Musee de l'armee at Les Invalides

During our recent visit to Paris we visited Musee de l'armee at Les Invalides.  This was my 4th visit.

Here are just a few general shots from the visit.

Bronze cannons lying about.. careless?  :-)

A 'Napoleon'.

I'd never before realised that the stonework around these dormer windows was shaped as suits of armour.

The stonework is being cleaned and repaired.. looking great.

Napoleon's tomb... still impressive, even after 4 visits

A French 75 (the famous 'soixante quinze').

Mulhouse, August 1914

With the centenary of the outbreak of World War One looming, we thought it appropriate to acknowledge the outbreak with a Great War Spearhead game. I say acknowledge rather than celebrate - there isn't a lot to celebrate, but certainly a lot to acknowledge in terms of human sacrifice.

I decided that we would try a play test of the first scenario in the upcoming Great War Spearhead scenario book, the Battle of Mulhouse, 9 August 1914.

We played the game using my 6mm WW1 forces, mostly Irregular Miniatures figures and guns.

Keith and I commanded the German forces, and Jon commanded the French. The situation is that a German infantry division is counter attacking to retake an area lost in an earlier French attack, and currently defended by the French with two infantry regiments supported by two regiments of 75s,

The French defence on the right. A significant feature of the French defence is the railway line and embankment. I lacked suitable scenery and so marked the embankment with string.. as you do.

The Germans decided on a full divisional attack directly towards Cernay and the bridge. The bridge is the only crossing point on the river. The German forces are arrayed on the left of the photograph.

The French defended Cernay.

The view from behind the French defence. Jon deployed one regiment defending Cernay and the bridge, the other on his right (out of view) awaiting what he believed would be a German flank attack.

The German plan was to send a regiment each to the right and left of Cernay while  a third regiment would assault through Cernay and across the bridge. The fourth regiment was kept in reserve. The two flanking regiments each had artillery attached, with the intent of advancing directly with the infantry, firing in direct support.

The right hand German regiment deploying to engage in a firefight with the defenders occupying the outskirts of Cernay (top right of the photo).

The French defenders waiitng.

The German regiments combined an extensive firefight woth direct assault to eliminate the French defenders in the outskirts of Cernay, before finally assaulting Cernay itself. The assault has just gone in and is yet to be resolved.

WIth Cernay in German hands, Keith began bringing down indirect fire on the French defenders behind the railway embankment.

My own regiment also engaged the defenders behind the embankment, causing casualties that slowly whittled away at the defenders' strength.

At this stage we ran out of game time. Not for us the victory of the German division on the day, and ignominy for the French commander. Jon had kept us back across the river.

The scenario offered the option of a flank march for the German division, but the issue of command zones meant that to do so would mean one German regiment isolated across the river, and open to defeat in detail. Hence our decision to keep the division together, concentrated for its assault on Cernay and the river crossings. The flank march option seemed to us to create more tactical dilemmas than we had the forces to deal with.

The scenario offers some interesting challenges for both commanders. For me it was a welcome return to one of my favourite rules sets, and periods, for wargaming after a long break filled with distraction.

We will be playing much more in the months to come.

References for buildings for Normandy - wargames terrain

We've just returned from a two week jaunt that took in California and France. While in France we stayed with my brother and sister-in-law who have restored and live in a Norman farm house. Their house is situated in the small village of Fresville, just 5 minutes by car from St Mere Eglise.

The French leg didn't include any battlefields this time, but it did strike me that I number amongst my friends and wargames colleagues a number of people who game World War 2 in north west Europe, and some who scratch build their own wargames terrain. So with that in mind I went for a wander and snapped a range of shots of Norman buildings with the thought of creating a small reference tool for wargamers/modellers, something that they could use to create terrain suitable for games set in Normandy.  I've added short captions for some of the photos to help interpret the structures. These are not modern facsimiles of Norman buildings: they are the authentic/original thing, the structures themselves are often 300+ years old.

The Fresville 'church hall'.

Close up of the buttressing of the walls of the church hall.

The Fresville church

Housing

Detail of the entry to a courtyard area behind housing.

Classic Norman house profile.

Another classic Norman house profile.

Entry gate details

Village 'communal well' .. a nice detail that could be included with any wargames terrain building.

Yes, some Norman buildings have dormer windows

Often seen, external brackets indicating the presence of structural reinforcing within.

Outbuildings ...

Another classic farmhouse profile

Outbuilding to farm house.. this one was originally the bakery for the farm workers

Creepy crawlies and undead things .. a HotT AAR

Played a game of HotT last night with Nick on his last night with us after his recent conference. Nick took the Spiders and I took the Undead.

The lists were:

Spiders

1 x Behemoth General
1 x Hero
1 x God (Spiderman)
10 x Hordes
2 x Land Lurkers

Undead

1 x Hero General
1 x magician
1 x Behemoth
2 x Blades
2 x Zombie Hordes
1 x Skeleton shooters
2 x Zombie dog beasts

Early blood went to the Undead as a wave of magic ensorcelled the Spider Hero.

