This Land Divided

This Land Divided: Skirmishes and Battles in Wilkes County February and March 1779 is a new supplement for Sharp Practice from the TooFATLardies. Written by Chris Stoesen, a resident of the area, this 74 page pdf booklet provides background and scenarios for a variety of actions in Georgia during the American War of Independence.

Starting with a single page introduction from Richard Clarke the booklet provides 7 pages of background information including the actions covered in the later scenario section. This is followed by 4 pages with an outline of notable units and personalities and a single page bibliography. Another 5 pages address the information necessary to play the scenarios using Sharp Practice, covering troops types, cards, national characteristics, odd weapons, big man creation and the like.

We then reach the meat of the supplement with twelve scenarios of various sizes. Each has a historical background and map followed by briefings for the Loyalists, Rebels and the umpire. The final page of the booklet provides a summary of the figure requirements which really highlights the varying size of the scenarios. The smallest (Scenario 4 - Middleton's Ferry) only requires 21 Loyalist and 13 Rebel figures whilst the largest requires 115 Loyalists and 103 Rebels.

Given the location and period these are militia actions some with indian allies but are no less interesting for that. Indeed they provide a welcome break from some of the more "traditional" AWI supplements which seem to focus mostly on the regular actions.

The booklet is clear and well laid out. As it's not a core Lardies production it doesn't have their humourous asides and the like relying on an apparently well researched historical style. It is not a full supplement for playing AWI using Sharp Practice however but neither is it advertised as such. It resistricts itself to the provision of the necessary information to cover the troops and weapons used in the scenarios.

Unfortunately I have not yet had the time (or indeed collected the toys [yet anyway!]) to play the scenarios but I found the booklet interesting and the scenarios certainly look promising.

Another project?

On the way back from the barbers yesterday I popped into the local branch of the British Bookshops chain. I spotted Fusiliers by Mark Urban but not having read his previous work and with AWI not currently on my radar I wasn't sure. Of course the £2.99 price tag overcame all!

I've been looking at the Perry Miniatures ranges and wondering whether to do another project with their lovely figures, especially given their excellent service. This book combined with This Land Divided the latest TooFatLardies Sharp Practice supplement are certainly pushing me towards AWI (albeit from two different theatres of the war).

I'll post my thoughts on both once I have had a chance to read them.

Gaming ADD Strikes Again

Despite not having any of the following on my projects list for this year I have found myself distracted from the planned projects by a few interesting sidelines - some of which I have actually begun "investing" in:

28mm Sudan
I have been admiring the Perry Miniatures Sudan figures for some time and following a recent (much smaller scale game) my interest was rekindled. I rather rashly put in an order and with amazing speed the figures arrived. I have also picked up a couple of suitable buildings and a steamer so I have plenty of scenario ideas!

28mm Dahomey
This is another period of interest which has been restarted. I initially read about the French conquest of Dahomey in Douglas Porch's book on the French Foreign Legion and I have been contemplating picking up some of the Dixon Miniatures figures for it.

28mm Sahara
Yet another colonial period but the French Foreign Legion once again. I do already have some of the Redoubt Enterprises March or Die range and I have been thinking of building this up to allow for larger forces to be deployed on each side.

As a result of all this renewed interest in colonial I suspect a couple of my other projects will take a back seat for a while. I may also get distracted again once my Front Rank Napoleonics come back from the painter!

Super Service - Scarab and Brigade Games

I ordered some more 28mm WW1 figures on 1st July from Scarab Miniatures and Brigade Games. These were mainly for my late war French troops as I need figures which can easily be identified as grenadiers and rifle grenadiers for Through the Mud and the Blood. Whilst both do the former only Scarab seems to do suitable figures with VB grenade launchers. It was also an opportunity to have a look at Scarab's figures for real (website photos aren't always ideal).


Both companies sent emails out on 3rd July saying they had dispatched the orders and I received the Scarab one on 6th July and the Brigade one on 10th July. An excellent service from both firms!

Wargames Weekend: The Pictures

Wargames Weekend: Fear & Faith

Our final game was a playtest of the Fear and Faith rules from Ganesha Games. These are a set of horror rules based on their Song of Blades and Heroes engine.

The scenario was a simple "last man standing" over possession of an ancient Greek site during World War Two. I played to type as the forces of darkness with a Vampir Gruppe consisting of, surprise surprise, a vampire (and a Nazi one to boot), two She Wolves and six zombies. Lenin had a small section of British infantry accompanied by an army chaplain.


Things started fairly slowly as we got familiar with the rules and my zombies advanced slowly across the table chanting "Gehirn". Lenin found it tricky to dispatch the zombies as they needed an aimed shot (to the head) and so, after an initial advance, decided on a more defensive strategy.


