Bolt Action Parachute drop.

 Great game set up by Nigel today using his 20mm WW2 figures and Bolt Action rules. The main idea was the British parachuting in just inland of the Normandy Beach landings to try and take out  some German artillery positions that were pounding the beaches. Using the great idea of dropping paper counters from above onto the table and placing the British Para's where the counters landed. I was playing the Germans and had drawn a map of where my troops were positioned but this was a dawn attack so only a few sentries were in position. With Ian and Nigel playing the Para's we played one pre-game turn to allow the paras to try and form squads and for the Germans to raise the alarm and get into position. Then it was a standard 6 turn game with the chance of a final seventh turn. 

In this photo you can still see a few paper counters representing some of the para's before being replaced by figures. The grey building is the main German bunker. Sadly for me the counter nearest the bunker is the para's flame thrower team. 

The para's slowly approach the bunker. There was also 4 artillery positions for them to try and capture and/or destroy the guns within and the German HQ in a farmhouse over on the far right flank. 

The para's quickly attack the bunker and flame all the occupant's.

The pin markers on top of the bunker are for the occupants, the German MG team up top helped keep some of the advancing Para's at bay for a few turns. 

But numbers started to tell and even my MG got wiped out. 

Over to the left the para's destroy two of the German big guns. 

It took six full turns for the para's to capture or destroy all the guns and the bunker but over on the left the Germans still held the farmhouse HQ, but only just. The dice decided that we did not play a final seventh turn which could have seen the Para's grab a total victory. 

A closely fought game resulted in the Germans stubbornly holding on to one final objective that the Para's had failed to gain. Once again, Bolt Action gave us a great day of gaming with thanks to Nigel for planning the game and hosting us. 

20mm Bolt Action: Fight for the Farm

 Today Nigel had kindly invited us over for a game of Bolt Action using his excellent selection of 20mm figures and scenery. He had devised a scenario based on the Fight for the Farm scenario in the most recent issue of 'Wargames Soldiers and Strategy'. Ian and Nigel had played through this scenario last week but we replayed it today with a few tweaks to the sides to make the objective of capturing the farm more achievable for the British. 

Ian took control of the Germans whilst Nigel and I were attacking as the British. 

We sent my platoons of British quickly forward on the North side.

Nigel's platoons facing the open ground in front of the farmhouse did a more cautious approach. Our plans to lay down smoke to help cover our advance did not work very well.  

Ian's Germans advance rapidly towards the farmhouse. The dice to the right showing 'Ambush' indicate his hidden units waiting to take a pop at our Brits.  

German Command move into the farmhouse. 

The British take the buildings towards the north, hoping to fire upon the Germans in the main farmhouse. 

Nigel prepares to advance his platoons. 

Ian moves some German troops towards the buildings the British had occupied.  

The large blob of cotton wool shows how good our laying down of a smoke screen was; we kept messing up the dice throw to allow Ian to re-position most of the smoke. Here he has placed it right in front of my troops in the house, blocking them from firing.  

I forgot to take more photo's as we eventually moved towards the main farm and our number of troops firing started to take their toll on the Germans. We had also switched from firing smoke to attacking the farm with our mortars. Last turn of the game saw the remaining few Germans start to withdraw resulting in a victory for the British as they took the farm. 

This was a really good scenario resulting in a fun and closely fought game. 

We think we will play another scenario next week. 

Finally a couple of photo's of work recently finished. A 15mm Belgian Farmhouse for our Napoleonic games and the start of re-basing some 28mm Vikings now that the Normans are complete. This may take some time to get a whole army done. 

Re-basing 28mm Normans and another try at 15mm General De Brigade.

 Quite a few years ago now I painted up a 28mm Norman Army and later added a 28mm Norman force for Saga (a game that I never got on with). For some time now I have been thinking of re-basing all of my Normans into one combined army. We recently had a go at playing the new 'On Bloody Ground' rules based specifically in the 1066 era. Having really enjoyed the rules it has finally spurred me on to rebase my Normans, the progress is as below. 

