.

Action quickly developed on the Prussian right as the Prussian right wing (an infantry division and a cavalry division) pushed aggressively forward to tackle the French left.

The French infantry came down from their defensive position on a hill top to attack a brigade of Prussian Landwehr. They seemed to think that these guys were easy pickings. However one of the two French Brigades lost cohesion coming off the high ground.

It all turned very messy, with the vicrtorious Prussian infantry division losing some cohesion itself. The Prussian cabvalry division pushed across the river behind the French right, and was met by a defending French cavalry division. There was a furious calary melee from which the Prusians emerged victorious, and th French cavalry diviosn exhausted.

Meanwhile the Prussian centre, reinforced by the delayed right and reserves under Keith's command, pushed forward, forming its own 'grand battery' and applying pressure on the French centre.

Andrew withdrew his centre n the face of the overwhelming firepower.

Andrew pushed his last reinforcements, two regiments of Napoleon's Old Guard, across to his right to hold off the now rampant Prussian Cavalry.

The game ended at this stage with the French on the back foot, gradually withdrawing across the river in an attempt to re-establish a defendable line. There was of course still the matter of the intact Prussian cavalry diviison behind the French lines, on the French side of the river ... oh dear!!!

'The fate of Admiral Kolchak'

2011-04-30T22:39:00.000+12:00

I recently purchased and read this interesting book 'The fate of Admiral Kolchak', (ISBN 1 84158 138 0). Written by Peter Fleming (brother of Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame) it was first published in 1963. My copy is a 2001 reprint.

The story of Admiral Kolchak, former commander of the Black Sea fleet, and Supreme Commander of the White Russian forces, is interesting but tragic. The book provides an overview of the circumstances that lay behind the Allied intervention in Russia in 1918-1920, and hence the circumstances behind Kolchak's acession to power (albeit very briefly). The style of the writing and the vocabulary might seem to the modern reader to be a little dated, but the book rewards perseverance with a reasonable understanding of the events that lead to Kolchak's ultimate demise. The book is short on detail in some areas, and provided little coverage of the campaigns of Kolchak's forces in Siberia. That however was probably never the writer's intention. Fleming does however succeed in painting a brief picture of the barbarity that epitomises civil wars in general.

The book is worth reading if you have an interest in the Russian Civil War.

EpicA Air support

2011-04-28T15:32:00.000+12:00

Imperial Thunderbolt fighter bombers recruited in support of the Space Marines, these Citadel aircraft came off the production line last night. I'm not that happy with them, so I may even reblack them and start again.

Two Thunderbolts painted up for ground support, although I am considering repainting in a proper camouflage pattern that might better fit their role.

These next two Thunderbolts are meant to be used in the CAP role. Again, I'm not convinced about the look, or maybe it's just the poor execution.

DBR at Natcon 2011

2011-04-24T14:02:00.000+12:00

Finally from the Natcon 2011 weekend, four photos of a couple of tables in play in the DBR competition.

I really liked Brian's Ships ...

ACW Volley and Bayonet in 6mm

2011-04-23T17:20:00.002+12:00

On the second day of Natcon 2011 Andrew and played a casual Volley and Bayonet game using Andrew's 6mm ACW armies. The difference here is that Andrew has based his 6mm figures on full sized (3"x3") bases. These look grand on the table top!!

Here again are just a few assorted photos. The game was set in 1861 (after all it is the 150th anniversary this year). The Confederates got the better of the day.

DBA at Natcon 2011

2011-04-23T17:10:00.001+12:00

A few assorted photos of my games in the one day 6 round DBA tournament at the New Zealand Natcon 2011. The camera batteries failed on me so just a few photos from early in the day. I was using my II/39(b) Celtiberian army.

These first few were from my first game against Stan's Carthaginians.

I managed one photo from my game against Jim's Ptolomaics ...

And then the camera batteries died. I managed 3 wins, 2 losses and adraw for the day, and was happy with that. Those Spanish are hard to use, and we spent a lot of time working hard on steep hills and in woods. The tournament was organised by Keith, and the results can be found here on his Blog.

