Bridge to Victory, 10mm Rebels and Patriots.

 Ian and I met again today for our second game of Rebels and Patriots using our 10mm figures. We opted to try scenario C 'Bridge to Victory' where one side has to try and build a bridge within a set time and the other side has to try and stop them. It was decided that Ian and his Union forces would be the bridge builders and my Confederates would have to try and stop him. We had also read up on the rules, determined to correct the error we made when allocating disorder. 

Looking at Ian's scratchbuilt rail station and across to the Union troops advancing towards the river. Top right my Confederates can be seen starting their advance. 

Overhead photo of the game, the Union were allowed to deploy a bit nearer to the river to try and get their engineers into position.

My artillery is heading for the hill. I also rolled a double '6' for activation and a further dice throw allowed me to bring on an extra 4 points of troops. I decided to use my zouves to depict a regular line infantry unit. 

The union wagon by the river shows where the engineers opted to build their bridge. Ian had to throw activation dice for each unit of engineer's each turn. A successful activation roll allowed Ian to add that dice score to his bridge construction points. He needed 60 to complete the bridge.  

Overhead view of the Union engineer's in place by the river. They failed so many activation rolls that bridge building progressed very slowly.  

Confederate artillery enjoying firing at the Union line infantry. Ian used 'close order' for many of his troops in an attempt to increase his fire power. 

The Union troops started to advance across the river to my left. I sent my cavalry across to scare them off. 

Ian managed to do enough damage to my artillery to scare them off (a poor throw on my Morale test did not help). Time was now running out for Ian's bridge building attempt.

Last turn of the game and my cavalry destroyed Ian's union marine troops. Ian's engineer's got the bridge building total up to 51 points falling 9 short of his required 60 giving my Confederates a narrow win. Adding up the Honour points Ian achieved 3 whilst I took 4. Another great game, helped by the result being so close. 

10mm Rebels and Patriots (a first game).

 So Ian and I decided to try the 'Rebels and Patriots' rules using our 10mm ACW forces and we were very much looking forward to trying out this Lion Rampant variant. Ian used his Union troops and I was using my Confederates. As a first game it also seemed to make sense to play the first scenario: 'First Clash at Lament Ridge'. Note that our infantry figures are not based quite correctly for these rules but we just ruled that each infantry base counted as 6 models. Just to add to the fun our electricity was cut off for the day (without warning) so to start with the game was played in torchlight as my spare room only has a small window. 

My Rebs advance on the church, the objective that both sides needed to control. 

A slightly different view of my forces. 

Here come Ian's Union forces. 

My unit of Shock Cavalry went off on a flanker (which took all game and to zero effect). 

As the two sides close on each other my cannon opened fire and proved to be very effective (with the help of some great dice throwing).

Ian seemed to have deployed his troops better and was more able to get his units into a central position better than I could. I felt quite out numbered around the church. 

Some Union troops suffering disorder (red counter). 

I managed to get to the church first and was able to claim 1 point of honour before Ian's infantry moved up to challenge me. At this point we started to fire upon each other and shooting seemed quite lethal. We later found out that we were applying 'disorder' counters incorrectly but we both suffered from this mistake. 

As the action got fiercer I forgot to take any photo's for a while. Bit by bit my forces wore down Ian's and my Officer was able to grab quite a few points of honour by three of Ian's infantry units routing plus his cannon whilst amazingly I lost no units. 

Now for the fun part. In these rules if you play a series of games (a campaign) you develop your officers through experience gained by defeating the enemy. I gained 6 points of honour (not enough to gain another trait yet) compared to Ian's zero. He also had to throw on the Officer casualty table but got away with that as his own troops rescued him so he is fit for the next game.  

Oh look, 10 turns later and my cavalry are still trying to get round the woods...I think that they are still there! 

We really enjoyed these rules and will play again next week, perhaps a bigger multi player game if some of our other gaming friends are around? We will also do better with the rules. 

PS: did anyone spot my new games mat, under a tenner from Temu!

A bit bright but well worth the money. 

Old School Fantasy Figure Recruits

 May has and will be so busy that I have no chance for any gaming this month. However, the painting goes on and I have added some new recruits to my Old School Fantasy collection. First up, good friend Mister C kindly gave some unpainted 25mm Irregular Miniatures Dwarves on Ponies. Irregular Miniatures have a charm all of their own, seemingly crude perhaps at first glance but full of detail when you actually paint them. 