I decided to take the offensive and assumed gaseous form with my vampire in order to infiltrate the British position. Eventually I managed to materialise among them and a battle between the force of light and dark was joined. Unfortunately for the light the chaplain was unable to skewer me when he had the advantage but I gave him a nasty nip when it was my turn. As the chaplain was the only one with the wooden stakes the Brits decided discretion was the better part of valour and withdrew.
The main issue I had with the rules (which I whinged on and one about - as Lenin would happily tell you) was the need to roll to activate each figure. My dice rolling is erratic at the best of times and so this made the game a little frustrating. I also had a bit of a problem rationalising why my "big bad" character needed to roll to take any actions at all. Lenin did point out that the rules did have an option to avoid this and that some of the attributes (for example fear) would have been better substituted for others which would have made the game play out slightly differently.
All in all I'm not sure that the rules provide many advantages over others we already use other than being a little simpler (which is not to be sniffed at since I have difficulty remembering even the most straightforward sets). We're going to take a little time to reflect on them in order to decide whether to give them another chance or try some other alternatives based on our existing stock of the rules.

Wargames Weekend: Galatas Village

Next up was the next part of our invasion of Crete campaign. Fortunately my Fallschirmsjaeger had managed to find some of the rest of their scattered force as the original team took quite a pasting last time.

Our objective in this scenario was to move from Cemetery Hill and take the village of Galatas. I decided on a two pronged attack one side of which immediately came under fire from a bren gun team on the other side of the valley.

After quite a fire fight I managed to pin down the bren gun team and send some men over to close assault the position. Meanwhile, on the other flank, we had discovered the allied troops holed up in the village. A few casualties were taken crossing the dry gully and advancing to within charge range of the buildings. We just needed to keep the allies heads down long enough for a close assault.

With the bren gun position neutralised on the left flank I was able to put some firepower on the flank of the village and the troops on the right assaulted the buildings. One succumbed quickly but there was a vicious hand to hand fight for the second building but in the end my superior numbers made all the difference.

Wargames Weekend: Patrols in the Sudan

Following on from the Spanish Civil War game we decided to give Peter Pig's Patrols in the Sudan a go. As my Essex Sudan figures aren't quite based correctly for the rules we had to work around that (the wide Mahdist bases acted as two bases each for example).

Lenin took charge of the British forces with his mission to recce a village and report back.

It took a little while to get the hang of the rules, something that wasn't helped by the terrible layout, poor proofreading and limited explanations in the rules.

Lenin managed to get the column to the village relatively easily, largely because of my inability to get troops onto the table. When I did attack he managed to get his units to turn to face ir redeploy and shot my Mahdists to pieces.

But when he tried to return he had quite a few more problems. One unit attempted to scout some brush and was surprised my one of mine who managed to get into hand to hand and gave them a damned good thrashing. Another of his units marched in column past some broken ground and I took the opportunity to charge into his flank. Unfortunately for Lenin his column failed to turn to face and paid the penalty. I then turned to the next unit in the column and that suffered a similar fate to the first. The remaining unit was holding the village but unlike the others this was a veteran unit of highlanders and they were not going to be a push over.
I managed to get units into templates either side of it forcing it to move into square. But when I assaulted him it all began to go wrong. The highlanders managed to shoot the leaders of both of the Mahdist units which then stalled in rifle range and were shot to pieces. The highlanders then managed to march away and complete the mission.
Despite taking substantial casualties Lenin managed to score a victory mainly due to the losses by the Mahdists and having successfully completed the mission.
Patrols in the Sudan provides a fun game despite the poor presentation and will be hitting the table again.

Wargames Weekend: Muerte in Merida

Our third game was a great opportunity to get my Grand Manner Spanish terrain out with some of my Anglian Miniatures figures along with a chance to try an adaptation of the Lardies Through the Mud and the Blood rules.

I played to type as the Nationalists but this time in defence. The Legion had captured Merida and the Republicans, reinforced by Asaltos from Madrid, decided to try taking it back.

My main challenge was holding the large town wall with only three sections. Things started well but the Asaltos penetrated the perimeter before one of my sections managed to reach it (one of the challenges of the card driven system with a small number of Big Men). It was at this stage that we found the modifier for moving attackers in melee (defender loses 2 dice per attackers dice of movement) which resulted in my section being routed.


The Asaltos went on to attack the next unit in the flank routing it also. As a result my big men spent most of their time removing shock points in order to turn the around. Eventually I managed to rally the units but they lost the firefight with the Republicans and the latter were victorious.

What was apparent was that Mud & Blood does not easily translate to periods with smaller unit sizes. I also plan to query that pesky melee modifier on the Lardies discussion group.