First New Zealand Natcon 2011 photos

2011-04-23T16:08:00.000+12:00

Before I get started on the very cool DBA tournament that I played in this year, here are just a few photos of some of the wonderful armies that were in use in the WH40K tournament, no commentary needed really, just worth enjoying I thought.

Epic Armageddon .. the Squats

2011-04-16T11:21:00.000+12:00

Adrian, Andrew and I got together for our second EpicArmageddon game for the week - we are all learning how to play the game, so we thought that we ought to strike while the iron's hot and play this second game as soon as we could. I also had another agenda: Adrian has had his Squat army for many years, I reckon it's a fantastic looking army (both the figures AND his paint job), and I wanted to put some photos up on the blog.

Here's the battlefield with initial deployment, Space Marines on the right and Squats on the left.

I placed a SM formation in Garrison on one of the objectives on the SM left flank.

Adrian similarly garrisoned an objective on the same flank, and also this one in the centre. In the background.. gulp, you guys may be short, but you certainly have some very big guns!!

Deployed in the Squat centre was an airship, and a unit of tunnellers... oooo darn, where are they going to come up? Blitzkrieg perhaps, taking the SM baseline objective? Surely not...

Squat bikers...

Andrew pushed a tactical formation forward on the SM left.

They took fire from the squat formation garrisoning a town close by, and in overwatch.

That formation however took a lot of fire, even though it was supported by one of those REALLY BIG Squat guns!!!

Adrian brought his second really big gun across in support and it put down a lot of fire on a supporting unit of Landraiders on the SM left - this many hits, but Andrew managed to save them all.

We were pretty determined to make our play on our left flank, and moved a unit of Devastators (mounted in Landraiders) across to provide even more fire support.

That's a lot of blast markers for one little formation, and the Squat formation that was the centre if attention broke.

However fire then came down on the Devastator formation from the other BIG GUN (you can see it in the background)!!

In the meantime a Black Templar detachment had pushed ahead and grabed another objective in the centre.

On the SM right flank, a second unit of Devastators had pushed across and caused some anxiety for the unit of Sqaut bikers by firing into their flank, but was then itself hit by a unit of Squat Trikers (well I suppose when you are that little...) ... all very confusing!!

The Trikers were accompanied by a Gyrocopter.

The result was that one unit of devastators remained from the formation, seen here broken and having pulled back!! Yep, we know that when they break you remove the blast markers, but we left them there for effect..

The Trikers were however then hit in the flank by the SM's Blood Angels flank guard. I don't think the Blood Angels were that happy about having been left out to guard the right flank, and when they hit the Trikers they tore them apart.. ouch, that hurt if you are a Squat!!

Adrian started to make his play for the centre objective, and began to move forward to menace the Templars.

On the left Andrew pushed forward aggressively against the Squats. His flanking tactical formation got around their flank and lay down some pretty heavy fire in preparation for an assault.

Finally Adrian had one of those 'moments in the sun'. The Tunellers came up next to the SM baseline objective.

The Tunnellers assaulted the Whirlwinds sitting on the baseline in their firebase.

Result: four dead Whirlwinds., and the baseline objective at least contested. The last remaining Devastator unit from the earlier assault had rallied, and pulled back into the trees to be close to the objective just in case this happened..

We had managed to play two full turns this time, so the game was still incomplete when we had to call time, but we are getting noticeable faster at the whole thing. We remain fascinated by the interplay created by the alternating unit activation within each turn, and anyway.. this one was all about the Squats. Hopefuly someone will enjoy the photos of some great figures and Adrian's wonderful paint jobs.

There were unpainted Space Marine models on the table (not something I'd normally do), but they won't remain unpainted for long. There's a wee list of equipment that is being based and painted over the next few weeks, and I am looking forward to fielding a more balanced force with air and AA assets as well.

Epic Armageddon: first attempt.

2011-04-12T23:41:00.000+12:00

Epic Armageddon it was, and Andrew, Adrian and I got together for a mid week game. Now we have played very little of this (this was my first game, while Adrian and Andrew had played a few games each), and I was looking forward to it. It was more of a training game, as we went through the rules mechanisms to see how it all worked. I am pleased to say that the game didn't disappoint. The mechanisms have always looked to be slightly clever to me (and I mean that in a positive sense). The unit activation mechanism played well (in lieu of the more familiar mechanism for me of a map and a plan a la Spearhead.. which I still prefer by the way). It will take a little getting used to.

