Trench Foot

A Trench Assault scenario, acting as another refresher of the Great War rules, prior to Dave M kicking off his campaign some time in the near future. Played along the length of a 6' by 4' area, the trenches were the standard simple ones and not the enhanced entrenchments as described in 'Over the Top'

From Furness Wargamers in Trenches

Tel and Matt, each playing a company of Valiant Russians with support from artillery, were attempting to remove Tony's company of Germans from their dug in positions.

Gladiators

Something a bit different as under Warhammer Historical Gladiator game, bought by Dave M during the Warhammer Historical half price sale.

Played the basic version, but with some made up multi-player rules to allow for the four (later six) players. A mixture of types were randomly handed out and I got to play a heavy, with large shield and slow movement.

The most disappointing part is the roll to hit being a straight dice off with skill only being a factor in a draw. Most Stat-lines for the Gladiators appear nearly identical so everything ends up as a 50%-50% chance. This mechanism is also used in Legends of the Old West, itself derived from Lord of the Rings rules, and is criticised in it for allowing excessively easy lynchings where hordes of weak characters can smack-down ruthless killers.

The Retinarii also appear to be over powered, and in one on one combat have a good chance (about 1 in 10) of ending it straight off with the disabling entanglement. In both bouts they were the last ones standing using their ability to evade from combat and ranged netting to decisive effect. Comment was also passed upon the wound modifiers for the thrown Gladius and Dart being so radically different, not that any weapons got thrown during the game unless you count the annoying nets of the Retinarii.

The rules seem to work OK for mass brawls but there is something unsatisfying about it on one on one combat where it resolves down to straight dice rolls. It does not feel to be much of gladiatorial contest. This may change if playing the more advanced rules which, judging by the crib sheet, appear to use more advanced armour rules.

Having got some pre-painted Gladiators myself after getting a couple of Ludus Gladitorius sets off EM4 Miniatures at previous Phalanx shows, I'm not sure whether to purchase these rules myself. They could be good for the chrome and historical details but the rules could do with a re-write.
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Germanic Link Up

More Great War activity as the newly arrived Austro-Hungarians (new figures of Dave M's, he has still got some heavy artillery to fix up along with some more Infantry) attempt to link up with their Germanic allies as the Russian grimly hold onto the road awaiting a special delivery.

From Furness Wargamers in Trenches

Cross Road Blues

A bit early for Robert Johnson, as two early Great War forces clash. 1914 French and Germans close upon the ruins of a small hamlet based at the crossroads.

From Furness Wargamers in Trenches

Rushing Russians

More action from the Great War's Eastern front, as the Germans try and exploit a gap between two Russian divisions, as the Russians rush in to plug the gap. Matt and Mark play the perfidious Prussians, Paul and I the heroic Russian Imperials.

We were allowed a preliminary bombardment to try and weaken the Jägers who were holding the village. Unfortunately they managed to evade the shells by loitering around in the open and not taking covers in the ruins, which got ruined even more. But at least the shelling cleared away large sections of barbed wire.

From Furness Wargamers in Trenches

Open Doors

The Club hosted a demo game at Phalanx down in St Helens. A replay of the May Day game, but with all the forces already on the table, which now looked much better with the green flocked GW mats rather than bedsheets.

Was a nice drive down with little traffic or roadworks and managed to get a decent parking space. Think I managed to avoid the speed trap on the road in. Martin was already down St Helens, and Matt and Alan brought their stuff down in the Morning. When I got there it was just about opening time.

From Phalanx

Weapons of Self Destruction

The delayed St George's Day game, played on May Day instead. A warm up for what will probably be the game that the Furness Wargamers will put on at Phalanx.

All figures and terrain (excluding the horrid underlying bedsheets) by Matt who refereed the game. Rules are Warhammer Ancient Battles, original version and not the newly released WAB2, but with house rules such as tweaking skirmishers.