Wargames Weekend: Ambush Alley

Our second game was a chance to get Ambush Alley to the table. I played the US forces and had three 4 man fireteams who had been sent in to rescue two civilian contractors who had got into trouble. On the first turn the men spotted an Improvised Explosive Device (IDE) hidden in a car situated right between our entry point and the target. Consequently we couldn't take the most direct route. I started by sending one fireteam into one building to tackle an insurgent hotspot whilst the remainder of the unit crossed a nearby wall. The first fireteam then advanced toward another building but came under insurgent fire and took casualties. In trying to withdraw two of the men were killed and the others were wounded. The other two teams advanced under fire but were able to neutralise it and secure another building. One team took up a covering position whilst the other advanced across an alley way to try to secure another building overlooking another hotspot. They then came under intensive fire and took casualties. At this point I decided to withdraw to regroup.

The game was certainly difficult for the US forces, although the insurgency level was set very high, I can see how this would be challenging at most levels. However our main concern was that whilst fun the rules are very specifically designed for modern urban combat against insurgents and this will make them of somewhat limited use for us. For this type of game they are likely to get other outings but I suspect this may not be that frequent as we don't tend to play these type of scenarios very often.

Wargames Weekend: 1938 The Spirit of Dr Syn Lives On

Last weekend Lenin came over for another visit. We managed to get six tabletop games into the three days and had plenty of variety of periods and rules. Our first game was a chance for me to get my new Musketeer Miniatures figures onto the table for A Very British Civil War.

A group of like minded Men of Kent (or possibly Kentish Men - I didn't make the brief particular on that point) decided to emulate that infamous resident of Dymchurch, Dr Syn, and smuggle some weapons into the country in order to give that awful upstart Mosley a damned good thrashing. The driving force behind this plan were two ex army types, Captain Jack "Bulldog" Dunbar DSO MC and Major Sir Alfred Ayes-Waughter. Accompanied by the Major's faithful gamekeeper Harry Johnson they intended to load a consignment of arms purchased from some friendly chaps in the colonies onto a lorry and head back to the Major's manor.

Unfortunately some cad had given the game away and, acting on information received, Inspector Hugh "Snapper" Jorgan decided to visit the coast accompanied by three armed constables. To make matters worse one of the constables had told his brother, a shining light in the local BUF, who have decided to turn out and assist the boys in blue.
The inspector and the constables were proceeding in a southerly direction when they came under a hail of bullets from two different directions and were pinned down. Fortunately an element of the BUF arrived and distracted the gunmen allowing the police to advance but not before one of the constables had thought better of the whole adventure and taken to his heels.

A pitched battle ensued between the BUF and the gunmen, ably commanded by the Major, and casualties were suffered on both sides. Unfortunately the rebel's lewis gun ran out of ammunition at a critical moment and let the BUF supported by their sergeant, who was carrying a sub-machine gun, to close. A desperate melee was joined but the Major, with his extensive experience of hand to hand fighting, managed to end up the last man standing after polishing of at least four of the BUF blighters but, unfortunately, not before the rest of his group had been rendered insensible.

Meanwhile the remainder of the BUF contingent, ineptly commanded by Frederick Spode, were advancing on the other side of the road whilst Bulldog and his men loaded the lorry and started to move up the road. After a little cat and mouse more gunfire was exchanged and the BUF took the worst of it. The rebels managed to get their wounded onto the lorry with their contraband and escaped (albeit at a leisurely pace - since steam was the motive power) leaving the BUF and police to lick their wounds.

The figures used were a combination of the Musketeer IRA and BUF along with a couple of Copplestone personalities and we used the Two Hour Wargames Nuts! rules.

Weekend of Wargaming on the Horizon

Lenin will be paying another visit in a couple of weeks and I'm in the process of preparing the games I'll be putting on. I'm also putting a 20mm WW2 game on at the club on Thursday so I've got a lot to do.

The current plan for the weekend has me hosting a 1938 A Very British Civil War game using my 28mm Musketeer Miniatures and Two Hour Wargames' CR3.0 rules; a Spanish Civil War game with my 28mm Anglian Miniatures and the TooFatLardies' Through the Mud & the Blood (with a few appropriate special rules) and a 15mm Sudan game using Peter Pig's Patrols in the Sudan.

At the moment Lenin is planning the next game in the WW2 Crete campaign (28mm with Cr3.0), some weirdness using the Fear and Faith rules and a 15mm game using Ambush Alley.

Of course the weekend is a couple of weeks away so it's possible that lots of these might change depending on whether the preparations go well or badly!

