Tuesday 6 December 2011

Napoleon at War

And we come to part 2 of the bumper post. This took place last night, and utilised some of my newest projects..I really should post one of my projects in it's own right.
 Well, good mate Derek and I planned a 28mm napoleonic game using Black Powder. Well, I wanted to see my Army in all it's glory. I now have 8 Battallions of Infantry, 2 cav, and an Artillery battery.
 The game set up, with my French columns on the left, and Dereks Allied forces on the right. I won the toss, and started by pushing one of my infantry brigades to close with the enemy, with the other in support. The command roll scored a double one! which in black powder means I go three moves, I was almost on top of the enemy already. The other brigade was brought up in support, and my Artillery fired on the enemy line to try and thin any flanking moves.
 One of my new painting Projects, lent to Derek for the game. Brunswickers. All Perry miniatures, with Bodys banners flags. As they are all black, with black belts these were very quick to paint up, and are a pleasing addition to my collection. I have the Avant Guard Jagers on the painting table at the moment, and plan to complete the Corps with the addition of the third line Batallion, and the Leib Battalion, with perhapse the Uhlans, Hussars and an Artillery battery added later. Derek decided to advance these troops into some wealled fields to his front,
 With his artillery supporting from a nearby hill.
 My columns came on in the same old style...and were shot to bits in the same old style! One unit managed to enter in to melee, but didn't manage to get an advantage, with the fight carrying over to the next round.
 The British and Portuguese look on as the supporting French Brigade forms line, realising the attack has faultered. Note the big gaps in the forward French brigade, as units are removed as casualties from withering British musketry, 3 rounds a minute!
 Brunswickers with supporting Horse gun look on as my Dragoons charge some Light infantry in the orchard. They are sent over to join the fight, wich tips the balance in the allies favour, and the Dragoons are lost, but the Lights are removed as well,as some consolation!
 The Dragoons before the Brunswickers upset thier day!
 A great game, and a great opportunity to see how we have come on with our napoleonic armies. I still have lots of painting to do. Apart from the Brunswick Jagers, I have to complete another 4 line units, a Hussar unit and Line lancers for the French. I am also thinking on purchasing 2 regiments of Curassier and a Horse battery to beef up the Cavalry arm, which at present merely has the Dragoons and a unit of Chasseur a cheval, which are also newly painted..but oddly I didn't take a pic of them. A well, next time mes amis!






Roman Civil War

A bit of a bumper catch up post today. A couple of Mondays ago, my good chum brian and I decided to have a set too with our Republican Romans, using WAB 2 rules, 1500 pts.
 The set up, with my legion on the left, and Brians on the right.
 Brian began by advancing his Roman Cavalry on his right, and supporting with his
Cretan Archers. on the left his Velites came on from the woods, to a hail of archery from my own Cretan Archers. Undaunted by this barrage, the velites charged up the hill and a desperate fight ensued. On the other flank, I pushed my swarm of 20 Velites to hold off the Cavalry.
 My Cretan archers were victorious but not to the point of decisively defeating Brians Velites, who passed thier morale check.
 Brians maniples advanced in the centre, Hastatii in white, Principes in Blue, Triarii in red.
Exactly the same system as myself. well it is a civil war!
My legion prepares for the fight, in chequer board formation, with my Triarii on one flank to support the Cretans on the hill.
My Velites throw vollies of javelins at thier opponent, but bring down only a few, and then are charged. I elect to fire and flee,a risky maneuvre, but with the Roman Cav starting thier move in rough ground, I figured this would slow them enough to make good my escape. It was not to be, however as my usual poor luck with the dice meant they were cought and destroyed.
 Brian looks for his next move, as his legion come on in echelon formation.
 I charge the nearest unit but things do not go well in the ensuing melee.
 Soon, all units are engaged in the centre, in a chaotic scrum, that leaves no room to utilise the special manipular rules to any great degree. The battle although going well at the start, begins to go against me.
 Just look at the pile of dead on my table edge, compared to Brian!
And so another chapter in Roman history is made, and another would be Emperor has his hands nailed to the Senate door! A great game, and good to get the Republicans out again.

Check out the next post for some of my latest models!