This small game was 2275 points, and saw the skeleton of my Space Marine army against Andrew's newly purchased Eldar, a great bargain via Trademe IIRC, and I think Andrew is still contemplating how he will paint them. Here are a few shots of the game. The terrain looks slightly 'Europe/Eastern European a la 20th century, because that is the 6mm terrain I have, but it did the business just fine.

SM right wing, and a unit of Landraiders advances quickly, attacks a unit of Eldar walkers in the flank and destroys them. They had been deployed in overwatch guarding several objectives. However the Landraiders were then quickly sent packing by some heavy Eldar firepower.

Eldar scouts had garrisoned a wood and town area in the table centre.

These were brought under fire by a couple of SM tactical formations and sent packing.

The SMs occupy the town in the table centre. The buildings are by Hovels.

We didn't manage to complete the game, but at the end of this turn another SM tactical formation had advanced around the Eldar left wing. However the SM left was also under pressure.

So some summary thoughts.

This is a game that I think will reward further play. One of the things I have always liked about the Spearhead stable of rules is the 'layering' of weapons systems. Epic does this to a lesser degree, and in a different way, but it still appeals to me. The 'you go I go' unit activation system within each move looks as if it could create some very interesting sets of tactical choices for players, and is where the game will largely be won or lost.

I have further equipment to paint up. I can see that introducing large war machines like Titans, along with artillery, air and AA capabilities, and gruntier troops like terminators with their teleport capabilities will give the game the more multi dimensional feel that I like in games. The SM force I wielded tonight was pretty one dimensional, so there is plenty to look forward to. I'll keep you posted.

40K 'student style'

2011-04-12T08:58:00.000+12:00

I've been supervising our wargames group at College for 10 years this year, and I thought it was time I showcased some of the great work that these boys do. So here are a few photos accummulated over the past decade (has it really been that long?). These photos are of some of their WH40K games.

The first group are of a Lost and the Damned army of traitors (most of the scenery has been made by the boys over the years as well).

Those are my Marines in the background - one of the boys had borrowed them to face off against a bunch of greebly Tyrannids.

And this was a bunch of Guard having a crack at some Orks.

These boys do some great work.

Teutoburger Wold avenged???

2011-04-09T14:33:00.000+12:00

I hadn't expected to be able to game last night, it was a parent interview evening; but I managed to get away early, so my son Nick and I were able to organise a quick DBA game. Out came the 20mm Early Imperial Romans and Early Germans. Now we have both struggled to use the Germans effectively, I think that between us we have managed maybe three or four wins with them over the past few years, regardless of which one of us uses them, so I thought Nick was pretty brave to volunteer to take them.

I pushed the Romans aggressively forward and used the cavalry to threaten the German left wing.

The German hordes loomed up ahead as the Roman artillery in their centre prepared to 'unleash hell'.

Feeling very brave I decided to try to push the German warbands in the centre off the hill that they were occupying. Despite their uphill advantage, I backed my legionnaries to do the job, sending them in with psiloi support.

My Roman cavalry attacked the German left and caught them adjusting their formation to meet my attack.

On the Roman left I pushed my Auxilia forward through the forests to meet the German troops waiting beneath the trees.

Success... the German psiloi fled from my attack.

On the hill the legionnaries managed to push the German warband back from their positions, finally punching a hole through their line ......

... and success was mine.

These Early Germans are hard work, but maybe one of us will figure out how to use them one day. Nick is a great opponent, clever and thoughtful ... give him an army he is more familiar with and .. look out!! Thanks Nick...

Epic Armageddon

2011-03-31T20:41:00.000+13:00

Some years ago Adrian introduced me to the old GW game 'Space Marine', the 6mm version of Warhammer 40k. I liked it, and he gave me some surplus Space Marine figures and vehicles. I painted them, but then.. da daaah .. nothing happened. We moved on to other periods and games. Epic Armageddon came out and, reading the rules, I thought they were actually quite clever. I took advantage of an offer (from Mark, local Epic afficionado) to participate in a combined order to buy some additional equipment from ForgeWorld, but the order has sat untouched in its packets for a couple of years. We keep saying we must play some games. Aha ...

