'I still say shooting a man is just not British...'

But if that's what those scoundrels at Horseguards insist in sending out as reinforcements I shall have to make best use of them until they send me more cavalry, eh wot???

There were four spare dismounted figures left over from the box of HaT Zulu Wars British mounted infantry. Perfect or another base of shooters for the VSF expansion. Job done.. although Caruthers just doesn't seem to be that happy.

The new base of HotT 'Shooters'

The shooters with their mounted brethren, 'Riders' in the HotT VSF army.

'It's all Greek to me'. Carruthers latest despatch ....

Major General Carruthers I assume? As if bashing up indigenous peoples wasn't enough, it seems that Maj Gen Carruthers managed to tackle an almost equally ancient civilisation that he just happened to stumble upon: a gathering of Greeks. Now these could be dashed tricky chaps, you know, but their preference for spears and shields would surely mean that they would be easy beats for his fine upstanding British gentlemen?

The newly recruited riders moved out to threaten the Greek left flank.. as you do when you are British, you know..

While the centre of good solid infantrymen, led by the inimitable General himself, pushed forward against the jolly un-British spearmen.

Elements of the British flying force flew silently across the lines of combatants looking for mischief.

Gods? Gods you say? Oh I say, that's just not British. Whatever would her Majesty say? The Greek God Aries seemed to have been summoned.

The riders advanced as gallant British gentlemen would, never mind the odds, you know!!

In the centre the British infantry charged forward, supported by their steam powered robot. These damnable Greeks must be taught a lesson, you know, eh wot!!!

Plenty of the good ol' biffo and argy bargy .. ah, the sound of steel in the morning, there's nothing quite like it! The fly-boys had found a way to make themselves useful

Aha, we knew it was damnably un-British. The Gods themselves deserted the Greeks as Aries took flight. Good old British steel you know, eh wot??

The general melee in the centre was looking interesting.

One of the fly-boys tumbled to the ground in a ball of flames.. gad suh!!!

But with Aries gone, the British riders were now cleaning up on their right.

And in the centre the Greek spearmen had lost their cohesion as they fought to keep the British at bay.

Finally the Greek general was taken, and the Greek army fled the field. Caruthers can be seen with his command squad standing at the left of the picture surveying the field as his troops clean up the last of the Greeks.

This was a game that Nick G and I played a few months ago. I uploaded the photos, but never found the time to write up the battle.

Gad Suh.. damned fine fellows

What the official despatch to the War Office said:

"Lancer reinforcements arrived at full strength."

What Carruthers actually dictated to his ADC:

"Finally some actual bloody cavalry. Damned fine fellows those Lancer chappies.. excellent, excellent. Now for some real fighting instead of this namby pamby 'oo let's shoot them, they look to damned fierce for the likes of us' rubbish." 

Latest reinforcements in the expansion of the British VSF army to Big Battle HotT strength. I purchased a box of HaT 17th lancers quite some time ago. Finally dragged the box out and completed them. These will be classed as 'knights', given their predilection for up close and personal combat from the backs of their mounts.

Warclouds HotT/DBA double, 1st leg HotT

Woolston Wargames Club is pleased to bring you HOTT at Warclouds 2014. The ethos is fun and although it is a tournament games are played within the spirit of the rules and the competitive edge is rounded off ensuring every one enjoys themselves.

Venue:	Date: 8 February 2014
Woolston Working Mens' Club	Entrance Fee: $20 inclusive of HotT and DBA tournaments

Rules:

The version used will be Hordes of the Things 2.0 with the exception that the new ‘standard’ movement rates for Shooters and Warbands will apply: 200 paces and 300 paces respectively in good or bad going.

Scale:

Will be 20/25/28mm (60mm frontage). Each entrant should bring an army, although several loan armies will be available on request.

Armies will be composed of 24 army points. Players are not limited to army lists as printed in the rules, but armies must obey the element composition rules.

Players will set up terrain using the terrain rules, and are expected to bring Strongholds for their armies. In the spirit of the game, players need not use the same army and army composition throughout the tournament.

Format:

Competitors will play five games during the day.

If there are more than six competitors, a swiss chess system will operate. If there are six or fewer competitors a pre-set draw will be provided with every player playing every other player.

Scoring:

·      5 points for a win

·      1 point for a draw

·      0 points for a loss

Tally opponent’s lost/destroyed AP (as defined in the rulebook) and record this along with each player’s game score game scores for use in the event of a tie-break.

Normally draws shouldn't happen, but there is a time limit of one hour per game. If at the end of the hour a game is not finished, the umpire will, at the end of the current turn, declare the game a draw. All army points killed should still be recorded and submitted to the umpire on the results sheet in the case of a tie for overall tournament winner.

