Belgium Spearhead

A game of 6mm Great War Spearhead as Dave M displays his new 6mm forces after selling off his 20mm plastics.

An early war encounter in Belgium as both French and German forces converged on a railway embankment.

Iraq and a hard place

Another Fistful of TOWS 3 game. This time visiting the Iran-Iraq war.

The Iraqis are to defend the terrain and prevent an Iranian armoured breakthrough.

There was no real point in trying to sit around in defense as the range of our guns were far less than the opposition Chieftains, and we were limited in our number of Saggers to two per APC.

The revolutionary guard didn't seem to be too eager to come forward, even an accidental shelling by their regular army allies didn't encourage them!

The opposition didn't notice me moving up my AA units till it was too late, and I managed to shoot down one of the helicopters. Surprisingly in the next turn they didn't withdraw the remaining two and both of those ended up shot down as well!

So despite being shot to pieces and only holding one defensive position I managed to scrape a win.
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Fistful of Golan

6mm battle between the Syrians and the Israelis on the Golan Heights based on the 1973 actions in the region.

The rules set is Fistful of TOWS 2, the minis supplied by Dave M who is also in charge of the mayhem.

Blitz Again

A 1940 scenario, with the familiar story of a German assault to try a split the French and British lines. Tony and Tel are the Germans, Jim is the defending British, with Mark as B.E.F. reinforcements and Matt as the French.

Played out at 6mm and using the hex based system as devised by Dave M. This was used extensively in the past, but long enough ago so that everybody had by now forgotten how to play. In these homebrew rules units are rarely lost forever, but it takes time to regroup and at 1/3rd losses no offensive actions can be taken till back up to strength.

From Furness Wargamers in Tanks

Baby Blitz

Didn't feel like gaming at the club so watched a 6mm high level game of the German Blitzkrieg into Northern France in 1940. Hexed based with two players on each side, homebrew rules that had previously been used for Eastern front games.

The French inexplicably left their fortifications on their right and centre. The position was doomed but the voluntary vacation allowed the Germans to push forward quicker and prevented the slow moving French reinforcements (including Char B's) from reaching a defensible position.

On the French Left it was stalemate as the Germans continued to bounce off the defences that were constantly being repopulated by the French. To try and break the stand off, the Germans decided to push some units through a minefield as, too quote the German commander 'it's quicker', the results were as predictable as they were explosive.
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Great Hex War

The homebrew hex based micro-scale rules, that are currently being bashed around by the historical gamers at the club, now take their turn at representing World War One.

The British Expeditionary force takes on the Germans in some Early War action. Each unit represented an Infantry Battalion or equivalent, with around 16 units in a division\force including cavalry and artillery. The sides consisted of 2 forces each.

The Germans edged the battle through casualties inflicted, but on the field the position was fairly static as the forces got pushed back and forth between defensive positions, with alternating periods of offence and defense.

I'm not sure that the decision to switch certain units, infantry in particular, to a 6 to hit, rather than the formally universal 5+ from the WW2 games, was a good idea. It makes things rather labourious to try damage the enemy sufficiently so that the free 'regroup' replacement per turn does not automatically bring them back to full strength. The fact that the 'regrouped' unit can be placed immediately in the front line and then moved freely makes the casulty taken redundant.

The lack of casualties also make difficult to change the tactical situation on the field, and apply localised pressure on positions. This might be appropriate for the static mid-war actions but not really for the earlier period.

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When doing photographs of Great War based games I tend to tweak them to a Sepia tone to give them a faux period feel; Here is a link to someone who's achieving a similar effect but by a radical different method. Great War Greyscale
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