So now, another good friend and colleague Andrew has acquired two Epic armies (Ork and Eldar) from Trademe and e-Bay, and so the motivation to play some of those games is mounting. We will play some games soon .. in the meantime I need to get some of the other figures painted (Whirlwinds, Terminators, a couple of Titans, some Thunderbolts etc .. all good stuff).

Here are a few photos of some of the Marines, with Landraiders and Rhinos. In my ignorance at the time I painted them up to represent a range of SM Chapters... oh well, they'll do.

Larry Leadhead 'Free at last'

2011-03-29T18:15:00.000+13:00

Thought this was hilarious.. I can really relate to it...

6mm Goodness!!!

2011-03-26T10:27:00.000+13:00

Had a great evening playing some Volley and Bayonet with Keith, Jon and Alastair last night. We were using Keith's Prussians against Jon's French, in a game set in 1813, using 6mm figures (mostly Ros Heroics). The game was played in half scale.

The game ended up with a French victory. Here are just a few random photos from the game, showing off the armies and Keith's great terrain.

French cavalry launched an early attack against Prussian cavalry that had been merrily contemplating an attack on the French right.. ouch.. Prussian cavalry division exhausted in pretty quick time!!

Pruissian infantry pushed across the stream early in the game contemplating an attack of their own. They were pretty soon on the defensive.

Keith had swung around onto the French left which was wide open in the early stages of the game. However by the time they got there the French had reinforced and secured their left.

Here is Keith's AAR of the battle.

The English had such a civil war...

2011-03-19T23:52:00.000+13:00

My long time hankerings for renaissance 'gaming were finally appeased tonight. I last played DBR some 20 years ago, and gave up in disgust at the time. Since then I've tried Armati, which is great, but only a few of us play it. I bought Armati 2 on the strength of some fantastic games with Adrian, only to find that the new edition no longer covered the renaissance period. I was really annoyed. So I began to eye up DBR again. Finally tried two games tonght with Keith, using condensed scale.

Verdict? Fantastic... I've lost the demons of 20 years ago (or they are lurking, waiting to leap out when I least expect them?).

We played these two games, Keith's parliamentarians against my Royalists, in 15mm. Keith's army is Mikes Models figures, while most of mine is (I think) Naismith figures, with a few FreiKorps thrown in for good measure.

In the first game in true Royalist fashion Rupert took the Royalist cavalry on a long flank march and attacked and looted the Parliamentarian camp. It was a risky tactic, but it paid off. My comment was that it was a tactic borne from ignorance more than anything else.

The Roylist cavalry begin their long march around the flank.

Evil threatening Parliamentarians.

A solitary unit of Royalist cavaliers holds up the Royalist right long enough!!

The Royalist cavalry sweep around and take out the camp.

Second game.. I was much more traditional in my approach.

The Royalist lines ...

Oh, and the Parliamentarian lines...

More Royalists!!

But there were these Parliamentarian cavalry you see...

Well frankly this one really fell apart for me... and it was one game each...

I failed to make any kind of effective use of the Royalist cavalry (those Pi(F)). Maybe it's the unconventional approach that I need to maintain, or maybe just making good use of those cavalry would do the trick.

However they were two great games.. I may be a new DBR convert...

Beevor's 'D-Day'

2011-03-19T10:42:00.000+13:00

I'm currently reading Antony Beevor's 'D-Day', a lovely Christmas gift from my boss. I haven't read any of Beevor's previous books, but I'll certainly be reading some more in the future. I haven't finished the book yet, but one passage really caught my attention as he describes the air-ground co-operation that existed between American armoured units advancing during Cobra, and the tactical air forces.

The support from the P-47s was so close that one pilot radioed to Doane that he was going to bomb a German tank only fifty yards to his left and that he had better take cover.... Another Thunderbolt pilot flying shotgun over Task Force Z 'facetiously suggested' to its commander 'that he had better draw in his antenna', because he was attacking right over their heads.

I recall being on exercise in the '80s with the NZ Army when a flight of Strikemasters simulated an attack over our heads (I was commanding an M113 APCs, on a plateau in the mountains around Molesworth Station behind Kaikoura in the South Island of New Zealand). The aircraft came in so low that the infantry in the backs of our vehicles ducked down inside the vehicles.