Colin, Tony and Martin as the Perfidious Celts, Dave S and Tel as the Heroic Romans.

From May Day 2010

Peski Russki Cavalry

Sat out the game on Tuesday, as we return to the Eastern Front during World War 1. Once again using the WH Great War rules, with Dave M presiding, Paul as the Russians and Mark as the Germans.

First units to enter the field of battle are the reconnaissance elements of both sides, two squadrons each of cavalry. The Russians managed to get first charge into the German Uhlans and quickly rout both units in turn.

From Furness Wargamers in Trenches

Nekkid Northerners

On Tuesday we played an Ancient battle in 28mm using a modified version of Warhammer Ancient Battles using Matt's miniatures and terrain. Matt's not too interested in 2nd Edition WAB which is due out soon (after a long delay) and has done his own tweaks to the rules and force composition.

Scenario is based on Mons Graupius. The last remaining organised Celtic force in Britannia are defending a ridge line in their homeland of Caledonia against the Roman forces who have nipped over the wall for a quick bash.

The opposing armies

From Furness Wargamers with Spears

Armoured Carts

Set somewhere in Poland sometime in 1915 during a period of fluid warfare. Played with Warhammer Great War, the Russian list is unofficial as the supplement covering this area is a long time delayed.

Both Germans and Russians are given the same objective, take control of the ruins in the centre of the table. Shell-holes and barbwire was set up by the players without knowing entry points.

From Furness Wargamers

The Germans got a captured Russo-Balt Armoured Car to play with, scratch built by Dave M; again no official rules for this type so guesswork involved. Not as good as the ones the British get to play with. Reinforcements are available based on die rolls at the start of each turn.

The AC rushes, or more like tootles at 9" rough and 12" on-road, down the road towards the enemy in an attempt to slow their advance, and maybe give the German troops enough time to get into position.



The Russian Infantry ignore the Car, not even attempting to swarm it. Instead they set up their HMG and after a couple of bursts destroy its forward MG and then the Car itself.

Questions were asked over the mobility of the HMGs as according to the rules, once setup they should remain in place for the rest of the game. This would of left the Russian MG blind to the rest of the battlefield so implemented a couple of turns delay and then allow it to move again.

Assault on the main ruins. Both forces arrived in consecutive turns but it was the Germans who launched an assault, should Russians have got cover save as both forces were internal to the building. Germans soon become out numbered as extra Russian troops pour in.



Forces in woods not particularly well protected as both platoons resident there get chipped away.

Russian Mobile reinforcements turn up. Three Armoured Cars, Two Russo-Balts making their way past the wreck of the German vehicle, and a Putilov-Garford reversing to try and get it's rear-mounted gun into action.



Additional German troops finally turn up and advance towards the centre, managing to wipe out a platoon of Russians who were pursuing the survivors from the big melee.



Unfortunately this wasn't enough to take the victory away from the Russians, who dominated the centre.

Things might of played quicker if the forces were entering on the long edges rather than having to move across the table. It took a number of turns till any action happened as the forces tried and close on each other.

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Prior to the battle there was reports of a strange unidentified object floating overhead. Apparently its green skinned inhabitants had got confused over the date of the big space battle, turning up a week late or centuries early depending on your time-frame.


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Crete Assault

More fighting for the defense of Crete. Regular setup of defending British\Empire troops verses German Paras and some regulars. This time a bridge assault with the Germans coming from both directions to try and dislodge the Brits in the Gorge so that they could link up. 20mm figures and terrain supplied by Matt. Rules are 40K based but with limited weapon range and ammo.

And for a change there was armour involved as 2 Panzer mk.III's try and take on a Matilda, a Light Tank, and some AT weapons.

From Furness Wargamers

As can be seen the centre section of the battle field was terrain heavy.

As I was in charge of the paras, trying to link up with the main force, I decided to place all my troops on one side of my deployment zone away from the open terrain. They hugged the terrain like mad when advancing with only my snipers and MGs popping up to shoot, and my observers sending in some mortar fire. Only really had one effective mortar (the sole medium) and spent most of the time trying to move my remaining light mortars forward.

