Nurgle Wipeout

Another Campoon map turn, and with Martin absent the Nurgles headed for a wipeout as all three of his 'friendly' neighbours ploughed into them.

Mark has withdrawn to his island in preparation of him being missing the next few weeks. His position on the mainland was pretty much untenable now.

Paul seems to think he in a good position but his capital is vulnerable to a quick march from Matt. Even I could get there unmolested but I don't have the strength to take it so I have been harrasing Dave's borderland from my new base. If Matt goes into Paul's territory I'll might go raiding there instead.
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Martian Malarky

Those pesky martians are at it again, as we play another test of Paul's combat system, this time on a larger board.

An initial Martian landing force verses some Armoured Cars and fixed gun positions.

From Furness Wargamers

A strange object lands in the green and pleasant land.



Mobile (for turn of the 20th Century) troops are sent to investigate as artillery digs in 'a safe distance' away. The object opens up and disgorges a number of strange machines.



The cars pay an heavy price as the Martians destroy everything in their path (including hostile trees and churches). But what they don't spot till too late is a sneaky detachment of cars circling behind.

The sneak attack pays off and the Martian forward base is destroyed even as the cars turn to molten slag.



With their Command Post destroyed the Martians could not win, but they could earn a draw by destroying the British command post which was protected by the artillery. This the Martians did quite easily using their superior weaponry.
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Dutch Phalanx

Phalanx, the North-west premier wargames show was once again held at St Helens. Not too bad a drive, wet in places but still made good time. Did have to drive around St Helens a bit to try and find the route to the Centre. It didn't seem as well signposted as past years.

Seemed a bit quieter than last time, with less traders and more room for the demo games. There also didn't seem to be any boardgame traders other than the second-handers. The bring and Buy was also a bit thin of items, only a couple of things perking my interest.

From Phalanx

Martin was demoing his Anglo-Dutch Naval rules, doing his largest battle to date (Goodwin Sands\Dover) and aided and abetted by Graeme, who had managed to purchase some more Uncharted Seas stuff, despite its scarcity, in his continuing quest to defeat Colin's Dwarf Fleet.



A couple of demos caught my eye, a Sudan fight, and a very impressive Dresden demo.



Didn't purchase much myself, just some 15mm Abyssinian Riflemen from Irregular Miniatures to help bulk up my army and a copy of the latest Battlegames magazine. So not as eventful as past years but still a decent way to waste a few hours on a Saturday.
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Martian Meltdown

No Campoon this week so just a quick play test of some ancient rules downloaded by Paul. These are quite complex by Paul's usual standards as they spanned over two A4 pages rather than the one sided rules he's more familiar with!

An hex based system with simple army lists and a quick play mentality, the idea behind the test being to find a set that was simple and quick for use in future campaigns, the lack of expertise in Warhammer Ancients currently being a bit of a dampener in the current Campoon, as people avoid combat or use the table resolution mechanism instead.

From Furness Wargamers

A simple battle, Romans vs Barbarians\Misunderstood Culture. Four players taking half a sides forces each. Matt the Romanophile and Dave S vs Me and Paul the Geordie Barbarian.



With only one set of rules it was mostly taught verbal, and a few mistakes were made, but they were a quick set to pick up and everyone seemed to enjoy it.



The Romans had stronger forces than the Baa-Baas and despite manging to hold my flank we were eventually overwhelmed.

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After that it was time to test some more rules, this time Paul's home brewed 'War of the Worlds' campaign rules. Based on one of the recent movies (not the Tom Cruise bore fest.) it has more of a World War One feel about it - War Machines vs Tanks and Armoured Cars.



Very much a game in development, the campaign element involves transport between small battle boards and the protection of factory elements as both sides try to gain the upper hand. The Martians by building more war machines, the Brits by mass producing tanks and guns.

Only four battle maps involved this time but I believed that its planned for a much larger campaign map.



The Brits won the first battle vs Martian scouts, mostly due to the help from the Navy, but in the second battle the tables were turned as proper War Machines started coming off the production lines.



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Three Way Warriors

The big three way Campoon battle was the main event this week. Martin was turning up late so his forces were to appear on a random flank if he manged to turn up in time. Due to the size of the armies involved the battle was fought at half points. Mark's and Paul's forces being about equal, and Martin's at about half the others strength.

Strangely enough the night started off with a bit of a dungeon crawl, as the key to the door to the cellar had snapped a tooth forcing an expedition thru perilous secret passages in stygian darkness, our only light coming from magic stones of glimmer (mobile phones), The one light switch for the cellar being on the other side of the locked door. Despite the dodgy key I somehow managed to unlock it from the other side making life a bit easier for all the players queuing for terrain.

With the terrain now available the field for the epic battle was set with Mark surprisingly placing his piece of high ground on Paul's side of the table giving him the advantage of an almost complete ridge to deploy on.

From Campoon 3

Mark's forces also an early set back when a series of bad roles caused his cavalry to retreat from skirmishers and caused a domino effect of failed morale checks amongst his troops. Paul stayed on his ridge and patiently waited for his opponents to recover.

At this point Martin turned up and prepares his forces, nominally allied to Paul's, on the flank. Due to the starting position it would take a few turns for his force to get into a position to attack anyone. His allegiance remained undeclared but his move was occurring simultaneously with Paul's.



So the three way battle is concentrated around the one hill, after Mark sacrifices his leader to pin Paul's main force. The Nurgles strike (as anticipated) from behind trapping Paul's forces and eventually forcing the survivors off the table.

So some how, thanks mostly to Martin's nurgling, Marks managed to get the 'victory'

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Also managed to fit in a game of Munchkin, which I just managed to squeak the win after everyone else failed to convert when at level 9. Commendation must go to Baldy who managed the most impressive Munchkin I've seen in a long time, even surpassing Martin's effort in last months game.

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Winging It

Year 5 pre-season and first two turns played out, with the prospect of a three way pitched battle next week!

From Campoon 3

A siege started at the other end of the continent between Paul and Mark, with a bit of Martin's Nurgle thrown in. After a few failed storming attempts by the joint Paul-Martin forces, Mark decided to do the slightly bizarre thing of torching his own city! leaving the three forces in a smokey field ready for the big fight.

I'm taking this year a bit passively by doing a bit of exploring by ship to the harder to get parts surrounded by what remains of Jim's now dormant empire.

Got a bit of fortune in the previous winter phase as I rolled 'bad' and got the results that non of my razed villages recover. My buffer zone with Dave S remains intact!

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After the quick map moves a small game of Wings of War was played. Just a straight four player dogfight. Allied Sopwith Camel and Nieuport 17 vs Albatros DVa and a Fokker DVII. No 'bangs' in the deck and using altitude rules. Players could select any plane from the single seater mini's, Matt the Camel, Paul the Albatros, Me the DVII, and first time player Martin the Nieuport.

The Albatros hung back for awhile as the Camel and Fokker engaged each other, both inflicting damage. The Nieuport spent its time climbing up an altitude level. Eventually the Albatros came in and gained a tailing advantage, only for his guns to jam.

From Furness Wargamers

The Camel was the first to go down, but unfortunately in trailing the Camel the Albatros left itself vulnerable to the Nieuport, which managed to shoot it down after inflicting nine damage in a close up shot.

With both the Nieuport and DVII badly damaged we agreed to break off the engagement and claim our separate kills.
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