Contact:

Robin Sutton

27 Horton Place

Christchurch 8061

E-mail: rsutton@paradise.net.nz ; Phone 981 8361 ; Mobile 027 258 8905

 

Timetable

Player Briefing 8.45am
Game 1 9.00-10.00
Game 2 10.15-11.15
Game 3 11.30-12.30
Lunch Break 12.30 1.30
Game 4 1.30-2.30
Game 5 2.45-3.45
Prize Giving 4.00

Terrain

1. Games will be played on a 3'x3' playing area.
2. Attacker defender will be determined in the usual way. Terrain set-up is defined on page 13 of the rule-book, conforming with the terrain rules as printed on pages 11 and 12 of the rule book. Players will provide their own terrain.
3. The attacker uses the rules as written to determine the attacker/defender baselines.
4. Game set up and play then proceeds as outlined in the rules book.
5. Single contour hills represent gentle hills, double contour hills represent steep hills and so are difficult going.

Tournament Etiquette

1. The defender will define troop types prior to the attacker setting up. The attacker will define troop types once set up is complete.
2. It is good manners not to take back a move once an element has been moved. If doubt arises about where an element was before it was moved, and the umpire is called, a die roll will be used to settle the disagreement.
3. Pre-measuring is allowed.
4. In the words of the organizers of the 2008 TAGCon DBA tournament: "We are confident that all (HotT) players will be polite and play for the sheer enjoyment of killing, burning and pillaging rather than pin-pricking." You are the commander of a fantasy army intent on world domination!!!!

Couldn't resist these ...

On one of my now numerous visits to Dunedin, and the corresponding visit to their major hobby shop, I spotted a box of the Italeri M3 75mm half tracks. I'd been on the look out for more of the Italeri quick build M3 half tracks for the British armoured regiment (the Spearhead army in 20mm).

I thought that the 75mm gunned vehicles would make nice AT for the nascent 20mm American force.

What I didn't realise at the time was that these M3s were only used in North Africa and Sicily/Italy, by both the Brits and the Americans. There are more effective AT options for the North West Europe American forces, but these are .. well,.. 'kinda cute' (is it right to apply that adjective to weapons of war??).

Having bought them, it seemed a shame not to assemble them, and they may well appear with the American forces once complete, Italy or otherwise.

That's another box gone from the games room and into the recycling bin. I'm slowly whittling down on the number of boxes to be packed away.

Just pottering with the Austro-Hungarians

I've just completed these Austro-Hungarian 100mm guns (by HaT) to add to the AH division for the 'Eastern front project' (must surely be nearing completion, surely??).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoda_houfnice_vz_14

This photo is of a later variant that had the longer barrel. The HaT models are of the early war shorter barrel version.

Researching the colours, there seemed to be some confusion about the correct early war colours for the guns. I (obviously) opted for the blue/grey colour. The crew are figures form the HaT Austro Hungarian Heavy Weapons box. I thought I'd sue these surplus figures rather than buy a box of their artillery crew.

I also had some AH infantry figures left over from those required for the AH cavalry bases, so these have also got the treatment over the past week to add to the infantry division fighting stand strength.

Still a few infantry fighting stands to go, but I'm getting there. Hopefully the division will see action against the Russians this summer.

So wonderfully 'ANZAC'

While most of my reading over recent months has been fiction, I have also been picking away at a delightful book titled 'An awfully big adventure: New Zealand World War One veterans tell their stories'.

Penguin Books, 2013

This is a publication drawn together by historian Jane Tolerton based on a massive oral history project capturing the reminiscences of these men before they all finally passed on.

Several men talk about their time at Etaples training camp.

Source: http://newzealanddivision.org/photo/n-z-reinforcement-camp-the-camp-sunset-etaples-1917

I love this delightful piece.

"At Etaples we were mixed up together, the Australians and us. We had an inspection one day. One of the heads of the British Army was coming to have a look at us.

The instructors were all British soldiers, up to sergeant majors, mainly sergeants. This instructor started yelling and bawling at us. The chap next to me was an Aussie. Hiles was his name. He started to laugh, and that started off quite a lot of laughing.

The instructor said "Don't you laugh at me. We train lions here."

Hile said "You haven't trained a kangaroo yet, mate." That started us off again.

Hiles got arrested. Three or four of our boys and three or four Aussies got put into jail - in huts. That night about 100 Aussies went down to the jail and let the prisoners out. Then they burnt the huts.

The next day there was another parade and the Aussies were shifted about 2 miles  away. That's when they split up the New Zealanders and the Aussies."

This is the stuff of the ANZAC legend, eh!!!