Thawgrave Castle

Frostgrave. but in a not-so-frosty location. Bands of adventurers have been told about the treasure/princess/etc that needs liberating/rescuing from a castle and surrounding town that has fallen into the hands of some bad people. That's 'bad' as compared to the incoming wizards, who were mostly necromancers. 

(This post was delayed from February)

Frontier Bash

Back to the North-West Frontier and some modified The Men Who Would Be Kings, as Matt's British get some reinforcements in the form of Ben's Gurkhas.

Rapid Fire Gold Rush

A Tanks Only game of Rapid Fire loosely based upon everybody's favorite silly WW2 bank heist movie, Kelly's Heroes.

Britsh, German, Italian, and American are trying to loot some gold from a bank in the village. It is defended by some French, who don't seem keen on being friends with any of the approaching vehicles.

Bolt Action - Off the Beach

A Trial Game of modified Bolt Action in the Pacific.

Keiron and Matt are planning a 'Big Game' of an American 'Island Hop' for later in the year.

This game was for testing stage\wave 2 - moving off the beach.

The right flank.

Rules have been changed to speed up the dice draw to make it more of a classic IGOUGO. The way it was implemented seemed to favour the defenders in their ambush positions.

Heading off the beach

Rather than advance straight ahead the cover of the trees on either side was utilised to get closer to the bunkers (being represented by the trenches - they were covered bunkers). The mortars also laid down some smoke for the first few turns.

Bogged down in the middle

Nothing much happened in the middle all game. There was a success on the left flank as a drawn-out duel between light tanks helped the Americans move up to the first defensive line and engage with the rearmost Japanese defenses.

Americans take the bunker (briefly)

The mortars cleared the middle of the bunkers holding up the advance on the right, but the rightmost had to be stormed to clear it out. This was successful but a return 'Banzai' charge, after some artillery to soften it up, soon cleared it out.

Tank loses the gunnery duel.

The tank had moved out of its 'hull down' position to try and help out but got taken out by a three-inch gun. This was the last of the effective units on this part of the wave. Both sides depleted ready for the next wave of incoming Americans.

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Tripod Terror

Time to wheel out the Martians for a couple of games of Tripods and Triplanes at the club as I teach the rules to some first-time players.

Mark the Martian versus Matt and Jim the Aviators.

Battlegroup Torbruk

A game of Battlegroup Tobruk

The first time most of us have played a game from this rules family.
British vs Italians, but with the British constrained in the amount of ammo they had to wrestle the objective off the initially weak Italians.

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The most effective anti-tank weapon proved to be the artillery which was brought up from their original positions on the ridge. The Italian tankettes did provide some opposition, as did their heavier armour on the opposing ridge line. concentrating their fire on the artillery positions prior to their destruction as the British Matildas moved slowly forward.

The British were rapidly running out of ammo but managed to suppress all the remaining Italian armour, so effectively they would (with decent dice rolling) get a free turn to move closer, and greatly improving their chances in what would have been a final round of fire. The game got called prior to this as the Italians conceded.

The infantry didn't get to play much of a roll in this game, with only the Italian unit holding the objective being active.

The game was quick paced despite being a bit table heavy, with favourable comparisons being made by the participants to both Bolt Action and Rapid Fire.
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Heroes on the Table

A couple of games of Heroes of Normandie, only the second time it has been played at the club.

I pre-selected two 200 point forces of Americans and Germans, and Dave M and Mark set about wandering the bocage.

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Despite both being new to the system they picked up the rules quickly and I was surprised how quickly the first game ended given that 200pts is a decent size for a game.

The Germans were given a more 'veteran' feel; more mobile, plenty of MG's, tanks busters and a sniper. The Americans had better armour (if you could describe an M8 Greyhound as armour), a mortar for indirect fire, and more troops, plus Clint as a Hero.

Mortar fire was decisive in the first game, with three consecutive rounds landing without scatter. Mark also learnt that light woods, while better than no cover, is no match for a hedge as he came out worse in a firefight. So a decisive victory for the Americans.

Dave M kept forgetting to activate Clint, with his autonomous hero action. Mark forgot to use his sniper as well and didn't use his 'veteran' rerolls effectively.

The second game, with adjusted board layout, was much closer. The Germans used their transports to capture the Victory Point locations early in the game. The Americans caused more damage to the Germans and used their armour to take out the transports, the Germans just failing to take out the armour with a panzerfaust that scraped the paintwork. The Mortar was nowhere near as accurate this time.

