The Battle of Ramillies, 1706

It having been an age since I had played Maurice by Sam Mustafa and a friend expressing an interest in trying them out, I decided to run a game at the club.

I found a scenario for the Battle Ramillies (the only one of Marlborough’s famous battles scaled for two players as opposed to four players - using the optional ‘Doubles’ rules).

The game was as fun as remember; however, whilst I had explained the rules I didn’t give my friend enough pointers on tactics as he was playing Marlborough and so needed to be pretty aggressive to win.

Here are a few photos from the game:

Fallujah, 2004

At our club Open Day back in June I got a chance to play our next Show game, Pete's 20mm scenario in Iraq using Force on Force with a few minor amendments.

As you can see from the photos below the game looks fantastic and is the result of a huge amount of work during lockdown by Pete to scratch build pretty much everything other than the figures and vehicles (both of which he painted too).

It was a fun game with the players playing the US forces against the Umpire.

Here are a few photos:

IABSM - Cassel 1940

Following a discussion at the club, various people expressed an interest in playing I Ain't Been Shot Mum by the TooFatLardies.  I had originally planned it for a relatively small game but ended up expanding it to cover 5 players.

The scenario was based on a what-if engagement between B Company of 2/Glosters (with some supports) defending the North West part of Cassel, from an assault by Kamfgruppe von Esebeck - a combined armoured and infantry force.

Here are a few pictures from the game:

General d'Armee - Waterloo

 The Herts Volunteers club has been generous enough to invite me to come along to their games.  I don't get up there as often as I would like (it's a hour and a half drive, M25 willing).  But when they offered me a chance to participate in their 28mm Waterloo game I wasn't going to miss it.

The game used the General d'Armee rules by Dave Brown published by Reisswitz Press (the TooFatLardies sister imprint). We were lucky enough to have the author himself come along and what a nice chap he is.

I was given command of the French 2nd Cavalry and 3rd Infantry Divisions which saw a lot of fighting over toward the right wing.  In the end, and despite some heavy pressure from the Allied forces I managed to hold out and in combination with a massive cavalry engagement on the actual right wing we allowed the left wing and centre to press home.

Here are a few photos - it's unfortunate that the identifying cards are so prominent but with so many people supplying figures they needed to be easily identifiable:

Retribution at Ryloth

Since we hadn't got Armada to the table for ages, I put on a narrative scenario at the club recently.  Each side had 400 points to spend and the briefings were as set out below. 

Rebel Briefing

Following the capture of a Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier and the destruction of an Arquitens-class light cruiser by Rebel forces over Ryloth, Imperial activity in the sector has substantially increased. This puts the abandoned Clone Wars era station orbiting the system’s outer planet which is being used as a Rebel supply station at risk.

With an Imperial task force under Admiral Motti appearing at Ryloth itself it has become imperative to relocate the vital supplies from the station and also transport Cham Syndulla, leader of the resistance on Ryloth to recruit more Twi’leks to fight the Empire.

Rebel Victory Conditions

The station holds 10 units of supplies each worth 10 points if they are aboard a ship which has left the system. Small ships can only carry 1 unit, medium ships 2 units and large ships 3 units.

Cham Syndulla is worth 20 points if he is aboard a ship that successfully leaves the system.

You will also score points for every Imperial ship and squadron destroyed equal to their point value but lose points for every Rebel ship or squadron destroyed on the same basis.

Imperial Briefing

Following the capture of a Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier and the destruction of an Arquitens-class light cruiser by insurgent forces over Ryloth, Imperial activity in the sector has been substantially increased.

Your Imperial task force under Admiral Motti has been dispatched to Ryloth to root out these rebels and neutralise them.  You also need to locate and capture or eliminate Cham Syndulla, leader of the resistance on Ryloth to prevent him from inciting more Twi’leks to resist the Empire.

Imperial Agents have brought intelligence of activity near an abandoned Clone Wars era station orbiting the outer planet in the system.

Imperial Victory Conditions

The station holds 10 units of supplies each worth 10 points if they destroyed whilst still in the system. Note that small Rebel ships can only carry 1 unit, medium ships 2 units and large ships 3 units.

Cham Syndulla is worth 20 points if he is aboard a ship that is destroyed in the system.

You will also score points for every Rebel ship and squadron destroyed equal to their point value but lose points for every Imperial ship or squadron destroyed on the same basis.

Here are some photos from the game:

Despite the Star Destroyer obliterating the station, some clever play by the Rebels including the escape of Cham Syndulla, meant a Rebel win this time. 

O Group - Counterattack at Arras

 

Having picked up a copy of O Group from Reisswitz Press (the TooFatLardies sister imprint), the new World War II rules from Dave Brown, I wanted to get them to the table.

As my 15mm WW2 collection is all early war I also picked up the 1940 Fall of France & the Low Countries supplement which had a scenario that was ideal for my collection based on the counter-attack at Arras.  Albeit that I still had to paint up a few additional pieces - mostly vehicles.

Unfortunately I was too busy umpiring (often a challenge with a first game) to take too many photos and so some of the following were taken by others.

Skirmish at Top Malo House

 

Back in May, and a couple of days before the fortieth anniversary, I ran a 28mm game of the engagement between the Royal Marines Arctic and Mountain Warfare Cadre and elements of the Argentinian 602 Commando Company.

I used the Skirmish Sangin rules as, whilst these were designed for Afghanistan, they were relatively easily adapted to the Falklands and provide a suitably crunchy game for such a small engagement with very low levels of cover.

The scenario was developed from the Mountain Commandos at War in the Falklands: The Royal Marines Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre in Action During the 1982 Conflict by Rod Boswell (who commanded the Marines in this engagement).

We ended up playing the scenario twice during the day - here are a couple of pictures from the second round

The main issue, from a gaming perspective, of using Skirmish Sangin for this period is the absence of body armour - so if you get hit you go down.