Summer of Lard 2009

It's that time of year and the Lardies have just released their latest summer special. This year it's 120 pages of fun including:

Algernon Pulls a Fast One: a fast play variant of their Algernon Pulls it Off WW1 air rules
Bloody Halfaya: A scenario for I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM) set during the 1941 Operation Battleaxe
The Battle of Salem Church: A scenario for They Couldn't Hit an Elephant (TCHAE), their ACW rules.
Sid's Trenches: A guide to making your own trench system
Playing Fast & Loose: A guide to designing your own kriegsspiel games
Like a Rollin' Stonne: Another IABSM scenario, this time for 1940 France
Blue Swastika Rampant: A aricle on Winter War air combat and Bag the Hun
Action at Balls Bluff: Ideas for using Sharp Practice in the American Civil War plus a scenario
Meet the Fokkers: A Winter War scenario for Bag the Hun
Jean Has a Long Moustache: WW2 French Resistance scenarios for IABSM and Troops Weapons & Tactics (TW&T)
Attack on Camp El Juba: An If The Lord Spares Us scenario in WW1 Mesopotamia
Ils ne Passeront Pas: A Through the Mud & the Blood (TTM&TB) WW1 scenario
Go West: An article on ACW commanders in the western theatre for TCHAE
Hurrah for Toad: Ideas for using Big Men in IABSM who are less like heros and more like Toad from the Wind in the Willows
Mama Told Me Not to Come: A Portuguese Guinea scenario from the 1970's for IABSM or TW&T using the B'Maso supplement
The Battle of Alcaniz: A Le Feu Sacre scenario
Another Lazy TW&T: An article on simplifying TW&T this time focussing on armour
The War on Trenches: A article on working with Kalistra's trenches
Bag the Hun 2: An introduction the new edition of the WW2 air rules
Somme Enchanted Evening: A 1916 scenario TTM&TB
Six of the Best: Another Winter War Bag the Hun scenario
Fondler's Filly: A Sharp Practice scenario following on from those in The Compleat Fondler

Having only got it today I haven't had a chance to read through it all yet! But it looks like another excellent special from the Lardies and well worth the £5 for the PDF.

Meeples & Miniatures - TooFatLardies Interview

The latest Meeples and Miniatures podcast has an interview with Richard Clarke from the TooFatLardies which is well worth a listen.

KaiserRushforth Thumbs Up, Royal Mail Thumbs Down

Given the number of new 28mm figures I seem to be accumulating I decided to invest in a couple more of the KaiserRushforth storage boxes. I ordered online from the KR website on Sunday and the boxes arrived at lunchtime today - so excellent service from KaiserRushforth. Unfortunately the Royal Mail managed to crumple one of the box corners, so I am somewhat less pleased with them!

Musketeer BEF and BUF

With a few minutes spare this afternoon I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of my 28mm Musketeer Miniatures BEF and BUF figures:I am intending to use both for A Very British Civil War but the BEF will also be useful for the Irish War of Independence too. Both sets of figures are sculpted by the talented Paul Hicks.

Mr Hicks is at it again!

This time it's armed clergy for 1938:

and very nice (or nasty, depending on your perspective!) they look too - coming soon to Musketeer Miniatures.

Grand Manner Spanish Church

I have been looking at adding the church from Grand Manner to my Spanish village for a while now. I eventually decided to take the plunge and ordered one. As usual the service was excellent and the building arrived about a week later and I am really pleased with it.

The church comes in four separate sections, the L shaped ground floor, the flat roof with bell tower and two roofs.You can se sure this will be appearing on the table at the first available opportunity!

Artizan - Armed Bobbies

Artizan have shown some previews of their armed police:

Anglian SCW Figures

Here are some pictures of a few of my 28mm Anglian Miniatures Spanish Civil War figures:

The anarchist militia:

Guardia De Assalto:

The Spanish Foreign Legion:
Moroccan Regulares:

Guardia Civil:

Falangista:
and finally the Carlists:

Invasion! Operation Sealion 1940

Living in Kent and with a fascination for the Second World War I have been interested in Operation Sealion, the planned German invasion, for some time. Accordingly, I keep an eye out for any new material on the subject. I actually bought Martin Marix Evans' book a little while ago but have had quite a few books ahead of it on my reading list (as you will have noticed if you follow my Shelfari shelf).

I finished reading it yesterday and so I thought I write a quick outline of the book and my thoughts on it.

The book is split into two parts; Part 1 covers the history leading up to the planned invasion and Part 2 is a conjectural description of the invasion itself had it been launched.

The first part begins on 1 September 1939 and covers the successful invasions of Norway, the Low Countries and France. At first this might seem to be widening the scope of the book somewhat, or if you are a bit of a cynic padding; however, the narrative is clear and provides a useful context to Sealion.

The second part assumes a September invasion and covers the period from 9 to 29 September 1940. It makes a number of quite plausible assumptions and tries to weave real deployment, defences and plans with the conjectural landings and subsequent advance inland.

Whilst the book brings together a good amount of useful information and the conjectural invasion is interesting it doesn't really add very much to the material already published. The invasion is nicely described, although some maps would have made following the narrative easier, and provides some nice low level encounters which anchor it.

Overall I was a little disappointed, not because this is a bad book, it isn't, but rather because it could have been so much more. As it is the book is worth reading if you don't have a library of other material on the subject (which I do) although I did think the ending of the second part could have been handled a little more imaginatively.