A long range duel broke out between an MG34 and a Bofors gun. The Bofors eventually won but with it's crew badly depleted and was then taken out by fire from a couple of Anti-Tank Rifles.



The tank battle was a bit of a stand off as they traded shells at close range but with little penetration. The allied anti-tank gun never got a chance to fire as the panzer's refused to come directly down the road. One Panzer got a bit shaken for a while but no vehicles were put out of operation on either side.

Eventually the paras and regulars were able to wave at each other across from the high ground to the rear of the farm house, in which my sniper and observers were hidding, with a good view of the bridge.

The game ended at this point as the allies agreed to withdraw due to their low ammo situation. The Matilda was almost out of ammo, two rounds left, and with the German Infantry closing into charge range holding the bridge looked pretty unlikely.
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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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Flodden Folly

The return of the St George's Day special! (Actually played on Saturday at the Abbey Baptist Hall.)

The Battle of Flodden: The 'Professionally trained' Scottish army. lead by James IV vs the English reserves\Northern louts lead by the Earl of Surrey.

Played with Warhammer Ancients at 15mm, with a number of special rules to simulate the conditions. Organised by Matt (who now never wants to paint a 15mm pikeman again in his entire life.).

From Flodden 09

The battle started in fine style with an artillery duel, the Scots firing first with little effect but the English return of fire taking out a couple of guns, and the bounce hitting the troops behind. Likewise in the next round the English took out two more guns, but these were their own! destroyed by misfires. The English got the better of the exchanges, leaving only two Scots guns overlooking the English left.

Realising that it wasn't particularly safe on the hills the Scots started to advance into the marshy vale below [No bounce rule for guns firing into valley]. The English decided to intercept them while the Scots were disorganised crossing the treachrous ground. [Pike Blocks don't get second rank in melee in such conditions]



The Scots Horse advanced to skirmish with the Archers on the far right, but could not break them or circle around them. One transgression from history was the decision to send Dacre and his Cavalry to the Left flank rather than reinforce the right, as we had no idea when Stanley and his flanking reinforcements would arrive. (Retrospectively we probably should of waited a bit longer before committing the horse to either flank)

The Scots left made good speed though the mud and managed to get through it and organised back into a phalanx before the English could engage. The Scots elsewhere weren't so lucky and melees in the mud began and a long battle of attrition began.

Things started to look very bad for the English as the right started to break and run, but a rally on the hill, as well as throwing the archers into melee, helped stem the flood.

The turning point finally occurred when the Halberders in the centre finally came good and defeated the pike block that King James was attached to. Two failed leadership tests and a successful pursuit leading to his demise\head as a football. (My cameras batteries also died at this point so no decent picture of his fall.)

The left was now under English control, with Stanley's arrival silencing the last of the Scottish cannons and a combined attack from Stanley and Darce's Cavalry taking out the Highlanders, who had previously been shifted out of the marsh.



The right just about held, with the English archers doing well in hand to hand. With the flank turned the Scots decided to withdraw (and the French contingent, who never saw battle, agreed.) So after a bad start the English managed to pull it out of the bag at the very end.



More Photos: Flodden 09
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Warmonger 09

Popped my head in on Saturday to see how the 40K guys were doing in the now regular tournament\grudge match with the Manchester Area Wargames Society (MAWS) the Barrow leg of which is organised by Phil.

Managed to catch the final round of the three round tournament. Martin was the scorer tapping away into the spreadsheet as each result came in. The FW trailing right from the first round and failing to noticeably close the gap in the second and third.

From Warmonger

It ended as a clean sweep for MAWS with the top 4 individual spots going to them. The only silverware for the FW was Keiron managing to win the fair play award, presumably because his forces died well. In another shock result Baldy didn't finish last!