Friday 18 November 2011

A bit of ECW

Last Sunday, Dave Betts and I had a set too with our 28mm ECW. I fielded my Royalists, complete with a new Pike and Shotte unit, and Dave gave his Covenanters a first go.
 After a bit of Artillery (most of which either missed or missfired for me!) the Royalists advance, with Dragoons supporting my Cavalry on the left, and Firelocks making thier way through the town on the right.
 The Covenanter front line. Dave gave each company stand in the regiment a flag, which I thought quite effective.
 The Royalist Pike blocks. Note the new regiment with Yellow coats and an orange flag. All thanks to my friends donating thier freeby sprue from the Derby show, and my adding a Perry command element, and filling out with some Warlord Armoured Pike I had on the shelf, lovely!
 Some Royalist cavalry try to get the upper hand on my left flank,
 Only to be shot up by Daves Covenanter Dragoons. And very nicely painted they are too.
 Indeed the whole army is nicely all themed together, and looks great, as you see here.
Dave said he was using dead figures to flesh out units so as to get more units from his purchase. I think this is only partly true, as the nice vignettes they form in each unit give them character, and thus make the spacing valid. We both know how many men are left on a stand, and that is what counts.
 A view down my Royalist army lines. Note the Kings Lifeguard of Foote, with the red flag with large St George cross on it. I had expanded thier musketeer units to have a full 12 figures each as opposed to 10, and mighty good it now looks in all it's splendour.
 I fielded 5 P&S units on the day, one Dragoon unit, a Firelock, 4 Cavalry , the Gentlemen Pensioners, 2 Culverins and 2 Sakers. Dave had 4 P&S units, a unit entirely comprising shot, Dragoons, and 2 units of lancers, and 2 light guns and a Frame gun.
 Dave slowly whittled my units down as they advanced. The only real success I had was on the right flank where my Firelock company shot up one of the Scots pike and Shot units from the Town, the rest of it was a poor showing. However a good game, and we must try to get them out once more.may be next time using black powder, and MORE figures!








Tuesday 8 November 2011

Challenger Challenge FoF Scenario

Well, I have had some new Challenger 2's and T72's witing patiently for a game, so I re based my Arab Infantry, and had a game....
 Somewhere in Iraq, a town is defended by a platoon of Iraqi Infantry, and 6 T72BM's . British battlegroup, 3 Challenger 2's and 2 Warrior IFV's with 6 Infantry a piece are tasked with capturing the Town.
Martyn sets up the Iraquis in defence,
 barry advances the British armour, The Iraquis fire a salvo of tank shot, and damage the centre Challenger ( note black marker) this is a maneuvre damage, and means the tank only goes half speed...however the return fire is much more devestating.
 2 Iraqi tanks burn in the town, and a third tries to move to a position for firing...it takes a shot, and hits a Worrior, killing one of the Infantry inside. the remainder bail out, and dash for cover in a nearby ruined building. martyn elects to lay down heavy fire from his infantry on this group, and inflicts a casualty and serious wound
 Barry responds by firing at the T72 causing the problem, but merely immobilises it. The infantry return sporadic fire, to little effect. At this point a sand storm flares up, courtesy of one of the Fog of War cards, reducing effective range to 6 inches. but as all combat is at long range this is of little consequence.
 The British elect to halt and give fire from range to neutralize the threat, taking advantage of thier superior armour and guns.
 The long range duel that ensues does indeed reduce the Iraqi tank force, but Barry's infantry try to keep back using the 30mm cannon and GPMG on the Warrior to try and take out well concealed Iraqi infantry,rather than going in and taking the objective.
 One of the Challengers in close up.
 Warriors and supporting Infantry.
 After a massive bombardment, one of the houses catches fire, causing the occupants to evacuate. The iraqis get a FOW card that allows one unit to utilise excellent cover. martyn elects to give this to his forward T72, thus making it a difficult target, with an extra D10 of defence, and it continues trying to hammer at the Challengers. Thier modern armour however saves the day for Barry, and no casualties are made. The infantry in the derelict however, are having a bad day, with wounded and dead making the fire team all but ineffective. With half his Infantry assault troops out of the game, it was probably prudent for barry not to force the decision.
So he continues firing in to the town untill the end of the club night. A thoroughly enjoyable game...I must get more T72's! And probably more Warriors too!









Wednesday 2 November 2011

Technicals


They didn't manage to get on to the game, but as I have just completed them I took some action pics! my new Muj Technicals from Britannia...luvvly!