Light cavalry with javelins.

Spearmen

Formed and skirmish archers.

The whole force so far, just 4 units of infantry left to re-base. 

This will result in an army of 11 units by painting up 4 new mounted figures and an extra 10 infantry to add to the existing forces. All rebased in a manner that by using varying movement trays I will be able to use my Normans in a whole range of rules. I am most looking forward to trying 'On Bloody Ground' in 28mm but I need to rebase my Saxons and Vikings too and they will need a lot more new figures painted. Maybe I shall try a small Norman v Norman game first with a few 'Freebooter' units added in from my Saxons and Vikings.   

Before playing our game of 'General de Brigade' today we took a look at our new 15mm buildings which arrived a few days ago. This was a club order to 'Hovels' for a range of 15mm buildings to suit a few of the 15mm projects we are currently doing. We all really like these, preferring the etched detail of the resin models over the flatter mdf models. 

Some plain models for me and Ian to paint up from a range of 15mm periods. 

Nigel opted to buy pre-painted models including this lovely windmill...  

...and part of a well know Napoleonic farm.

Nigel did buy the whole farm. 

So on with the game. We simply deployed a few battalions each across the table from each other and used the game to try and finally work out mainly the orders phase. 

I sent my light cavalry off on a reckless 'Assault'.

Overhead view of the main battle. 

Nigel's French take up position. 

My light cavalry rout after being hit on both sides by artillery then fail to charge only for Ian to really put them to the sword with his light cavalry, you can see the remains of the first unit routing. 

The 95th skirmish against the French near the farmhouse. 

So how did we find playing General De Brigade today. Ian and Nigel had played a very small game last week so were more clued up on the order system so we got through that phase of the rules more comfortably than last time but it still seems slow and cumbersome. Missile Fire and Melee are quite quick to resolve but then the Morale phase throws in lots of looking things up in the rulebook. Overall General De Brigade seems to slow moving for our more relaxed style of play. They would better suit regular Napoleonic enthusiasts eager to play a game over a full day. Next time we are thinking of playing Fortitude and valour, a free set of rules available from the Perry Miniatures website, and at 8 pages long an easier read. 

  

The Battle of Caer Caradoc: 10mm Hail Caesar

 For todays game we set up our 10mm Romans and Britons for a refight of the Battle of Caer Caradoc scenario from the Hail Caesar 'Britannia' supplement. Randomly picking dice from a bag it was decided that Ian and I would take charge of the Roman forces led by Ostorius Scapula leaving Nigel to lead the Ancient British resistance. The scenario has the Romans chasing after Caractacus who is at this time residing with the Ordovices tribe. Borrowing a few light cavalry from Ian we were able to set the game up exactly as in the book.  

The objectives are clear, the Romans must try to win the battle and capture or kill Caractacus and/or his family whilst the Britons must try to win the battle whilst keeping Caractacus and his family alive. 

The Roman forces marching to battle. 

The Ancient British getting ready to line the ridge and defy the power of Rome. 

The River Severn was fordable but could cause dis-order to formed troops. 

With very few missile troops Ian and I decided to get across the river fast. Here, our Auxiliary Cavalry destroy on small unit of British light cavalry whilst the other unit of Light Cavalry surprised us all by defeating the other Auxiliary unit (which had been dis-ordered whilst crossing the river). 

Over at the ford, Nigel used more units of light cavalry to wreak havoc amongst the Romans trying to cross there. The Roman attack seemed to be faltering just trying to get across the river. 

Scapula's division finally crosses the river.

 The white counters show which legionnaires are in Testudo formation. 

More action across the river. 

Red counters are for disordered units, yellow for shaken.. 

 Two Roman cohorts defeat a warband. 

The remaining Auxiliary Cavalry, after a few other adventures, get around the back of the British and charge their baggage where Caractacus' family were, destroying the baggage and capturing Caractus's family. 

