WW2 Weekend at Dover Castle

We popped down to Dover Castle over the weekend to see their WW2 themed weekend.  They had quite a number of re-enactors and various events including a rather entertaining little skirmish.  Here are a few photos:

A German medical unit

An RAF contingent with a Spitfire

A few improvised defences covering the entrance

The skirmish was set up on the green in front of the entrance to the inner bailey.  The premise was that a small British recce unit had become lost and was ambushed by a German patrol:

Sitting duck?

Incoming!

Returning fire

The Germans advance

Achtung!

Jerry gets his comeuppance!

The Lardies Summer Special is here!

The latest Special from the Lardies has just landed.

Coming in at 130 pages, it's packed with Lard centred goodness including 20 scenarios, 7 sets of rule additions or expansions and and several articles.  A full contents list is on the product page on their website.

Whilst it's a potential for more distraction, I've always found these specials an excellent read and pretty decent value for the content you get.

So if you're interested in any of the Two Fat Lardies products get over to their site and download the special - it's only £6 for the PDF!

1st Corps - Erhhart E-V/4

I just spotted that 1st Corps have announced the release of the Erhhart E-V/4 armoured car for Partizan:

This looks particularly interesting as it would be useful for my stalled WW1 Eastern Front project and also the interwar German revolution project which I have been thinking about starting.

I've been thinking about their Minerva armoured car to go with my Brigade Models Belgians but the separate crew only come with the later Adrian helmets and so I'd need to do some head swaps or modify some other figures.

Covenanters - Advancing

As I mentioned in my project update, I have been continuing (albeit slowly) with my Montrose project. Here is my first Covenanter foot unit:

As with my Royalist units the figures are from Redoubt Enterprises and the flag is from Project Auldearn 1645 (which I would highly recommend visiting if you are at all interested in this period!).

More to follow as I finish the Covenanter infantry and then it will be onto the horse, artillery and the officers.

Wargames Weekend - The Photos

Project Progress

It was back at the beginning of February that I last did a project update so I thought it was high time for another one.  Progress has been a little patchy largely due to the annoying intrusion of real life with working being rather hectic which, mixed with a never ending stream of decorating, has left me with much less time for gaming.

28mm French and Indian Wars

As you may have notice from previous posts I plumped for the North Star figures to start this project off.  Having cleaned them up they're currently away for painting and so I won't see those back for a while.
As you may have notice from

I picked up one of the 4Ground pre-finished laser cut MDF buildings at Salute and will be putting that together some time in the next few weeks - so expect a post on the results.

Other than that I'm afraid I haven't really made to much other progress on this one but I suspect that once the figures come back you'll see a resurgence of interest!

28mm Early WW2 Poland

I do have a bit of progress to report here - having pulled together a roughly platoon sized force of Warlord Games' figures (actually it's an understrength platoon as they were huge!) they're now in the process of being based.  The hold up with these has been the lack of suitable bases for some of the support weapons - something I have now sorted - and the desire to get my Montrose project actually finished!

I've still got an anti-tank gun and the TKS to assemble and paint which may take a little while but I'm hoping these will be ready to hit the table when Lenin next visits in the summer.

28mm Montrose

So after having made some notable progress with the Highlanders and Irish foot things stalled a little with this one.  I picked up a piece of historical fiction to help generate some renewed interest and, blow me down, it actually worked!

The Covenanter infantry is almost finished with only the pikes to paint and attach and then I'll be on to the horse and officers.

I am still mulling over which set of rules to use.  I'm planning to try the Canadian Wargamers Group ECW set For God, King and Country first but if these don't find favour there's always Pike and Shotte which we previously tried with my Tudor Ireland figures.

15mm Marlburian

Apart from having played another game I'm afraid there's not much to report here...

28mm Indian Mutiny
I've picked up some more metal for this project at Salute - some more Sepoys and some Gentlemen Volunteers so they've joined the painting queue just behind the Naval Brigade and the native infantry.  Whilst there's some way to go before they all hit the table it does mean that I do have all the figures I think I need for the moment.

I've managed to pick up a couple more buildings too and I plan to make some small earthworks to allow for some siege scenarios - which may well materialise before the next batch of painted figures.  Of course there's still the need to pick on some rules...

15mm WW2

Whilst the planned expansion into later WW2 hasn't actually materialised in any measurable way, I have been accumulating some terrain, mostly from 4Ground again, to enhance my early war games.

I managed to pick up a couple of new buildings at Salute - the Church and the Grand Stone Hotel - and hope to be putting those together over the bank holiday weekend.  Having also picked up some roads from eBay I have been inspired to put on a couple of games recently and I'm thinking about another scenario which should see my basing up some more figures.


28mm Dark Ages

Other than having thought about this a couple of times the rebasing and repair of my existing early and later Dark Ages figures for Dux Britanniarum and Saga respectively hasn't actually come to anything as yet.  Of course rebasing isn't my favourite activity and it will mean reorganising the storage arrangement so I suspect that hasn't helped.  So hopefully this will see some progress later in the year.

28mm Crusades

So I set up the trial game of Deus Vult but (cue long list of excuses) never actually got around to actually playing the game before I needed the games table for something else.  I suspect I need to find some inspiration to get me back into the mood for the period but as it's likely to prompt more spending (which I don't have any budget for) I suspect I'm not going to be in a mad rush!

28mm Old West

This one came a little out of the blue as it wasn't on this years plan.  But having spotted Dead Man's Hand from Great Escape Games was being released around Salute I decided to pick up a copy.  And given my fondness for 4Ground buildings, the fact that they have a range of pre-finished ones to support the game didn't help my resistance!