Onwards from Beersheba, November 1917

I managed to get along to the club on Thursday and Eric the Spy put on a 15mm WW1 game using Great War Spearhead.

I like the basic WW2 Spearhead rules (although you do need to turn the Germans stats down from invincible!) and the Great War amendments are interesting but the way they have laid out the supplement is just a pain! Unlike Modern Spearhead they chose to produce a separate supplement which isn't stand alone. You are constantly finding yourself being referred back to the original rules which, for in game reference, is hopeless.

The game itself was fun with me taking command of the camelry and attacking up the right flank with Ben and Crazy Dave advancing with the infantry and artillery in the centre. We also had a slightly sneaky flank march by the cavalry (which was very late arriving many due to my dodgy dice rolling).

As we started our attack at night visibility was initially restricted and so I managed to stumble into some barbed wire fronting some entrenched Turks (with machine guns of course!). We took some serioud casualties on the lead unit both from artillery and the infantry who were in the trenches but managed to dismount and start to hit back. Fortunately the Turks had anchored their flank on a wood rather than running their line through it and so my dismounted infantry were able to advance through it an outflank their position.

Meanwhile our main thrust was encountering some resistance from the Turks in the centre but giving as good as they got.

The Turks chose to aim their reinforcements at my outflanking troops rather than bolstering the centre and so the game ended in a British victory albeit a costly one.

SELWG is back!

It looks like the SELWG show at Crystal Palace will be back on this year on the 18th of October. It has always been one of my favourites with a good range of traders, games and not too crowded. Unfortunately the leisure centre in which they have traditionally held it hasn't been available for the last couple of years (due to asbestos or something) and I have really missed the show.

There's not much on the SELWG site, other than the announcement that the show is back on, at the moment but it will be worth keeping an eye on if you're interested.

Project Update

I thought I would give an update on the progress (or otherwise) of the various projects for this year:

28mm Winter War
The Soviets are now complete and I finished the second Bolt Action Miniatures building for Lenin's last visit but I still have the Snapdragon revetments to paint up, mainly due to running out of suitable undercoat - something I hope to remedy this week.

28mm Spanish Civil War
I have the Assaltos, Carlists, Moroccan Regulares, the Falange and a few Republicans on the workbench at the moment and hope to make some progress on finishing their basing today. I also have the armoured truck to finish painting, although I'm not entirely happy with progress to date. The Grand Manner church is still on the wish list!

28mm WW1
With virtually all the figures now complete and based - I only have to finish off a couple of HMGs and the German field artillery piece (which is proving more difficult to assemble than its British counterpart) - its clear that putting on a game does provide the impetus to getting this stuff done.

The new Lardies supplement, Stout Hearts & Iron Troopers, has prompted me to review the figures I have and, as usual when you get a new supplement, I've found I need a few more figures. This is mainly for my late war ranges, which is a shame as they are all Brigade figures and the exchange rates is somewhat less favourable than it was. But I can sense an order coming on...

28mm Irish War of Independence
I still have the Sloppy Jalopy armoured car to assemble as it is needs a lot more work than the other vehicles I have made up recently. The resin is a pretty coarse moulding and lacks anything in the way of holes or marks for the white metal parts to be fixed to. Plus the white metal wheels simply don't fit onto the axles and so they will require drilling out. I'm hoping it will be worth the effort.

I do now have my Musketeer BEF, which just need basing, which can be used for regulars as well as for the 1938 project. I won't be able to mix them with the Renegade early war figures though as they are markedly different in size. The Lancia armoured truck is going together pretty well and I hope to have that finished soon - although the steering wheel doesn't have any mounting point and a couple of the smaller parts are a bit fiddly.

28mm Tudor Irish
No real progress here again. I have had some ideas about the rules - some prompted by the Lardies new sets, Sharp Practice in particular. But, being honest, I can see this not really progressing until later in the year.

28mm Early WW2
The Foundry and Crusader British and German figures are back now and I have started the basing process, although they are now in the queue behind the SCW stuff. I am hoping to get the French figures back shortly too and I can see a game in the offing. Although I'm not sure whether it will be France or Sealion - the latter being the most probable since I am reading a book on the subject!

28mm 1938 A Very British Civil War
I am hoping to get the Musketeer BUF and Police back shortly and am slowly amassing a militia force as they make new releases. I think I will probably put a game on with these figures for Lenin's next visit using a combination of the Crusader WW2 (as regulars), BEF (as Territorials) and some IRA plus SCW figures as the opposition. With the possibility I may throw a few suitable Pulp figures in too. Rules and the current question as to whether to go with Chain Reaction 3.0 or to go for a larger game and use Through the Mud & the Blood given the content of the Triumphant Standards supplement.

28mm Wild West
Having put on a game for Lenin's last visit I think I've really got this where I wanted for this year. Six Gun Sound worked well as the rule set - even though I did get a pasting in both the games we played! My next task is to review the Dixons figures I have and see which ones will fit with the new Brigade ones and whether any rebasing is necessary.

