That was HotT Carnage for another year

Today's big event was the annual HotT carnage tournament (the 5th). Six players took the field, and below is an assortment of photos of the day.

First up, the highlight of the day was Mark O's new army: a 'My Little Pony' army, a powerful combination of knights and an aerial hero..

Gordon had added to his Dwarven army with these great Dwarven riders, and a God.. who else but Thor.

Some more shots of the Ponies, against Nick G's Numidians (whose God came... and went..)

Nick G then took his VSF army against Nick S's African safari army.

Nick's stronghold.. a water hole with resident hippos.

More shots of the Ponies against the Dwarfs.

Mark faced Nick's African army, and went down in his only defeat of the day when Nick battered his way through Mark's army to the point where Mark had lost 11 APs and Nick 10. Nick finally got through to Mark's stronghold.. all over, rover!!!

Gordon trotted out his Vietnam Aircav army for his last two games.. a few shots here just because I love the Iroquois flyers.. (sounds of 'Ride of the Valkyries' here)!!!

Gordon was facing Nick G's Rhaetian Goblins in their last game.

On came Gordon's dragon, C130 (??) equipped with chain guns.. ouch

Nick G's last game using his Undead against Kevin's Adventurer army...  loved these wee flyers..

It didn't however end well for the Undead when Kevin's Aerial Hero ( a former WW1 ace and all that, eh wot??) attacked Nick's newly arrived dragon.. scaredy cat, Mr Dragon!!

Thanks to Mark O, Nick G, Stan, Gordon, Kevin and Nick S for playing, and congratulations to mark who won the tournament, making it twice in the same year.

Wild African animals like bones.. rats!!

Annual HotT Carnage tournament tomorrow, and Nick has traveled up to Christchurch from Dunedin to play. Being a little rusty, he asked for a couple of practice games, and this was the first. He is using his African safari animal army, and I chose to use my Undead army ... an army made up of assemblages of bones, fighting an army of wild animals. I should have known that this wasn't going to end well...

I deployed with my centre secured by 2 stands of zombie dogs (beasts in the rough going, with Hordes and hooters on the right and my Hero and Blades on the left. Two Magicians sat behind, waiting to hurtle magical devastation at the enemy.

The Magicians began their incantations, raising the forces of chaos from beneath the ground.

The air reverberated as bolts of magical power zapped through the air, sending one of the two units of flyers (vultures) hurtling to their doom.

The rest of the force advanced, Behemoth general and Lion Hero in the battle line.

Gorillas (Beasts) advanced towards the Undead flank.

Zombie Hordes shambled forward on the Undead right.

The Hero destroyed one of the units of zombie dogs... ahhh, bones..

But the Undead hero shifted to fill the gap.

Before his very eyes the African Hero disappeared, the result of powerful forces of magic.

In quick succession the Zombie Hordes and the undead shooters disappeared before their general's eyes.

The Undead Hero struck again and a unit of Rhino Knights fell beneath his  deadly blades.

With a '6' the Hero broke the magic shackles that had bound him to the netherworld, and appeared to assault the Undead Stronghold.

And in short order the battle was over.

Carnivorous animals against an army of bones? I should have known that this wasn't going to end well.

Artillery support for the 20mm Russian force

The mainstay of Russian artillery battalions during the Great Patriotic War was the 76mm Zis 3 gun, and no Spearhead Russian force would be complete without them.

Normally most artillery in Spearhead games is off-table, so there is no need for the actual gun models. However the difficulties in gaining artillery support with Russian forces (perhaps more correctly the inflexibility of the artillery in tactical terms) means that I have fought games in which the guns rarely see action. I therefore tend to model the artillery battalions on-table. This way, careful deployment means that even if your observers find it difficult to acquire the support of their guns, the guns are present and able to fire direct in response to threat (albeit at a much reduced range). They often guard my flanks - a slightly precarious existence if you are an artillery battalion gunner or commander.

They are deployed in mixed battalions with two 76mm gun stands, and one 122mm gun stand in a battalion. Last week I acquired the models for the 76mm guns from Stan. These are the UM models, and were quite an eye opener for me. In my opinion these are 'modellers' kits. The detail is finely molded, the detail excellent. Many parts fitted so well there was no need for glue ... I don't recall ever buying a kit with such precision assembly. I've also never before bought a 1/72nd or 1/76th scale kit in which the wheels come with separate tyres.

They certainly are great kits, it's just that I'm in this as a 'gamer rather than a modeller.. I prefer those fast assembly kits. But if you are a modeller, or a 'gamer with a little more modelling patience than me, you'll love them

I also bought two UM Su76 self propelled guns... these look equally as precise (read 'fiddly' for my large fingers). These are next onto the painting table - this may take quite some patience!!.

The road to Gumbinnen 1914

Rennankampf's 1st Army had crossed the Prussian border five days ago. The town of Gumbinnen lay a day's march away, and III Corps troops were convinced that Prussia was theirs for the taking. III Corps' divisions were settling in for another day's advance when German troops were detected to their front.

