Italian wars ...

Some random photos form a game Adrian and I fought a couple of weeks ago... a battle from the Italian Wars (1852 ish?? .. Garibaldi against the Neopolitans). The game was fought using our usual Volley and Bayonet rules, and Adrian's immaculate 15mm armies. The buildings are some of Adrian's superb scratch built 15mm Italian towns.

The game went right down to the wire. There was one strength point in it, Garibaldi winning on the very last turn. This is the sort of game that makes the hobby worth while.. nail biting, and so much fun!!!!

Slow start to the summer painting and 'gaming fest

Working in a school tends to mean that there's too little time for painting and 'gaming in term time, but correspondingly a lot more time over the summer especially, when the long break between years occurs. This summer has seen quite a late start to the summer of hobby stuff, but here is a start.

In those occasional moments over the past month of so I've been pottering away at painting and basing a box of 6mm figures I bought in December 2014.. sufficient Irregular Miniatures WW1 Russians to complete my mandatory two divisions (a corps). I'm not there yet, but here is the latest update: four regiments completed so far (the photo shows five because I'd completed a regiment several years ago).

The five regiments so far

A wee closeup of  a regimental command stand

There are another three regiments (plus some cavalry) to go. I'm hoping to have these ready for the forthcoming eastern front scenario book that Shawn and Robert hope to have out soon. Of course I think I may need some Austro-Hungarians, and some Turks, to match up against these guys in addition the Germans already completed.

'Germany Ascendant'

I recently finished reading the volume 'Germany Ascendant The Eastern Front 1915'  (ISBN 978 4728 0795 3, first published 2015) by Prit Buttar.

The eastern front has long been a source of fascination for me, perhaps because I had that classically anglo centric mentality that suggested that anything western front was awful and anything anywhere else in the first world war was somehow less than awful.

Regardless of the reasons, it has until recently been difficult to find material on the battles and campaigns that were waged through Galicia (modern day Poland), the Baltic states and Russia. I read Norman Stones' excellent book several years ago, but there seemed to be little else available.

This book is the second by Buttar on the eastern front (his first, 'Collision of Empires' is sitting in my TBR pile as I write) and provides an excellent overview of the campaigns and battles of 1915, offering both political and military perspectives on the events of that year.

Buttar has drawn on  a wide range of secondary sources from German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian writers and so presents a balanced view of activity from all three perspectives. My only criticism is that there appears to be a lack of reference to primary sources in the work. This may of course be entirely due to a lack of surviving material and so shouldn't be read as suggesting anything less than rigorous historiography on Buttar's part.

Regardless, this is  avery readable account of a not so well known aspect of the first world war and I recommend it to readers.

A crazy idea .. making use of an interesting 'toy'

Spotted this tiny Matchbox toy plane in the supermarket a few weeks ago. It just looked delightfully 'ork'ish' and an ideal candidate for a flyer for a HotT army.

So here it is.. after a little modification to the underbelly so that it could be mounted on a flyer stand, and sporting it's ork'ish paint scheme .. well more rusting bare metal than paint per se. It just needs mounting on its HotT base and .. job done.

There is only one small problem with the plan: I don't have an orc army.  Still, I've never let that stop me in the past.

Heroics Ros 1914 Russian artillery

I bought the figures to finish the 1914 Russian army for 1914/15 this time last year (the receipt is till in the box). I've been pretty slack on the painting front these past few months .. just far too much work on. However I managed to get a regiment of Russian 76mm guns finished today. They are quite nice (as always with the Heroics & Ros models).

Final day of College 'gaming for the year

Final day of 'gaming for the College boys today, and we ha a couple of HotT games and several Crossfire games going on. In the HotT game I played my Lost Worlds army against Henry's Greeblies army.

The Crossfire games saw two Briisht para platoons trying  to hold off a local German counter-attack on the  morning of 6 December 1944, and a British Royal Marine Commando company trying to attack and blow up a secret radar installation.

It was all damned decent fun. I was rather flattered that the boys had chipped in and bought me an Airfix kit of a Sherman Crab tank (since they'd found mines so useful in the Crossfire games) as a way of saying thanks for the year.

Great bunch of boys!!! Next year, we'll run some tournaments in HotT and Crossfire. I'll spot a few prizes for them. They'll all be back next year .. whoop whoop!!!

Action in the Peninsula!!!

It has been a while since we've played Volley and Bayonet with the 25mm figures, so with the opportunity to play a game last Thursday, Adrian and I took the opportunity. A small Spanish outpost is hoping to hold out against a determined French advance, hoping beyond hope that the British army can come to their rescue in time.

Initial deployment, with the Spanish occupying the town sector, and the French deployed on the right of the photo.

The action developed rapidly, with the French, aware of the impending arrival of British reinforcements, advancing in their attempts to capture the town from the Spanish.

The French advance rapidly to try to force the Spanish from the town. They advance to try to push the Spanish from the heights.

Initial French attacks are designed to remove the supports for the troops occupying the town.

The attack on the heights

The Spanish initially stand firm on the heights. A French division (seen at the top of the photo) has marched around the flank and into the rear of the Spanish division defending the heights

 The attack goes in in the centre. The French cavalry attack their Spanish counterparts.

Fierce cavalry melee

Vicious assaults on the hights

The Spanish division supporting the troops in the town is pushed back with heavy casualties.

The Spanish cavalry fares little better

However the British arrive

With some cavalry to try to defend the Anglo Spanish left

The Scots division arrives and immediately threatens the flank of the French division that has marched into the Spanish rear

 The Scots certainly know haw to 'give 'em the cold steel' and their assaults drive an entire French division from the field

The Scots reorganise after their successful assault on the French division

French pressure on the heights drives the Spanish away

The British cavalry holds up the flank 

And British infantry advance to regain the supporting positions for the town

 The British reinforcements arrive in time to re-establish a defensive line around the town.

The French advance has been blunted by the smaller Anglo-Spanish force. The French have failed to either cause enough casualties or take the town.

The day remains with the Anglo Spanish alliance. Despite their numerical superiority the French have not done enough to claim a victory.

This seemed to be a unbalanced game but it was enormous fun, and when the game was put into perspective with the relative strengths of the forces Adrian performed really well with the smaller Anglo Spanish force. And we had a huge amount of fun.