As you may have seen I've put the first of the buildings together and was rather happy with it so I took advantage of their recent 10% off offer and have ordered another couple.  I've also picked up a gallows from Battle Flag, which arrived today (excellent service there!) so that's in the queue for assembly.

I've sorted out the existing Brigade Games and Foundry figures I have along with my old collection of assorted Dixons ones and plan to do some rebasing as they're all on different bases.

So from a standing start this project is moving forward at quite a pace!

28mm Greek Myth

With Lenin having brought over an instalment of my Foundry and Eureka figures and also having had a game of the new 7th Voyage rules from Crooked Dice, I beginning to think this might be the impetus for this old project to get some new legs.

I am seriously thinking of getting my own copy of 7th Voyage and have rooted around in my unpainted lead mountain I've managed to find a few more figures too.

And then there's that lovely ship that Grand Manner do ...

Rearguard at Pevensey

The final game of our wargaming weekend was another outing for the I Ain't Been Shot Mum from the TooFatLardies.  I picked a scenario from the old Operation Sealion book and Lenin and I reprised our usual roles.

The Home Guard (Lenin) are defending the edge of Pevensey when the Blitzkrieg hoves into view.  Their task is to hold up the Germans until the regulars can come to the rescue.

My German infantry came onto the board and straight into a crossfire from the town and the train halt.  After having taken a few casualties I managed to get my machine guns deployed and concentrated some fire into the town which quickly put paid to the first Home Guard unit.

It was then an interesting exercise in FIBUA with the Home Guard slowing up my advance whilst their reinforcements advanced across the table.  Here are some pictures of the game:

 

I have to say that if I were playing this one again I would move the town into the centre of the table as we really didn't use the top half of the table which was a bit of a waste.

Alaska Bob and the Sonic Laser

In our ongoing search for a set of Pulp rules we both like Lenin decided to give Pulp Alley a try.

The scenario was built using the scenario generation mechanisms in the rules so we ended up with Lenin playing the hero, Alaska Bob, trying to stop me, as the dastardly Count Smirnoff and his henchman Fekov, from assembling the terrible Sonic Laser (yes, I know that makes no sense but, hey, it's Pulp!) in my secret hideout in the frozen north.

We both assembled our leagues, again using the mechanisms from the rules,which were pretty straightforward, and started to play.

The game started with Alaska Bob having been cut off from the rest of his league and surrounded by Smirnoff's men.

With neither Smirnoff nor his right hand man wanting to take any chances Bob was managing to hold off their lackeys.

The rest of Bob's team began to advance into Smirnoff's camp and came to the notice of the dog sled team.

A couple of them tried a sneakier and more roundabout route.

One of Bob's chaps managed to calm the huskies and started to examine the crates.

Meanwhile Feckov decided to see what had alerted the dogs and Smirnoff went to check on some of the key components for the device which allowed Alaska Bob to whittle down the remaining opposition.

Whilst Fekov managed to deal with a couple of Bob's crew, he and Smirnoff thought thinks were getting a little too hot for their liking and melted away into the woods...

More Maurice

I wanted to give my WSS collection a bit of an outing and Lenin was keen to try Maurice again but using the full rules - so we did a pick up and play game using the set up from the book.

The key additions from our previous game were National Characteristics, Notables, early 18th Century artillery and variable weather.  National Characteristics are handled through points for this type of game but I suspect we would choose them for a more historically based one.  We chose to have two Notables each - these are drawn from the whole period the rules cover and so you can get some rather strange combinations (as indeed we did!).

Lenin took command of the English forces and chose Lethal Volleys as his only National Characteristic and drew Jonathan Russell, Earl of Bragge and Kershaw, Earl of Brent as his Notables.

I reprised my previous role as commander of the French choosing à la Baïonnette! as my only National Characteristic.  I then drew the Reverend Howard Whitehouse and Giovanni di Tripodi as my Notables.  We both decided to utilise one of our Notables as a Chief of Staff and placed the other with the cavalry.

Terrain placement was an interesting phase as Lenin focussed on creating an excellent defensive position for me to assault and so missed the chance to mess up my deployment and communications with some awkward placement.  We ended up with a hill in centre with woods and a marsh around it and a large town to Lenin's left.  The objective was, of course, in the town.

Lenin deployed his artillery on the central hill with most of his cavalry massed to their left and most his infantry between them and the town, with one unit as a garrison force.  His remaining cavalry and his other infantry were placed in column to his rear (something I suspect he would have done differently now) with the cavalry behind the town.

I deployed my forces with my infantry on my right in two lines facing the town, my artillery in the centre and my cavalry to the left.

Initially my foot advanced towards the town.  So the English advanced their horse to threaten my infantry's left and moved the remainder of his cavalry through the town to reform and threaten the centre of my foot.

I countered the horse on my left with my own horse and my foot stood and volleyed the English horse as emerged from the town.

A cavalry battle ensued with the Earl of Bragge leading repeated charges at my horse but having squadron after squadron shatter against the superior French!

Meanwhile the English horse facing the centre of my infantry were being decimated by volley after volley of musketry and eventually fell back.  I then advanced on the town extending my right flank to concentrate my fire on the English garrison.

The English advanced their foot in the centre but I threatened them with my horse and my foot eventually overcame the English garrison in the town.  The remaining English advanced to the rear of the town to prevent me outflanking them and moving into their rear.

With the English morale failing but the objective still contested dusk fell and the engagement was declared a draw.