Found the video creation mode in Picassa so decided to have a play around. Quality not as good as normal pictures, I could improve it but would eat up Picassa directory space.


¶

Return of the Jim

Returned to the Campoon to find that Jim had reversed his decision to quit and is back in the land grab.

My territory survived intact but a barbarian incursion during winter knocked my income back. Also I've now got an unwanted fort after Mark (who I gave pre-written instruction to) misinterpreted the location of the peninsula's 'choke point'.

Dave S is now an underling of Matt (Grima to Matt's Saruman or, probably more appropriately, Smee to Cpt. Hook), and combined together they split the continent of Nu Campoon in two.

Positions: Year 3 Turn 3

From Campoon 3

Southern View


Turn 5 Positions


After this turn a couple of battles took place. One between the Nurgles and Paul after the Nurgles got sick of running away. The second between my Triangles and Dave M's Sassinids, as I put three armies against his one.

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The Battle

Tel's Triangles 2800pts (based on Shildwall Wessex)

vs

Dave M 1400pts (Sassinids)

Starting positions


The Wall of Ceorls, trimmed with a line of Huscarls and Thegns. When Mark mentioned that we were a slow moving wall we pointed out that walls don't generally move at all.



The Triangles slowly push them off the board as not a single meelee took place, only some consistant sniping.

The hit and run tactics did knock down the Triangle forces a bit but the solid wall restricted the cavalry and with no more room to maneuver they left the field but only after mulling a trial charge of one of the numerous Shieldwalls.

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End of Turn 5


Due to absentees next week (including myself) the campaign will be given a miss.
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Normans Nurgling

Campoon Battle 2

Matt (1500pts Normans)

vs

Martin the High Nurgle (1500pts Picts)
(actually played by Dave M due to Martin's absence)

The Field of Play

From Campoon 3

The Nurgles outnumber the Normans quite heavily on the ground, but apparently the Normans have some 'panzers' available.

Nurgles Advance, Normans Encircle


The terrain is not really to the Nurgles advantage. There is also another Norman Cav circling around just south of the picture.

Panzerblitz Arrives


The Cavalry finally hits sending whole ranks of dead Nurgles crashing to the ground. The Normans manage to penetrate into the rear area, and if not for the time limit being reached could of crushed the remaining Nurgle forces. As it is the Nurgles don't come off to bad (but are still forced to retreat on the map).

End tally: Matt lost around 120pts, The Nurgles around 500pts. With the new rules for replacements being implemented (actually they are the ones that were used in the LoTR campaign) this could be reduced for both side quite a bit.

[Disclaimer: I have no idea why Martin refers to all his armies as Nurgles as there appears to be no connection with proper Warhammer Nurgles other than their implied vileness\smelliness. He's used Garden Gnomes as Nurgles before now.]
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The First Battle

The first real battle of the Campoon.

Jim (1500pts - Late Romans) vs Dave S (1500pts - Caphilates)

First time for Jim using this rule set, Dave's also a bit rusty. The moves have been dropped down to centimeters from inches and some Warmaster based figures used as they were the most readily available. The rest of the Campooners were either looking on or trying to get their Army Lists sorted.

(The strange blob\void in the middle of the photos is in fact a foam hill with unique light reflecting properties.)

Initial Setup looking from Jim's side

From Campoon 3

The hill\blob is the main terrain feature placed right in the middle of what, due to the scale change, is a large battlefield. Dave tries to overload on one side of the hill but the terrain still favours Jim's more mobile forces.



Unfortunately Dave's cavalry gets caught up amongst his other troops as Jim's cavalry and archers clears the other flank.



A Ding-dong battle occurs in the middle as the two main blocks of troops remain locked together. Dave's dice rolling lets him down as he should of clearly won at least a couple of the deadlock melee rounds.

The final positions


And so Mullah Dave ends up losing the battle big style despite having the chance to cut his losses earlier on. Dave still has another army available in the neighbouring hex so a early rematch is a distinct possibility.
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England Expects (A Good Game)

This has come as a bit of a surprise. Warhammer Historical have chosen the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar to announce their forthcoming game Warhammer:Trafalgar.

