The March of the Ice Elves

 It was 15mm Fantastic Battles today with two armies that had never been used before facing off across the frozen northern wastes. My Ice Elves were to battle against Ian's rather wonderful and slightly offbeat Forces of Nature army. This consists of swamp beasts, gnomes mounted on snails, giant mushroom men as well as a dragon and little imps. Ian had really studied the rules and had made the most of a wide variety of traits and abilities. Phil also came along and the dice gods decided he was on my side so we split the Ice Elf forces between us. 

So with 1,000 point forces we deployed and enjoyed rolling for mishaps; especially Ian's flanking force that went backwards to the amusement of all.  

Ian's very nice green dragon. 

The Ice Elves arrayed for war. 

Mushrooms, gnomes and a very tall ghost. 

The conflict was prompted by the Ice Elves wishing to annex part of the Forces of Nature lands to act as a buffer between them and other battle ready forces.  . 

The battle after turn 1. 

The Ice elf mounted and Ariel forces advance. 

With the Ice Elf mounted forces advancing rapidly on the left flank the two sides soon came into conflict. The better armoured elves soon seemed to gain the upper hand and after about 3 turns it seemed like it was a case of how long could the Forces of Nature actually survive. 

The Ice Elf Witch King on his wyvern attacks Swampy the bog giant. 

Ian's unit of 'Simple folk', an 'unreliable' unit tasked with a flank attack that failed their mishap roll, headed backwards and kept going for 3 turns until they marched off the table amidst much laughter.  

Epic clash of Tiger riders against the Giant Elk's. A battle that lasted 3 turns but eventually won by the Tiger Riders who were left quite battered themselves. 

Phil's Ice Elf shieldwall proved very tough in combat against giant snails and mushroom men. 

An overhead view of the final frantic melee that took both sides to over half their companies as casualties in the 6th turn. So both sides withdrew and called the battle a costly draw. 

Fantastic Battles is great fun every time we play it. This battle was so close despite looking like an Ice Elf win after the first few turns. Ian did well to battle back and get the draw. I suppose we can both say that our armies have never lost a battle!

I have also finished a few more companies of 10mm Men of Rohan, 2 bases of Royal Guard and 2 bases of Outriders or scouts plus an objective base of two hobbits to be used in a game soon. . 

Operation Mitten: 20mm WW2 using Rapid Fire

 This week Nigel kindly hosted Howard and myself for a game of Rapid Fire using a small part of his very large collection of 20mm WW2. The game was themed around Operation Mitten, taken from the Normandy Battlegames scenario book. 

The main aim of the game was for the British to advance, rooting out the Germans who made good use of hidden deployment. By the end of the game the British had to capture and hold some of the main buildings and the Germans had to try and prevent this from happening. Suggested game length was 14 moves but with our usual chatting, tea drinking and cake eating we only managed 8!

The British advance

Le Londel, the British forces started in and around this building. 

The British made short work of the Germans holding the central woods. 

(see photo below too). 

Three Lorraine SP come out of hiding, a nice surprise for the British; they took out the crew of a Priest SPG with their first shot 

This photo is for Howard! The shot of the game, his PIAT took out a German HMG in the prepared defences with one shot.

British artillery fire destroyed part of Chateau Le Londe

Nigel's best turn was at the end of the game when his recently revealed PzIV's took out two Sherman's in quick succession. 

So after 8 turns, the British re-enforcements had arrived and most of the German forces had been revealed but the game was finely balanced so we called it a draw.  As always, we had great fun and are starting to get a good understanding of these rules. 

6mm Chariots and a few more 15mm Vikings.

It was a journey back into biblical times for this weeks game of Hail Caesar; this time with our newly painted 6mm armies from Irregular Miniatures. These little strips of figures are not to everyone's taste but once painted and based they look pretty good on the gaming table. 

The Hittites march to war!

For the game we used the Oasis scenario from the 'Age of Bronze' Hail Caesar supplement swapping my Hittites in for the Hyksos. The objectives were the Hittite's need to get a chariot model off the Egyptian table edge (all Hittite chariots are carrying a vital message which must be delivered), the Egyptians of course whish to prevent this from happening. There was also a fight for possession of the oasis. 

Phil took command of his Egyptians aided by Nigel whilst Ian and I controlled the Hittites. Looking at the armies opposing each other I was a bit worried that the Hittites might be over powered by the Egyptian firepower as they had so many more units with missiles.

Opposed  dice throws decided that the Hittites had command of the oasis at the start of the game. We decided to advance quickly and hit the Egyptian's hard early on. 

A run of poor Leadership throws led to Ian and Nigel sat starting at each other on the left flank,  exchanging missile fire at distance. 

Good view of the middle and left flank of the battle. Ian's chariots made light work of Nigel's camel riders (Arab mercenary troops). 

On the right flank my Hittite chariots charged into battle as quick as they could. After a couple of turns it was looking like a fairly prompt Hittite victory. You can see from all the casualty markers and yellow shaken counters how desperate a fight this developed into with the Egyptians eventually coming out the victors and my broken chariot division had to withdraw. 

Another view of the desperate chariot battle. 

Ian did manage to race across the board with one of his chariots and get the vital message off the board but he was hotly pursued by the Egyptians who just failed to catch him. 

Despite the Hittites holding the oasis for virtually all the game the Egyptians used their superior firepower (as feared) to drive the Hittites back and eventually break them. This meant that the Egyptians gained control of the oasis after a very close and fierce fight. However, with the Hittites getting their message off board perhaps they should gain some new allies next game? Perhaps my Hittites should be treated to some bow armed units? 

I have also managed to add a few bases of archers to my slowly growing 15mm Viking army, over 100 figures painted since November. Only another 100 to go!