I have painted up 6 of these fine models making a good unit for both 'Dragon Rampant (DR)' and 'Warlords of Erehwon (WOE)'. Mister C may regret giving me these when we play the next game in our Dark Shadows campaign (using WOE rather than Warhammer). 

Rear view of the dwarves whilst they practise their 'about turn' orders. 

I recently spotted this elf model on ebay (a Ral Partha elf I believe?). The figure looks so close in style to some old Dixon miniature Elves I painted a few months back that I decided to get the model and paint it in the same colours. 

(I have to confess that I am not sure if this elf is male or female?)

Here is the whole unit. Enough for a unit in WOE but I need a few more for a DR unit. 

Note the 'leader' which I created by adding a plastic feather from a more modern plastic sprue of Oathmark Elves.  I am wondering though if the newly added model may make a better leader

Dark Shadows: The Mists Recoil

 Today Chris and I enjoyed our second game in our slow grow 'Dark Shadows' campaign. The first game was a scenario of our own design that was fight for possession of a map teling of the whereabouts of Albion. Today my 'old school' dwarves took to their ships to try and force a landing against Chris's 'old school' undead. 

The original campaign booklet was for Warhammer Fantasy but we have opted to use the 'Warlords of Erehwon' (WoE) rules. We had to convert the points values from Warhammer army lists to WoE ones and try to make sure it was a balanced game. Our discussions resulted in Chris have 200pts of undead plus 3 war machines. I had 750pts of dwarves placed in ships advancing upon Albion's shore. . 

Here the dwarves can be seen advancing in their assorted boats. We had devised a simplified version of the weather chart more balanced to clear weather. I asked Chris to make the throw for weather and of course he threw very low resulting in the table being covered in mist. This completely took out his main advantage in that his artillery could not see the dwarf ships approaching. Also, the dwarf ships had to throw 2xd6 for movement in inches. However, if they threw a double they would make the move but end up stranded on a sandbank. 

The undead cower behind the hedges and wait for the mist to clear. One stone thrower and two bolt throwers plus a unit of arches and an Undead Champion. The cliff was classed as a hill rather than anything tougher for the dwarves to get up onto.

Happily for me all my ships got to land their troops safely. 

Brokkir and his dwarf guard were the first to land. 

Dwarf Ranger, Gunnar Fundinnson and his fellow rangers disembark. 

As the dwarves advance on the hill the mist cleared enough for the undead artillery to open fire but the dwarf rangers and archers returned fire. 

Undead skull crusher with their champion just behind. With a great shot the artillery kill 4 of Ulf's dwarf rangers. 

The dwarves slowly surround the hill and start to target the crew of the war machines and also the undead archers. The stone thrower lost all it's crew and one of the bolt throwers suffer casualties too. The mist rolled back in but we were all just within visual range of each other. The skeleton archers were talso destroyed.

Over on the dwarf right flank, Dwarf Lord Amlodi Forkbeard charges up the hill with his bodyguard and kill the crew around the second bolt thrower. This led to a prolonged fight with the Undead Champion who proved to be a very tough opponent.

By now there was just the undead champion left but even when a unit of dwarf rangers came to help we found him difficult to kill(destroy?). Sadly, at this point we ran out of time. With the undead champion down to his last wound but  being surrounded by dwarves so Chris graciously conceded the game. 

This was a fun game and certainly did not run as I expected. The mist played a huge part in the game as the undead could not harm the dwarves whilst still in their boats. Once the dwarves landed their superior numbers helped secure the victory. 

Our next encounter will be 'the Fens' scenario with a smaller dwarven force attacking the undead and trying to break through their ranks.  We have also created an 'After game progression' chart. The dwarves got one throw of the dice on the chart resulting in them being able to cause 'confusion' on one enemy unit next game. 

 

28mm Thebes v Macedon.

 For our final ancients battle (using Hail Caesar) for a while it was Ian and his Thebans against me and my Macedonians, 300pts per side in 2 divisions. It was a straight forward encounter battle with the scenery generated using the random chart in the Black Powder Pike and Shotte book. Ian won the dice off to make me deploy first and he also won first turn and took the initiative. 

Theban deployment. 

Macedonian deployment. 

Ian took his Thebans slowly forward. I tried to be more aggressive but my left flank refused their orders and stayed put. 