Further details from the designer posted on the 'Legends of the Old West' Yahoo Group (of all places!)

Posted by: "Mark Latham"
Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:24 pm
To answer some of the questions I've received so far:

This game is a completely original rules set, designed for fast-play fleet actions and more detailed small actions. While I've tried to stay very faithful to the tactics and history of the Age of Sail, it's not a slow-paced simulation - there are lots of games out there already that offer this option, so I didn't want to duplicate the same principles. The sailing phase is, not surprisingly, the most in-depth part of the game - manoeuvring was the most important part of any battle between sailing ships!

It has quite a detailed campaign in the book, based on the Campaign of Trafalgar (obviously), with historical fleet rosters for all the battles. The basic campaign system can readily be ported across into a campaign of your own devising. There are six standalone scenarios too, for pick up games of any size.

The book is packed with ship schematics and rosters - every type of vessel I could pack into the book is present, and each ship has an individual roster sheet (a bit like Man O War), with tick-boxes for damage, etc.

I'm really proud of the hobby section - for the first time I can think of, naval wargamers will have access to a painting and rigging guide that uses close-up, step-by-step photography. Plus a scenery guide too!

Finally, the game is nothing to do with Legends of the High Seas - it's standalone, but I have spoken to Tim Kulinski about a possible link-up in the future, so perhaps the Trafalgar rules could be used for fleet actions in a larger campaign, while the LOTHS rules could be used for skirmishing... it's up to the players, I guess.

That's all for now - I don't want to blow my designer's notes! Feel free to post comments on the warhammer historical blog, too :)

Thanks for your interest,

Mark

Fingers crossed that it'll be a good one.
.

LOTR - Status Report

Have received a status report from Dave M including details of the casualties (but not the point values!). I have added the percentages.

A quick update on how the campoon is going at the moment.

Scores on the doors are Goodies 8 wins, Baddies 7 wins (with one game outstanding). At the moment Goodies are 1 point up.

Using a figure scale of 1:20

Elves of Lorien began the war with 1480 Warriors, they have lost 580 little fairies. (39% casulties)
The Rohirrim had 2120 and have lost 100 Brave Warriors. (5%)
Southern Gondor began with 2120 and have lost 120 Chaps (6%)
Gondor, Minas Tirith set off with 2100 and have lost 640. (30%)

Isengard began with 3600 and have lost 980 little Uruks (27%)
Mordor started with 4460 and have taken 1000 casualties (22%)
Dol Guldur had 3200 and have lost 660 (21%)
Harad had 2700 and have taken 1160 casualties (43%)

What the above does not include is the amount of horse\warg flesh left littering the battlefields. A number of high value and\or mobile units have bitten the dust.

LOTR - Round 5

The battle between Mordor and Gondor was a bit of a shambles with zombies probably being more aware than the two commanders, both of whom were feeling like death due to assorted ailments, and neither of them 100% sure of the rules.

Numerous mistakes were made in combat resolution including a major one that should of tilted the result Gondors way. Leaders were dieing all over the place. The Mouth of Sauron got stomped trying to reinforce a Orcish Warband, but then the Gondorian command group and attached cavalry got flanked and wiped out. The Trolls managed to bounce off a Gondorian Shieldwall defending\hiding in a village. The Gondorian Archers managed to do considerable damage (partially due to a misreading of the massed archery rules) before being hit by a couple of warbands. Fortunately for them they managed to do a good rout and escaped OK.

A Mordor victory but in a very unsatisfactory manner.

Meanwhile at Helms Deep the pesky elves managed to pull off a surprise victory against the forces of Saruman after hiding behind a apparently invulnerable hedge.

Still one more battle to do in the round as the forces of Dol Guldur (defeated in the last round) have a rematch against the Rohirrim.