Tuesday 29 September 2015

Squeeze

Fistful of TOWs in an early WW2 setting. French trying to hold a river crossing from a German assault, waiting for assistance from the British who are finishing off their tea.

The Germans make swift advance down the table but the German off table artillery suffer loses from counterbattery fire, losing 2 of its three elements.

The British reinforcements turn up to the Germans rear on the right, first a couple of Recce units but soon followed by some proper armour in the shape of A10 and A13s. A French force of 6 CharBis appear on the Germans left flank, as more British armour pours in.

Just in time, the Germans get some reinforcements in the form of some self-propelled guns.

The German attack into the village becomes more frenzied with the slow crawling approach of the CharBis worrying them somewhat.

Finally, the French battalion breaks giving the Germans victory.

(This has been retroactively published a few years after the event based on an old draft, hence no images and scant details)

Sunday 5 July 2015

10 Year Apocalypse


It was the ten year anniversary, on the 3rd July, of the launch of the browser game Urban Dead, and to mark this special occasion the games owner \ designer, Kevan, has sent out a survey for players to fill in. Which was not quite what I was expecting for this landmark occasion.

 Given that the game has not had any significant development in the last five years it's a bit of a surprise that the survey strongly hints at a new wave of features, and that he's finally asking players for feedback\ideas (other than the game wiki suggestions pages, which was little more than player squabbling). But I do feel that this is 3 to 5 years too late to have a major affect.

Saturday 20 June 2015

Phalanx 2015

Made the annual pilgrimage down to St Helens for the Phalanx wargames show.

Furness Wargamers wasn't putting on a game this year so it was just a case of browsing around.

Met up with Matt, Jim and Graeme down there with a surprise appearance by Alan.

Not gone overboard with the purchases, for my FIW stuff I bought a 28mm blockhouse from 4Ground, and a pack of 6 settler minis from Warlord Games. I didn't see any one stocking Galloping Major stuff else I might have bought a bit more.

I managed to obtain a couple of punch boards for Heroes of Normandie, one of support vehicles for both sides, and the Wittman Tigers board.


Tuesday 16 June 2015

End is Nigh


The final game of the zombie campaign, as all the survivors make up their differences and try and hang on in the town after encirclement by the hordes.

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Dutch Courage

Another trial of the increasingly refined Waterloo Rules. A French assault on a polyglot force of Dutch, Belgians and Brunswickers.

Matt and Tel lead the French, Tony and Jim the argumentative allies.

The first assaults from the French were repulsed with casulties. A more effective tactic for the French was to stand off and fire in supported line at the defenders. With the assistance of the Artillery the defenders were chipped away.

 Finally a breakthrough for the French on the right as a renewed assault takes the rightmost buildings, threatening the troops defending between the built-up areas. With French cavalry cming round the side the Allies were forces to adjust their positions.

The French lancers initially pushed the Brunswickers back, but numbers told in the next combat round and the situation was reversed, with the Brunswickers then following up and completely routing the Lancers, but at the cost of riding off the table in mad pursuit.

Saturday 18 April 2015

Battle of Presque Isle

It was time for this years St Georges Day (or thereabouts) game. This time its Naval as the Royal Navy take on the US on Lake Erie in the War of 1812. The British objective is to destroy the two currently unarmed American warships, the Lawrence and the Niagara, at anchor near Presque Isle. Both had been unladen of weaponry to enable them to cross the shallows to entry the lake.

Game is being played with Martin's Naval Rules for 1812, which he's been refining for the last couple of years.


Tuesday 24 February 2015

Trebica

Carthage vs Rome, in a famous battle, refought with the Impetus rules, and organised by Matt who was able to give command of the Romans to people who had never heard of the battle before.


The Romans had three separate commands, two flanks and an extremely strong centre vs the Carthaginian 'two'. Tel's commanding Hastubal on the left, while Tony was an apparently indecisive Hannibal on the right.



It was then that the trap was sprung with the third Carthage command popping out of the woods and hitting the Romans in the flank and rear.





Hastubal gets trapped in a stand off on the flank, but the damage to the Roman right had already been done, The Roman left is gone completely, and only the surrounded centre holds on,
 ¶

Sunday 22 February 2015

Heroes of Normandie


A boring day so decided to play around with my new boardgame, 'Heroes of Normandie' from Devil Pig Games. The spelling is correct as it's of French origin. The game is squad level WW2 based, with the inclusion of 'cinematic characters' (the titular heroes), which originally put me off the game when it was on Kickstarter.

Purchased while up in Keswick, it was the weight of the box that attracted me, as it nearly strained my arm when I tried to single handedly take it from the top shelf! This compared favourably to a number of more expensive big box games in the same section of the shop, which were a lot lighter and rattled quite a bit!

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Western Backshot

Dave M gets to display his newly complete Western figures, in this four sided skirmish using rules downloaded from the web and some rather smart card buildings.

Given the lush vegetation the setting is obviously not the wilds of Arizona, more likely in one of the northern states. This little town is so peaceful they don't even need an undertaker (or privies).

Tuesday 3 February 2015

Sharpe's 'Sharp Practice' Practice

Matt breaks out his skirmish troops from his Napoleonic forces again, but this time to play a rule set that he's just bought, 'Sharp Practice' by Too Fat Lardies, rather than his home-brewed ones. It's a character driven set of rules, with the 'Big Men' being all important in managing the troops.

From Furness Wargamers in Shakos

Tel, Dave M and Jim are the Honourable French. Keiron, Tony and S.O.Else, the Perfidious Rosbifs. A 'Big Man' each, plus one extra to command the forces, Kieron and Dave M doubling up respectively.

With only Matt having the rules, and himself having never played them, he took on the role of referee\rules lawyer. A simple scenario, capture and hold the four buildings on the table, with those holding the most winning.

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Slightly Familiar Sci Fi

Same skirmish rules as last week but updated by their author, Jim, to a Sci Fi setting, with Keiron supplying a couple of squads of Space Marines and Tau from his 40K collection. Matt and Keiron each took charge of a section of Tau, Tel commanded the section of Marines and accompanying big stompy thing. Jim acted as the referee due to his intimate knowledge of the rules.

Similar terrain to last week with clumps of vegetation breaking up line of sight, plenty of rough ground providing cover, and a river section on one side of the table.This turned out to be Matt's hidey hole, from which he never moved all game.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Modern War - Take 2

Jim brought in some figures and the set of rules he wrote years ago, 'Hell by Daylight'. A small encounter between two unnamed forces in Africa, with 'modern' meaning in the last 50 years or so.

Tony's squad and APC are trying to meet up with Tel's squad, currently defending a broken down Tank. The crew of which is desperately trying to get the engine running again, but given their 'green' status it was not going to be easy.


Tuesday 13 January 2015

Wavre

The Battle of Wavre, quite a significant battles of the Napoleonic era. This holding action by the Prussians helped the main body of Bluchers army escape and reach a rather more well known battle, taking place just to the west, at Waterloo. It also denied Napoleon the use of some much needed troops, in the form of the 3 corps under the command of Marshal Grouchy.


The Waterloo rules are once more undergoing refinement, but this time in 15mm, with the figures supplied by Dave M. Prussians commanded by Matt and Tel, French by Tony and Dave M.