Fascinating what you remember.

While I still have a way to go in the book, I was also fascinated by Beevor's treatment of the classic 'Montgomery' debate. Using 21st Army Group planning documents, he argues that Montgomery's plans were not originally to pull German forces away from the west so that the Americans could break out. This has of course been a point of contention since the Normandy battles, and had been my own paradigm too. However he makes the point that even though the claim may well have been self justification by Montgomery 'after the event', the effect was exactly that, with the greatest concentration of German armoured forces in the east opposing the British.

And regardless of this argument, defence in Normandy was always going to be tough to break, and German forces simply had to have their combat effectiveness eroded to the point where a breakthrough was possible. Beevor includes some very revealing descriptions of German troops captured after being heavily bombed by the allied air forces. I am left at the moment with the view that this air bombardment together with massive artillery support, was instrumental in eroding that combat effectiveness of the German army in Normandy. Reminiscent of the hurricane bombardments of World War One.

I hadn't really had much of an interest in this specific theatre before. It has certainly been sparked now. Maybe 'Stalingrad' might be my next purchase?

Looted vehicles??

2011-03-19T10:10:00.000+13:00

First wargame in 6 weeks, and a welcome relief after 4 weeks of post earthquake inertia.

Andy, Adrian and I played a 40K, Andy and I commanded Orks against Adrian's Eldar. No photos, but one of those revelations from an occasional 40K player... Ork Looted Vehicles.

Took one wth a Boom gun.. is it just me or are these incredibly good value for the points? The game lasted 6 turns, and the Boom gun inflicted casualites in 4 out of the 5 turns it fired (in one case a LOT of casualties). Maybe I was just lucky?

Tonight, my first DBR game in 15 years, a condensed scale game with Keith... I'll take some photos, because my Royalists are feeling miffed that they haven't appeared on this blog yet... sorry boys!!!

100 years war???

2011-03-17T20:01:00.000+13:00

Just thought this Larry Leadhead was priceless..

Odd ideas...

2011-03-15T20:57:00.000+13:00

We have just unpacked a battery powered emergency or camping light. Lorraine had ordered it a few weeks before the big earthquake, and apparently it arrived at her work on the day of the quake. It has sat there for 3 weeks. We could have done with it when huddled around candles for 2 weeks.

So anyway, as we unpacked it in the glare of modern electrical lights (we got electricity back on a week ago.. woohoo), my first sense of excitement arose not with the lamp but with the packing around the lamp (odd I guess, but 40+ years as a 'gamer leaves scars!!).

While I'm not a regular WH40K 'gamer, I have an eye for material that can create scenery for the 40K table top, and this was it!!!

Proton accelerator? Imperial Guard research facility? I reckon that the usual treatment with a spray can, and a dry brush, with a few accessories, might do the trick. However I have a habit of acquiring this stuff, then throwing it out 5 years later.. watch this space.

Post 'quake reconstruction

2011-03-14T21:54:00.000+13:00

Seems frivolous in the light of more recent events in Japan, but in Christchurch we are all still grappling with the job of reconstructing our lives, lives that will never be the same again, as lives have been lost, and the material fabric of our city has been torn apart. However for each of us there are small things that psychologically make a difference.

For me, after just under 4 weeks I finally got the courage to get into the 'games room and start the cleanup. So far so good. While boxes of figures had been turned every which way, the actiual damage appears to be far less than I'd feared.

Here is a look inside the box of Dwarves (GW 28mm for WFB).

This has been typical of the boxes. However the figures by and large have been in pretty good shape. I spent half an hour last night 'untangling' the 15mm Royalists. The only damage was a rider off a horse, two standards requiring regluing to their figures, and one figure broken off at the ankles. All have been repairable with a dose or two of superglue.

I feel able to face my hobby again. Now I just need to overcome the enormous sense of lethargy that at times overwhelms me, and play some games. One day at a time, one step at a time ...

