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,
 ¶

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!

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.