Mayhem all across the British lines as one of their divisions collapses and not too much later Caractacus and his remaining warband flee leaving the Romans as victors and objectives achieved.  

This was a closely fought game and Nigel did particularly well with his light cavalry, really disrupting the Roman advance. However, with the British having only two command figures he often struggled to get his troops to follow orders. The British Warbands are tough to fight, especially when they charge but the Roman Legionaries are very resilient and if supported well, tough to deafeat. 

Another very enjoyable game of Hail Caesar. 

Trying General De Brigade in 15mm

 Having played a 25mm game of General de Brigade over the Christmas period with Nigel's old Minifigs/Hinchliffe collection we have since been painting up British, French and Prussians in 15mm. Although we do not have quite enough figures for a full game just yet we thought we would have a practise game. No scenario as such, just line em up and play through the rules. 

Some of my British troops getting ready for the battle. 

So there were 5 players this week as we welcomed Charlie back for a game and James for his first game with us. Charlie and I were in control of the British leaving Nigel, Ian and James controlling the French troops. 

The table from the British side. 

The game from the French deployment zone.

James advancing his cavalry forced a British unit into square. 

Ian's freshly painted French Light infantry about to 'Falter'. 

The 7th Hussars trying to charge Ian's Light Infantry cause both units to 'Falter'. 

The French Light Infantry then failed their Morale and were dispersed. 

The game fell a bit flat as despite three of us having read the rules ready for the game the command, control and orders part of the rules caused the whole game to 'Falter'. We managed several turns but the going was slow due to constantly having to look things up. Firing and the one melee we did worked out reasonably quickly but the whole game just left us feeling a bit flat. 

Verdict: These rules may be a bit over complex for us but we may give them another go at some point. 

On Bloody Ground in 15mm second game.

 This weeks game was another 15mm Dark Age battle between my slowly growing Viking and Saxon/Anglo Dane forces using the new rule set 'On Bloody Ground' once again. Having enjoyed our first game last week we did have a few questions which happily the authors quickly answered via their Facebook page. So I slightly enlarged both sides (but I need to do a lot of painting for this project as we were still using a few 15mm Barbarians to represent a few of the units). 

Part of the Viking army, mainly Forged in Battle 15mm with a few Splintered Light characters. 

Some of their Anglo-Danish foes, again from Forged in Battle. 

I need to decide whether I expand my 15mm collection or revert to 28mm and rebase all my skirmish based figures. I have far too many of both. 

We used dice to decide that I would lead the Saxons/Anglo-Danes and Ian and Nigel would lead the Vikings. Deploying across fairly open terrain we enjoyed using the Standard Deployment rules as we tried to counter each others opening moves. 

Deployment left the set up as in the photo above. Saxons across the bottom, Vikings above. 

The opening attack saw my scout cavalry destroy Ian's Viking thralls with bows but they themselves were destroyed by the Viking scouts then facing them.

Happily my Gebur with bows then shot enough of the Viking scouts to rout them. 

The two forces were edging warily towards each other. 

The red counters represent un-used orders tokens. These are a clever idea which allow you to try and interrupt the flow of play, hopefully to your advantage. 

Ian's Viking Hirdmen destroy my Thegns.

Look at the difference in casualties caused. 

There were some truly epic dice throwing going on from both sides. 

On the other flank Nigel's troops were involved in a desperate fight with some of my units. This was a real slogging match too with Nigel slowly gaining the advantage. 

Nigel enjoyed destroying a couple more of my units. 

My Thegn's managed to fight off Nigel's Hirdmen but it was too little too late. 

This was a really close fought battle with the Vikings claiming a close fought victory having caused just over 10% more casualties on me than I had on them. 

On Bloody Ground gave us another close fought game with a very exciting finish. We were quicker working our way through the rules today which added to the tension. 

Great fun, but I think I need to do more painting before we play again.