The Great Adventure

2011-03-06T15:33:00.000+13:00

In case anyone is trying to access my web site 'The Great Adventure', dedicated to World War 1 and the Great War Spearhead wargames rules, the site is unavailable at the moment as the server is off line following the Christchurch earthquake. I'll let everyone know when we are back up and running.
Thanks for your patience.

Rifleman Bowlby

2011-03-06T11:44:00.000+13:00

As part time earthquake refugees we found oursleves at my Brother-in-Law's house for a shower one evening last week. They invited us to stay the night (an offer which we were quick to take up... life is pretty fraught in our part of the city right now, 13th day without power or water and all that) and so there I was with nothing to read.

In my Brother-in-Law's library was the book 'The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby' by Alex Bowlby (1969 ISBN 0-304-35243-8). Bowlby was an interesting person, an English public school graduate who enlisted in and joined the Rifles just as they came out of the desert in 1943. He opted to remain a Rifleman, making fun of the officer selection process in order to remain in the ranks.

His story is that of a man who met many of the terrrors of war and yet seemed destined never to fire his rifle in anger as the Rifles fought their way through Italy. The book describes numerous 'actions' in which he was involved, including many fighting and recce patrols. It is interspersed with descriptions of numerous humorous incidents that occured long the way.

One of his biggest psychological scars appears to have been created when he was invalided back to a base hospital with illness, during which time his battalion was involved in an attack in which many of his best mates lost their lives. He concludes with chapter describing his return to Italy after the war as a man carrying his share of survivor guilt, and the cathartic effect of his almost accidental stumbling upon the graves of some of the men he had fought alongside, men who had lost their lives in the dreadful attack that he had missed.

The book is well written and entertaining (it isn't difficult to see in his real life narrative some elements that one would have thought could only have been invented for an Evelyn Waugh novel). Thoroughly recommended.

Shell shocked...

2011-03-03T09:57:00.000+13:00

If you are breathing then you have most likely been aware of the catastrophic Christchurch earthquake. If you live in the city, then you will be feeling the effects of what has been a sustained 6 month barrage of 'quakes that began on 4 September 2010. The people are fragile (myself included) as one aftershock after another hits us.

My own extended family has been fortunate to have suffered no death or injury in the most recent (22 February) 'quake that has truly devastated the city. But the nerves jangle, and every rumble, every creak of the house, sets you on edge. The rumbling is now more often from heavy trucks that remove the massive amounts of liquefaction from our own street (although as I write yet another aftershock has hit the city).

At 32 houses, our quiet cul-de-sac is tiny, yet a front end loader is now in its third day of shifting the huge amounts of silt that we have dug out from our properties. The loader driver guestimated 200-300 tonnes of silt in our street, and across the city they suggest 150000 tonnes of the stuff. It stinks!!!

The 'quake made quite a mess of the house and contents.

This was out pantry ...

And this is one view of the mayhem wrought in the 'games room.

Lorraine got in there and tidied a few things, but I haven't yet found the heart to take a look myself.

But at the same time at least we still have a habitable house. Too may have lost their houses, and too many lost their lives.

So we are into our second week post 'quake, and in our area we are still without power, water, or sewer.... I can't help feeling a new found affinity for the civilians who suffered in devastated cities in World War 2 .. Our own suburban area is a mess, no services, military helicopters regularly circling overhead - periodicaly we need to assure ourselves that we aren't just sitting through a very bad movie.

We are all just a bit shell shocked I suspect.

If you feel that you can help our city, there is the opportunity to donate to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal

A little Steam Punk ...

2011-02-20T19:18:00.000+13:00

It's odd what you discover sometimes. There were we travelling back from a very successful rock and roll dance competition (one of my other passions) and we passed through the small North Otago town of Oamaru. In the 19th Century Oamaru was a very prosperous town, with substantial buildings built from the loal white stone, in Victorian style. The town's prosperity fell away as the Otago gold rushes ran out, but the buildings remained. In the 1980s a serious programme of restoration began on a number of the beautiful stone buildings, and a numer have found new uses. However, over the past year (it has been a year since we were there last) a new venture has clearly started. Oamaru has been declared the Steam Punk Capital of New Zealand. I wish they hadn't kept this so quiet. Here are a few photos from the town taken today February 20th, 2011.

A note for Nick Grant: Nick... this reminds me of the delighful zp gun you created for your British VSF army....