Force on Force..British Contracting Trouble

I have been busy at work, again, but thankfully I have had time to do a bit of modelling, and go down the club for some Gaming. my latest is with Force on Force, the great rules from Osprey/Ambush Alley. A variation on the Contracting Trouble scenario, with my British Vs Taliban.  Fire team 11C corporal with SA80, GPMG gunner, 2 SA80 riflemen. 11D, NCO with a Minimi gunner, UGL SA80, and 2 SA80 riflemen, 11B nco with SA80, Minimi gunner and 2 SA80 riflemen, one with an AT4 slung on shoulder. All these minis are Britannia, available from Grubby Tanks. Opposing them were various Taliban and foreign Jihadists, with a mixture of AK47, RPD and a Dhsk team.
The players are shown the ground, and thier mission..to rescue to hapless Civilian contractors who have wondered in to the middle of Taliban held territory and broken down.
11C and 11B fire team commanders advance thier troops into the battle space. 11B opts to take position on a rooftop, and neutralize an enemy hotspot. However, on the 3 story roof opposite, the Dhsk team opens up on them, wounding one, and supressing them behind the parapet wall.
11C moves forward, and comes under AK and RPG fire, but the Muj get some mediochre rolls, and the Brits roll well, so the squad move further in to town.
11D move on the other flank (near the skip on top right of picture) the hapless contractors cower as a group of muj move in to thier area. A fire fight ensues when 11D pops his head round the side of the skip...watch those civvies, I shout....Naah, I cant see them behind thier van, says Steve, 11D commander!
Steve (standing) 11D commander, and Mike ,Taliban commander watch as the fire fight produced a fog of war card.....UAV ! Steve W 11C Commander opts to have it circle the area, so as to limit insurgent movement.
11C move up, at least someone has thier eye on the objective!
but for every good deed, some one is lurking with an RPD to make you regret it!
Fire fight ensues, lightly wounding one of the Brits, but also produces another FOW card...BARRICADE....Mike can erect a barricade on a street not traversed by the Brits, and a random number of insergents lie in wait behind it.
All this while, the town rings to the unmistakeable bark of the Dhsk, that by now has been making mincemeat of poor 11B, 1 dead and 2 seriously wounded, the third in a quandary to return fire, or render assistance to his stricken comrades. During this exchange another FOW card is played, a secret card for the Insurgents. A vehicle is ominously placed on the board. Unbenownst to the Brits, this is a VBIED, and will move toward the nearest enemy unit every turn, unless a quality check is made to ID the threat. It drives over to 11D, and as they fail to ID it, blows them to smithereens..at this point Steve W decides to get some payback, and launches a Hellfire from the UAV, with some poor results.....the Brits are not doing too well!, Steve W's 11C team eventually get in to the compound with the Contractors, and are in enfilade to the barricaders..who he then proceeds to wipe out. leaving him able to escort the civvies off board. But a phirric victory indeed!





Sunday 9 October 2011

Napoleonic Action at El Perez

 Today was the club all day Sunday meeting. And we had a combat debut with our 28mm Napoleonic collections. Niel and I supplied French, whilst Derek came with British and Portuguese.
 Using Black Powder rules from Warlord Games, we thought to give the El Perez scenario in the book a try. Derek was one or two units short, but had a few more guns, and the French were one Infantry unit short, and not the correct Cavalry units, but we thought to try as we were not far off the units required in the book.
The British form line, as one column attempts to escape off board. For those who do not have Black powder, I better explain. This is a fictional battle, set in the part of the peninsular war where Britain and allies were trying to evade the French and make thier way to the Lines of the Torres Vedras in Portugal. Typified by delaying actions and rearguard skirmishes, this game is won by the British if they manage to get half thier force off thier baseline. The French win if they stop them, of course!
The French in Attack column, Voltigeur to the front march out from El Perez in persuit of the British.
Not all the Brigades get good Orders rolls, and some wind thier way through the maze of streets in Column of march.
British Cavalry and Horse Artilery prepare to cover the withdrawal.
French Cavalry charges out to meet them. Some poor dice rolls from my subordinate General, and the first French Dragoon regiment are destroyed. Artillery fire disrupts the Carabiniers behind, and the Cavalry Brigade is Broken, and Flees the field. Not a good start!
Thankfully for the French, Derek fluffs his Orders roll and the British Cavalry do not move in his next turn.
Portuguese and British Regiments make a bee line for the Portuguese border and Safety.
Niel sets up his Brigade in a stone walled field to cover the bridge.
Out come the French, or at least one brigade, the other two fluff thier orders again.
The french columns only recieve desultry fire from the brits, and smash in to the thin red line, causing two regiments to take break tests, which they fail and are removed. The remnants are now a broken Brigade, and fall back in dissarray.
Barry finaly gets some luck and moves the Artillery forward, Along with a brigade.
Unfortunately it is too late, as the British and Portuguese have now managed to get enough troops over thier baseline to win.


Just as the French were getting thier act together too. C'est la Guerre!
 Great game and nice to play with our new 28's, on a big table ( 6ft x 10ft) We need more miniatures, it was agreed, and we will try another game in January, may be a set piece battle rather than a scenario.