On the final turn, I tried to encourage Dave M to do or die with Clint to capture the middle Victory Point location. He had the opportunity to soften the target up with suppressive fire from either his 50cal or vehicle MG but chose to fire for effect with no luck. So Clint heroicly defended his shrubbery instead.

The Germans clung on for victory, the additional location counteracting the points for lost troops.
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In the Jungle

Another game of Bolt Action in the Jungle. As a force of Australians tries to hang on to a small village and the nearby ridgeline as the Japanese advance upon it.

Mark is the Australians, Keiron and Tel the Japanese. Matt is the umpire.

Zombies In Her Majesty's Countryside.

A multiplayer game of In Her Majesty's Name played on a larger than normal sized table.

British ( Extraordinary Company ), Prussian ( Society of Thule ) and Chinese ( Black Dragon Tong ) are searching the countryside trying to find something. What that something is no one exactly knows at the start.

Poison Spitting Elephants Rampant

A game of Dragon Rampant, and the first appearance for my still not completely finished 'Dank Elves' - so-called as they are a cliched version of Dark Elves if that is at all possible. Made up from a box of Oathmark Elves, with Frostgrave Cultists and some converted Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors as the elves subservient human minions.

Jim has a combined 48 pt force of what seemed to be Pirates assisted by poison-belching elephants.

 Mark (fielding his necro army) and me 24 pts each.

Ghost Ziggurat

A big table game of Ghost Archipelago, as a number of different parties try to grab the loot and the main prize in particular, which is located on top of a mysterious Ziggurat.

Cruel Seas

Report from the Tuesday night game at Furness Wargamers. A game of Cruel Seas from Warlord Games, with Matt providing the Flotillas and acting as GM. The game is new to all the players, who are trying to get their sea legs in this first ever play.

A German Tanker is moored near the coast overnight, protected by a Flakship. But they were not to get much sleep as the Royal Navy attacks with 4 Vosper MTBs (commanded by Keiron) along with a couple of Fairmiles (Ben) for support.

Very British Bridge

Something a bit different as Ben brought out his 1930's 'Very British Civil War' figures and rules which were modified from the VSF 'In Her Majesties Name'. In the VBCW setting, the country has gone to pot after the non-abdication of King Edward VIII.

A convoy of BUF vehicles are attempting to cross a bridge, the checkpoint being manned by some Bobbies, who have also called in help from some Home Defence Volunteers. To make things less one-sided there are also various units of communists lying in ambush.

New Guinea Guinea Pigs

 A game of Bolt Action, arranged by Kieron And Matt and the first outing for their Pacific forces.
Set in New Guinea, Japanese vs Australians, a simple capture the building scenario.
The Australians have a Matilda while the Japanese have a couple of tank shaped vehicles.

Things were quite slow moving given the size of the forces, so there is some ongoing discussing as to how to speed the system up.
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Star Wars Armada

A game of Star Wars Armada, as arranged by Keiron.

Two apparently evenly matched forces despite the Imperials having a size advantage.

Ghost Archipelago

A four-way tussle in this first game of Ghost Archipelago at the club.
Figures and the majority of the terrain supplied by Matt.

A number of boats existed for those who wished to go cruising.

Others started deep inland. (Each player started at a separate corner.

Certain lanes existed for some long-range magical sniping.

Snapping Turtles and betrayals abound as everybody tried to run with the loot to the 'safety' of the beach.

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Wings of 100 Years

To celebrate 100 years of the RAF, founded on April Fools Day 1918, I organised a couple of games of Wings of War.

4 a side, with one plane each. Getting the players to choose their own planes was probably a bad idea as ended up with a mixed bag of performance types and many planes the RAF would never have flown!.

Zombie

The post-apocalyptic 'Even Death May Die' rules make another outing. Three human factions clash while the zombies take advantage for a quick snack. Game organised by Dave M. Tel plays the defenders of the town while Matt tries to recover some stolen loot taken by Mark.

Indian Kings

Back to Maratha India in the Napoleonic era, but using 'The Men Who Would Be Kings' rules.

A little early for the ruleset but still within the playable range. The club has already used these rules in a series of games organised by Dave M, but set in the Great War at the other end of the gameable range.

Steaming Again

Another trial of Matt's Steampunk Naval game at the club, based on the in-house DTS system.

Once more it's the Americans vs the Japanese, using Dystopian Wars models. Three small squadrons on each side, starting a couple of moves outside maximum artillery range.