With my right flank division out on their own Ian Ian and his Thebans charged. 

A whopper of a melee at the start of turn 2. 

Both sides made use of the phalanx rule to help not to have to take a break test but my Companion Cavalry came in on the right flank to help out. 

Over on my left my troops their were still refusing to obey orders. 

Then after 3 rounds of melee some of the Thebans broke, leaving the Sacred Band fighting on their own. 

Totally surrounded now it was finally the death of the Sacred Band. and that whole Theban division defeated or in flight.  

Overhead shot of the game, Ian's remaining Theban Hoplites (top of photo) look a bit out numbered. 

Slowly the Macedonians encircle the Thebans. I had sent in all my skirmishers in the hope of whittling his phalanx's down a little or cause a bit of disorder.  

Ian tried to charge my Companion Cavalry who counter charged but it was cavlary that were destroyed in the ensuing melee. 

In the centre Ian continued his desperate 'attack is the best form of defence'. But his hoplite unit was well beaten here. 

Over on his base line Ian charged my disordered Hypastpists but the dice went my way and it was game over for the Thebans. All now destroyed or withdrawing. Victory and glory to the Macedonians. 

Another cracking game of Hail Caesar, delivers every time. 

New hoplites and another elephant.

 Just finished a couple of things for my Macedonian army. 

First up my third unit of mercenary hoplites. Mainly plastic figures from Warlord Games. All shields hand painted as usual. At some point I will expand the Greeks into their own army. 

Next we have my second elephant. I got both elephants in a bargain box full of old and newer ancients at the Phalanx Wargame show. for just £20.  These are old Hinchliffe elephants but with newer 28mm crew squeezed in. I also glued a shield to each side of the howdah to add more colour. 

Here is a photo of both elephants.

 The rear one had his head replaced with a head from a plastic elephant. 

I need to get them on the gaming table soon. 

Next up is a unit of 'Silver Shields', 32 pikemen will take me some time but the shields should be easy; then another unit of peltasts.    

The Spartans arrive!

 For this week's game we adapted another scenario from the Pyrrhic Wars book to fight it out between my Macedonians and Ian and Charlies Greeks. The scenario is based along the coastline, any troops forced back into the sea that runs alongside one flank will be destroyed as it is a rocky coastline, otherwise, for us it was a typical encounter battle. Charlie bought along his new unit of Spartiates, I could only hope they suffered the fate of all newly painted troops. 

Deployment: Greeks to the left, Macedonians to the right. The coastline is just below the lower photo edge (looks like a river as that is what we used!). We are all very pleased with how good our ancient games are starting to look. More new troops will appear soon. 

Ooo look, some freshly painted Spartans. Charlie had done a great job with these. 

On my 6ft wide table it was an almost wall to wall line of phalanx, broken only by the woods on the Macedonian right. I wasn't quite sure where to point my Companion cavalry so I placed them in the centre hoping to wait for a break in the Greek line. 

Ian's light troops try to dominate the wooded area. over on my right. 

Back on the left, failed orders from Charlie's Greeks gave me an opportunity to charge one end of their broken line so the pike phalanx came crashing in. Charlie's peltasts got squished and destroyed by the Macedonian pike. You can also see my Hypaspists charging the Spartiates.

Over on the left my peltasts had already charged and cleared greek skirmishers from the top right wood. Now my light cavalry rode up in support tying two Greek phalanx's in knots and keeping them busy all game. 

My Hypaspists broke Charlie's Spartiates (he has already removed them); the curse of the newly painted troops strikes again! Charlie's division were now close to breakpoint.

My light cavalry cleared away some Greek skirmishers but then Ian's hoplites got involved so my light cavalry fled. 

At long last, my Companion Cavalry, which I had positioned in the centre patiently waited until the flank of a hoplite unit offered itself. These were the Theban Sacred Band. They all got wiped out to my huge delight. 

Finally my Greek Mercenary Hoplites helped by the Companion Cavalry made a greek sandwich of Ian's last unit in the centre and with Charlie's division now broken Ian withdrew his few remaining troops and victory went to the Macedonians. I often complain about my poor luck on the dice, not today, overall I threw well unlike Charlie whose dice throwing was truly awful in the first half of the game. All troops had managed to avoid being forced into the sea so no-one lost troops that way. 

Another great fun game and it was particularly pleasing for me to see my troops finally do well.