Alcaniz 1809

2011-02-06T15:01:00.000+13:00

It was time. Time for the 25mm Napoleonic armies to come out and play again, and this time it was a small Peninsular battle: Alcaniz, 23 May 1809 between a Spanish army commanded by Blake, and a French army commanded by Suchet. As usual Adrian and I used our favourite rules set Volley and Bayonet by Frank Chadwick.

(Incidentally, why do we love these rules? Because we are able to refight historical battles at the appropriate level. It's not to our taste to be fighting battles at regimental and divisional level, putting out skirmishers, worrying about going into square etc. VnB allows us to command armies, and therefore focusses ut attention on thois things that would have been the concern of army commanders rather than Divisinal or Brigade commanders. It's a matter of personal taste, I guess.)

Anyway, Alcaniz is a smaller battle in VnB terms, and was a good excuse to drag out the 25mm napoleonic armies. The Spanish under Blake are trying to stop the French under Suchet crossing a river into a town. They have taken up defensive positions on two pieces of higher ground in front of the river and bridge, with a division deployed on their right holding the large area of high ground.

The French advance.

The French diviison in their centre advances towards the high ground held by the smaller of the Spanish divisions.

Meanwhile the Spanish division on the right withdraws back to the village on the high ground, but is quickly threatened by the French cavalry.

Spanish cavalry has managed to get arounbd the French left flank, and Spanish infantry have advanced from the Spanish left to threaten the French right flank. The French re-deploy some of their brigades to counter this. However the Spanish surprise the French by attacking the flank of the brigade seen here in the left centre of the picture. The French brigade was driven back in the attack. This was the first of several successful local Spanish counterattacks in the game.

The first French attacks, on the high ground in the centre, get underway.

The French lap around the right flank of the central Spanish defence, but are bounced back initially in the face of staunch defence.

The French cavalry first threatens the Spanish rear, but the French commander then withdraws them to his own rear to counter the threat of the extant Spanish cavalry.

By this stage in the battle the Spanish have been pushed off the central heights, and the Spanish line has been turned at right angles to its initial position.

The Spanish have had to reform their defensive line, with three battalions of artillery holding a large section of the line, surrounded by mostly M4 troops and miltia, and just a few regular army regiments.

The Spanish cavalry by this stage was exhausted (having engaged in several successful combats against French infantry, and the French cavalry), but stayed to try to protect the flank of the shrinking Spanish line.

The final French assault against the Spanish line broke through the Spanish line, leaving the entire Spanish army exhausted.

'The Australian Light Horse'

2011-02-06T12:21:00.000+13:00

'The Australian Light Horse', Roland Perry, ISBN 978-0-7336-2748-3

I've just finished reading this 512 page work. The book, published in 2009, is one of the best accounts I've read of the Palestine campaigns of the Light Horse, and makes an excellent companion to Terry Kinloch's 'Devils on Horses', his account of the NZ Mounted in the Middle East, or perhaps I should state that the other way around, as the NZ Mounted constituted one brigade in the ANZAC Mounted Division which was of course composed mostly of ALH.

Perry's account is in fact three stories: an account of the Australian Light Horse, Lawrence and the Arab revolt, and Chauvel as a military leader. Perry mantains that Chauvel might in fact be rated as one of the best 'cavalry' commanders of all time, and certainly commanded one of the largest cavalry forces ever seen, with the Desert Mounted Corps peaking at over 33000 men.

Amongst his fascinating conclusions is his extended comment of the impact of the Australians' extraordinary victory at Beersheba, which Perry claims laid the foundation for post war middle east developments by creating the base for the the remainder of the extraordinary victories in that theatre.

Perry also offers some fascinating insights into the tensions between Chauvel and Lawrence during the liberation of Damascus, and is not afraid to 'call a spade a spade' with his comments on Lawrence's duplicity with the Arab cause, and his sparing use of the truth in some sections of his famous 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'.

Perry even affords several pages for the unfortunate affair at Sarafend in which a NZ sergeant was murdered by Arab thieves, resulting in some serious summary judgement by the New Zealanders supported by a number of members of the Australian Light Horse. He is not afraid to lay a part of the blame for this at the feet of Allenby for his dismissive treatment of Chauvel's requests for support in investigating the case.