From behind the Undead army .. the Spider Hero had been where the gap in the Spiders' line now sits.

The Spiders had sent a group of Hordes around their left top threaten the Undead right flank

The Undead magicians continued to cast spells in the direction of the spiders.

The Undead battle lines advanced

In an unexpected turn of events, the Spider hero shook off the effects of the web of magic, and reappeared behind the Undead battle lines There was however no sign of the Spider God!!

The Undead battle line hit the Spider Hordes in what became a game of push and shove.

However the Spider hero advanced and attacked the Undead necromancers.... and eliminated them.

The Undead hero general turned to stop the assault on the rear of his army. Success seemed at hand, as the battle of the behemoths had gone the way of the Undead.

In a battle of the giants ...

The Spider hero  was triumphant  .. and the Undead army disappeared into the ether

A damned fine battle with lots of twists and turns...

22 June ...

Tomorrow is 22nd June .. like the revelation? You're welcome. Of course the significance is that it's the 73rd anniversary Of the German attack on the USSR. I could imagine the construction of an argument supporting the notion that Hitler's decision to attack Russia may have been the single most momentous decision of the twentieth century. And there's nothing special about a 73rd, but it did make me m,ook back at what we've played over the past few years.

Looking back over my blog as a record of my 'gaming activity, I have tended to favour the eastern front in my WW2 Spearhead 'gaming.

We plugged the gap, repelled German armour at Prokhorovka, fought in the Crimea, tried to withstand Russian counter attacks, and more.

There have also been posts about the modelling and building required to play these games, and the construction of lists for the WW2 Spearhead forces.

There's quite a lot really.

GW painting tutorials

Whatever else you might say about GW, here's something pretty awesome.. their latest painting tutorials on painting flesh.

Click on the link and enjoy.

40K action.. slightly too late perhaps!!

You know, Adrian and I have been promising to play a game of Warhammer 40K ever since 6th Edition rules came out. A couple of weeks ago GW issued their '7th' edition. Guess what? We finally had that long promised game of 6th. We just took a 500 point force of Orks against Imperial Guard. My Lost and the Damned masqueraded as a couple of the Guard units, just because I like the models.

The game was limited because we are both 'packed up' for EQ matters, Adrian for repairs, us for our rebuild, so neither of us could find the Codices. Here are some photos, in order, with captions rather than a with a full after action report. I guess we mostly play this because of the beautiful miniatures.

Guard mutants advance into the ruins in the centre of the battlefield.

Another Guard squad occupies a wood on the Guard left, as a flank guard.

Meanwhile two Guard Sentinels advance on the Guard right flank.

The battlefield form the Guard right flank, with the sentinels in the foreground. With the first move the Sentinels destroyed the Ork buggy on the Ork left.

A warband of Ork boyz (slugga and choppa) rush ahead through more ruins on the centre of the battlefield.

... and a band of grots/gretchin sneak through more woods on the Ork right, approaching the Guard left flank guard.

Mid game.. two Guard squads hold the centre, one in the ruins. They have faced off against the orc slugga mob in on set of ruins, and a mob of shootas in the other. The Guard centre is supported by a squad of 3 autocannon, and another with 3 heavy bolters

Four Ork bikes advance around the OrK right to threaten the Guard left

Meanwhile the Ork sluggas charge across the last bit of open ground and into the ruins in which a Guard squad has taken refuge hoping to hold the centre. We had a feeling that this wouldn't end well for the Guard, as their 'First rank fire, second rank fire' order didn't inflict too many casualties.

The Orks were all over the Guard fellas.

Meanwhile there was a firefight going on next door, between two Guard squads, and the shootas. They were taking serious casualties

Vrroooommmm .. in came the bikes

The shootas decided to 'ave a go as well, so out they came.

Meanwhile the Grotz snuck up onto the top of some old entrenchments, and opened fire.. rats, Guard soldiers die even if they are being fired at by GrotBlasters

The Guard centre is reduced to a decimated squad and the company command, holding, just

The bikes roar into the Guard support gun line, 3 of the four die, and the remaining bike is stopped in its tracks.

The Guard centre is thinly held, but it has held, and victory goes to the Guard .. JUST!! Whew

So, that was out simple 6th edition game. We think we might take a time warp and go back to 4th edition. Only problem is that we need to find our rule books, everything is packed into boxes.. damn!!

Th game was  a bit of fun, although we are both still of the opinion that the rules are not that flash. That's our opinion. We are both frustrated by the rules creep that is a part of the GW business model. That's not a criticism of the business model, just the views of a pair of 'gaming curmudgeons who don't play this rules system often enough to cope with 3 a yearly rules overhaul. Hence we think that, as we generally only play against each other with 40K, we might go back in time to 4th edition and just stick there.

We'll see!!!