Epic Armageddon

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'

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

6mm Goodness!!!

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...

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'

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??

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???

Just thought this Larry Leadhead was priceless..