28mm Polar Bear Expedition
This really hasn't advanced since I got the HLBS figures - although I see Tiger have bought the range now so they won't be going away. I'm thinking this will become a wider RCW project using the Musketeer WW1 Russian figures for whites and probably getting some Copplestone figures to add to Lenin's for the Reds. I'm waiting for Musketeer to release the Russians in greatcoats before pushing this one forward too much. TTM&TB is likely to be the preferred ruleset which will dictate the figure numbers needed

28mm Greek Myth
Still no real progress here as Lenin is snowed under with other stuff and so they'll be a little while yet.

28mm Napoleonics
I am currently packing up the Front Rank figures for dispatch to the painter having cleaned them up a little. After having had another go with Sharp Practice recently I'm keen to get these ones to the table.

Other Ideas
I am having my usual problem of spotting new projects before I have finished the current ones. I have been good and haven't yet bought any new figures but the time will come. The new ideas include:

WW1 Italian Front: Using the new Brigade Games figures (Paul Hicks again!) which look superb. I understand that North Star may be stocking these later in the year so I am using that as an excuse not to progress this at the moment. My only investment here so far has been in a book.

WW2 Eastern Front: This has been an idea since I picked up my winter Germans and so far I have a couple of figures and a T34 but have been holding off until I decided which range of Soviets to go with as each of BAM and Artizan have their advantages; however, only Black Tree seems to do figures with specific winter coveralls - other than scouts. I would like to plan this out so it will provide me an other opportunity to use my Brigade Gebirgsjaegers too.

Freikorps: Having some late WW1 Germans gives me some of the figures for this but I would need more appropriate civilians and also have to make up some suitable urban terrain too. I have spotted some potential figures from Copplestone and Artizan but the urban terrain is likely to hold this one back for a little while anyway.

WW2 Normandy: I have a couple of books on the US troops which have provided plenty of inspiration and I do have some suitable vehicles already but this could be an expensive project as I will need some more appropriate opposition as the Germans I do have a really focussed on early war.

WW2 Poland: I would love to get some Poles as I already have the appropriate SkimishCampaigns book, albeit that no one really does the suitable figures for the Black Brigade. The BAM Poles are nice but without some anti-tank support they're not quite complete enough for me to start this yet (well that's the excuse I using at the moment!)

WW2 Norway: I may try to do this with my existing figures but it would be nice to get some more suitable ones to mix in and I'm not entirely happy about using Finns as Norwegians but since no-one seems to do the figures in 28mm...

Workers Militia

Paul Hicks and Musketeer Miniatures have been at it again. Here are some pics of their upcoming workers militia for 1938:

Stout Hearts & Iron Troopers

Having liked Through the Mud & the Blood after our first playtest I was keen to get the first official WW1 scenario booklet from the TooFatLardies when it came out.

Stout Hearts & Iron Troopers is available PDF direct from the Lardies and packs quite a lot into its 88 pages. After a brief introduction the next section is entitled "Basic Training" and provides some background and basic WW1 tactics. This is followed by "Training the Entente" which encompasses four training scenarios which allow you to get familar with the different Allied troop types and the appropriate tactics. These scenarios cover an attack on a strongpoint, attacking between trench lines, clearing a village and an infantry assault with tank support. The first three are at platoon strength whilst the latter involves at least two platoons and three tanks although a larger version could also be played.

The next section, "Training the Imperial German Army", includes two scenarios designed to introduce you to the German troops and tactics. These cover attacking a strongpoint and an entrenched position.

Following the introductory scenarios are fourteen historical scenarios spanning the full length os the war with two from 1914, one from 1915, four in 1916, two in 1917 and the remaining four in 1918.

Each scenario contains an introduction, a briefing for each side, the units available, a map, some umpire's notes, the cards required and an outline of the historical outcome. The scenarios do vary in both size and composition, so they may not all be playable with the troops you already have but make interesting reading nonetheless.

Unfortunately the use of coloured page backgrounds throughout do not make the booklet particularly printer friendly and some minor typos are annoying; however, this is a very nicely researched and presented book packed with useful and interesting background information and scenarios.

New Boardgames

After playing yet another enjoyable game of Commands & Colo(u)rs: Ancients with Lenin during our last wargame weekend, I decided it was time to upgrade the weakest part of the game - the board. Unfortunately, GMT Games decided to include their usual thin card board with the original game and it does let it down a bit - not least by not laying flat.

Fortunately both Expansions 2 and 3 both contain the thicker board and so you do have some options in this regard. I did consider getting Expansion 3, which at £15 is the cheaper of the two, on its own but as the scenarios in it need the blocks from Expansion 2 it seemed a bit of a false economy; however, Expansion 3 does contain the epic rules and four epic scenarios which needs two board put together. Another dilemma.