This is an excellent and extremely readable account of the Australian Light Horse. I thoroughly recommend it.

The trouble with DBA armies...

2011-02-02T20:24:00.000+13:00

... is that they are addictive. Late last year I bought a15mm Early Minoan army from Essex. It's not painted yet, but Essex offered another of their "3 armies for the price of 2" deals, and so my son and I bought Vedic Indian, Early Archamaenid Persian, and Hittite armies. We quite like Book 1 armies. For me it's the chariots. I've always wanted a chariot army. Now I may have several, when I finally get them painted.

Incorrigible, addictive!!!

The 198th still learning to fight!!!

2011-01-27T23:20:00.000+13:00

Another Tau incursion, and again the Cadian 198th was called to make a heroic stand against the invaders. Again the game was 1200 points, and the scenario was an objective based 'pitched battle'. I think I may be learning how to play the game, managing to go 4 turns, and inflict far more casualties on the Tau. However I lost my manouvrability and my capability to take objectives, partly trying to be too smart with 'Outflank' moves. I'm still pondering whether a) I am simply still no good at this outflanking (although in other game systems I can use it to great effect), or b) the outflank option may simply not necessarily be the best option to use with Guard.

Anyway, a few photos from the game. The Guard left flank, secured in some ruins, and supported by the Leman Russ. There was a covering squad further to the left, occupyung some woods.

The Tau came on in their Devilfish, supported by a Hammerhead. The Guard had first move, and managed to immobise one of the Devilfish with fire from the Leman Russ. This effectively kept one Firewarrior squad out of the whole game, leaving them back close to the Tau baseline.

The Tau force included four suits (one was the commander.. a nasty wee brute I'd have to say).

The Tau manouvrability meant that they still came on in strength on the Guard left flank.

And the Kroot in the Tau centre and right were well supported by the suits. I managed to outflank with my Sentinels (a couple of Ork Kans doubling up as Sentinels). They had a shooting match with two suits, eventually dying in one outstanding Tau round of fire (one exploded taking two kroot warriors with it).

A Guard squad hunkered down in the ruins in their centre.

The Stormtrooper squad outflanked on the Guard left, and managed to take out most of a Firewarrior sqaud. However the Firewarriors passed their leadership test and hung in there!! The Stormtroopers became the focus of an awful lot of Tau fire, alhtough this did lessen the pressure on the Guard left flank for a couple of turns.

The Guard veterans rushed forward to attack the Tau left in the Chimera (a Rhino doubling as a chimera at this stage). The Chimera popped smoke and the vets disembarked.

This was coordinated with the Sentinel attack. However the distance was actually too great for them to support each other.

One Devilfish, having dismebarked its load of Firewarriors, rushed back to pick up the other squad which had carelessley lost its own Devilfish. This was a shot too tempting to resist for the Leman Russ - side armour and all. The shot went over however and hit the already immobilised skimmer in the rear of this photo. The Devilfish promptly exploded, but the still mobile Devilfish, loaded up with troops, survived.. a juicy opportunity lost!!

The vets, despite the cover provided by their chimera, fell to a pile of fire from the suits, as did the chimera.

Heavy fire on the Guard centre now told, and the squad here failng morale pulled back form their position.

The Tau held 3 objectives to the Guard 1, a clear victory for the Tau.

What did I learn?

Still not concentrating fire enough.
Heavy weapons in the infantry squads isn't actually a good idea.. it tends to immobilise them. Better to take more HW squads, and keep them out of the infantry squads.
I made a better job of coordinating the fire of the Leman Russ, and the Heavy weapons squad I did have (Heavy Bolters). They were very effective at area denial for the Tau.
I'm still not making good use of the outflank options. The variability (as in random die roll to determine their point of entry) is more likely to diminish the impact/reduce concentration.
I still didn't make effective use of the characters I took e.g. I forgot to use the Astropath to re-roll for entry for the Stormtroopers, resulting in tem comin gon on the opposite flank to the sentinels. Concentration would have been VERY useful here. The Priest was positioned wheer he didn't even get into atcion!!!

Defginitely heading in the right direction though.