The Russian 3rd Division, a reserve division, edged forward capturing a small village to its front before occupying a wood beyond the village.

It's attached regiment of 76mm Putilovs deployed ready to offer support.

The centre of the advancing German forces was quickly targeted by divisional artillery attached to the left flank 4th Division, the gunners quickly pinning an entire battalion of German infantry.

The right flank Russian 3rd Division then pushed forward to apply pressure to the German left flank. This was to be the focus for the ensuing action.

The German divisional commander had anchored his left flank on a local village.

The Russian Corp commander ordered the advance to be resumed, and one Regiment of his left flank 4th Division began their advance against the German centre.

Action was heating up on the Russian right as the 1st Regiment of its 3rd Reserve Division pushed forward. Troops had occupied a small copse, but came under heavy German artillery fire.

A prolonged fire fight ensued, with the Russian regiment pushed to hold on (surviving it's first morale check).

The regimental commander was eventually granted supporting fire from the Corp 4.8" guns, and casualties quickly mounted in the German regiment.

The German Regiment fell back, leaving the village to the Russian advance, and the German right flank hanging in the air.

The German commander ordered his 3rd Regiment to shift to the left to retake the lost village. However for only the second time in the day the Russian Corps artillery came into action. The gap in the centre of the formation below was left after five company stands were eliminated by the Russian guns.

The Russian advance in the centre had stopped in the dead ground before its objective, the high ground in the upper right of the photo below.

The Russian 3rd Division commander had ordered his attached artillery regiment forward, and finally the guns had unlimbered and brought direct fire down on the German regiment trying to move to shore up the German left.

The German forces had been out-shot and out-manoeuvred, and the German commander ordered a withdrawal before the advancing Russian troops. Gumbinnen lay to their rear. Tomorrow was another day.

This game was fought using the Great War Spearhead II draft rules, with Jon and Stan commanding the Russians and Germans respectively. I 'ran' the game to make sure that play flowed, making the repeated references to the rules that were required because we hadn't played GWSH for a couple of years.

The game gave a great reflection of combat in those early days of the war. References to Zuber and his accounts of early battles in the west describe fire fights lasting several hours, and in this case the focus of the action on the Russian right was just that, in this case the Russian regiment managed to win the fire fight before pushing the German forces out of their defensive position. There were several 'lucky' die rolls at the heart of the action here.

In scenario generation system terms, this left the Russians occupying three objectives to the German one, with one Russian regiment having been forced to take a morale test, while two German regiments had also done so. This gave the Russian commander a 6-1 victory.

As I said, it has been a while since we had played a GWSH game, and the game has been a timely reminder of why I love these rules so much. Both players were as rusty as me, and had for example forgotten the need to keep reserves. This meant that Jon as Russian commander lacked the capacity to exploit his tactical victory on his right, while Stan's attempt to shore up his left required a risky shift across the front of the Russian centre. Had he had a reserve, this could have been moved relatively safely to prop up his left..

Trajan in Germany ...

Friday night's attempt at a Volley and Bayonet game was stymied by illness and fatigue, so we managed an impromptu Armati game with Trajanic Romans against Ancient Britons. I hauled out masses of 25mm figures that have not had the 21st Century Robin painting treatment (i.e. they are as they were painted 25+ years ago). We managed two games in the evening, the Romans winning convincingly in both encounters. Just a few shots of the armies in the first of the two games. Despite the painting quality, quantity still has a quality of its own. It's been a while since I played Armati and I'd forgotten what a good game it gives.. "things to do" list: play more Armati soon.

These are Minifigs Romans that were bought back in the early 1980s.

The cavalry here are actually Huns used to proxy as AB cavalry. I converted these from.. wait for it ... Airfix napoleonic British Hussars.. WAAAAY back in the late 70s.... well, you did that sort of thing back then, didn't you.

EEE by gum  .. them were the days eh laaad!!

Die Valkyrie...

Still in catch-up mode, this Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard Valkyrie is a kit that's been sitting around for a year or two. I bought the un-assembled kit from a fellow 'gamer for whom it was surplus to requirements and I've spent the past few weeks pottering with it, in amidst the frenetic work routine that is the impending end of term/end of academic year 'silly season'.  This flyer represents another step towards the completion of the Imperial Guard army for 40K, although truth to tell the boys I take for 'gaming at College get far more use out of the 40K armies than I ever do.

Can't help feeling that this should always appear on the table top to strains of Wagner.

Yet again I'd forgotten how relaxing this aspect of the hobby can be; this would be the largest kit assembly project I've undertaken for at least a couple of decades.

What's next? The last remaining components of the 20mm Spearhead Russian army have arrived, so I'll be off to pick them up from Stan this week, and once assembled that's another project finished. Woohoo!!!