In the end I decided to throw caution to the winds and bought both. Possibly a little extravagant but it does give me the better board I wanted and the option to play epic games, with up to 8 players, as well as all the new scenarios which can be found in both sets.

Expansion 2, Rome vs the Barbarians, has the new thicker board, around 330 new blocks, some additional terrain tiles, a couple of quick reference sheets and a rule book with 23 new scenarios including several with Spartacus and also a couple in Britain.

I have to say I don't relish having to apply the stickers to the blocks, one to each side, and decided to start on the smalle number of blocks in Expansion 3 first.

As with all the Expansions you need a copy of the original game to play as you don't get the dice, cards or sufficient terrain tiles in these ones in order to play the scenarios.

Expansion 3, Roman Civil Wars, has somewhat less in it than number 2 which probably shouldn't be a surprise as it is half the price. It still comes in the same sized and very good quality box though.

This one has the new thicker board, an additional 120 or so blocks, 19 scenarios for the traditional game, the epic rules and four epic scenarios along with another two quick reference sheets.

The epic rules allow you to place two board together (they have one side as the traditional board and one designed to marry up with another board to make a new wider, 26 x 9 hex layout needed). This allows you to play with up to 8 players, three field commanderS (left, centre and right) and an army commander per side. The rules are the same as the original game with the exception that the army commander can select three cards and distribute them to the field commanders to use. In addition, some of the cards are designated as army cards and so can only be played by the army commander. You don't need 8 players and could play with just two if you wanted though.

I'm really looking forward to getting an epic game arranged but, in the meantime, the new board and scenarios will make a big difference.

Whilst I was ordering the C&C expansions I decided to pick up a copy of the new Days of Wonder game, Small World. This is their version of the game Vinci but with slightly simpler rules and a fantasy theme.

Scott Nicholson has done one of his excellent reviews on Board Games with Scott and it was this which persuaded me that Small World would be worth getting. The game is essentially a land grab but with some difficult decisions to be made as to which race to take (each has their own strengths) and with special powers which change each game. You also need to decide when to put a race into decline and move onto a new one. Scott has a very through run through of the game play if you would like more detail.

We've only had one game so far but it was a lot of fun.

Battle of Madrid: First Day, 08 November 1938

I managed to get along to the club on Thursday to play some Spanish Civil War in 15mm using the Triumph of the Will rules. Bronze produced his superbly painted Peter Pig figures, including some nice Falange conversions, and we set up the table for the first day of the Battle of Madrid.

Playing to type I elected to fight on the Nationalist side under the command of Eric the Spy. We were playing across the table with our objective being the capture of one of the three bridges over the River Manzanares, one bridge at each end of the table and the third in the centre. We were attacking across the Casa de Campo, an old royal hunting park, which was lightly wooded. Accordingly to our intelligence Republican resistance was expected to be light, something we took with a heavy pinch of salt!

Our plan was to advance two battalions through the Casa de Campo towards the central bridge with the main thrust with the main force of infantry, artillery and tanks aimed at the northern bridge. Our aim was for the central force to pin down any Republican forces defending the central bridge and delay any reinforcements that they could redeploy from either their or the southern bridge towards our main point of attack.

As it turned out the intelligence had somewhat underestimated the Republican forces and all three bridges were defended with troops heavily dug in at the central bridge.

The Santiago de Compostela Carlist Requete leading the central assault took heavy casualties from the Republicans but managed to keep their attention. The Juventud Cristiana Falange battalion reinforcing them also came under fire, both from the same source and from troops they tried to redeploy from the southern end once our plan became clear.

We began our assault on the northern bridge with the Avila and Sevilla Peninsular Army infantry battalions followed up by the 1st Foreign Legion bandera and an artillery battery. The third wave consisted of the 2nd and 3rd Tabors of Tetuan Moroccan regulares, the Condor Legion tanks and a second artillery battery. The Avila battalion ran into heavy fire from Crazy Dave and his anarchists, who were defending the bridge, and suffered some serious casualties. The Sevilla battalion was slightly behind having to advance through part of the Casa de Campo. But with the help of the Legion in the second wave we managed to inflict some serious damage to Dave and resistance on our side of the river in front of the bridge began to fade. We were still taking fire from the forces dug in defending the central bridge and from the other side of the river though. However, once the tanks got into action their machine gun fire was pretty devastating.

In the end we managed to clear the anarchist resistance and Peter advanced the Moroccans across the bridge for a Nationalist victory.

In the post battle analysis it became clear that the Republicans only had a poorly rated CinC which really hampered their ability to change orders from hold to a more aggressive posture and hence to redeploy them. Had they been able to we would have been in for an even stiffer fight. As it was we had sustained some serious casualties.

There was some debate as to the effectiveness of the PzIs which, with their twin MGs, were a potent fire platform especially as I was using all three together. The big weakness with armour is usually in close assault but with the Republicans being cut down before getting to that point they became a very effective tool.

Our plan had been influenced by my experience from having used the rules before for Russian Civil War where concentrating your forces and using wave attacks had been most effective. I was a little concerned as to whether this was entirely appropriate for SCW but Bronze outlined that, in the original battle, it was the tactics which had been used on the second day after the Nationalists had been defeated on the first because they had spread their forces too thinly.

All in all a fun game.

Gaming Weekend - The Photos

Here's a slideshow of the photos from our recent gaming weekend:



The Picasa album can be found here.

Gaming Weekend - Day Three

Air Assault on Cemetery Hill, 20 May 1941
For our third and final day we used Lenin's desert terrain mat and the figures he had been frantically painting on the day before the weekend.

The scenario was an adapted version of one from the SkirmishCampaigns booklet and involved a German parachute drop where the drop zone was between some Greek and New Zealand troops (whose presence and strength were a bit of a surprise to the Fallschirmsjaeger) with the objective of capturing the nearby cemetery hill.

The drop went well with the Fallschirmsjaeger not too widely scattered but unluckily for them a large number landed in the open in front of a Kiwi bren gun team. Their main problem was that the German dropped with only small arms with all the larger weapons (SMGs, riles, LMGs etc.) in separate containers. The paras took some serious casualties trying to retreive their weapons before being able to supress the Kiwi squad overlooking their position and using the cover to avoid the attentions of the bren gun team. With only about half of their number left they then advanced on cemetary hill which was being held by the Greeks. Fortunately these were lower rep troops and, after a short firefight, the hill was taken.

In this case the troops were all from Crusader and the rules were Two Hour Wargames' Chain Reaction 3.0.

The Third Droid
Our final tabletop game was a three act scenario using Rattrap's Fantastic Worlds rules and some figures from Lenin's extensive collection of 25mm Star Wars miniatures.

According to the scenario Episode 4: A New Hope failed to show that a third droid had been jettisoned from Princess Leia's ship with other Imperial plans. This one had made planetfall in a remote hidden valley on Tatooine.

The first encounter saw a unit of stormtroopers and another of rebels looking for a guide to lead them to the hidden valley. With both sides wanting to avoid a confrontation which might have eliminated the guide in the crossfire the rebels found the Gamorrean guide first and left being followed by the Imperial troops.

The second act opened with the two groups looking for the rock formation which showed the way into the hidden valley. Unfortunately there were a number of Tusken Raiders waiting to ambush unsuspecting visitors. After a little skirmish the rebels managed to find the rock formation and the two groups made their way into the valley.

The final act saw the rebels and stormtroopers in a desperate race to find the droid amongst some ancient ruins. Unfortunately they were not alone in the ruins. It turns out that Jabba the Hutt didn't have the only Rancor on the planet! The stormtroopers stumbled into some more sand people and whilst they were fighting them off the rebels found the droid. A heroic fight between a Jedi and the Rancor gave the rebels time to escape with the droid despite taking, and indeed causing, some casualties.

We finished the weekend of gaming with a game of Ticket to Ride using the original rules but with the larger USA 1910 expansion cards (including the Mystery Train ones).

I'll follow up with a post linking to the photos from the weekend.

Gaming Weekend - Day Two

Day two of Lenin's visit saw us playing two 28mm tabletop games and a boardgame:

Through the Mud and the Blood Playtest
Having read the new Too Fat Lardies rules I was keen to get them to the table to see how they played. I created a simple scenario with a single section, an HMG team and two big men (one level 2 and one level 1) of the BEF in trenches facing an assault by four gruppe of Germans with three big men (one level 3, one level 2 and two level 1). I had rated all as veterans with good morale and included the Mad Minute card for the BEF.

Both sides started on blinds but as soon as the first German unit was spotted the HMG opened up but to, much to our surprise, not much effect; however, the next round of firing changed that! Unfortunately for the Germans their big men were clearly leading from the front as they quickly suffered casualties from the lower ranks and didn't get replacements. By the time they had managed to cause some damage to the BEF their force was so depleted and had accumulated so many shock points that they began to withdraw.

We learned a lot from the scenario. Firstly that I hadn't balanced it terribly well! Secondly, that whilst there are elements from Sharp Practice it has enough differences and period flavour to give a quite different game. And finally, that it's fun!

This will certainly be on the agenda for the next visit.

A Town Called Malice
We then moved on to a Wild West scenario using my new Brigade Games figures and the Two Hour Wargames Six Gun Sound rules (the original ones rather than the Blaze of Glory version).

After a drunken brawl at the Jewel Saloon Sheriff Ballcock had locked up Rick Buckler, one of the members of the Weller Gang. Of course the gang were having none of that and came into two to spring Rick.We managed to play the scenario twice. The first time with me as the Weller gang and Lenin as the Sheriff and the second with the roles reversed. My gang didn't last very long as the Sheriff managed to get the drop on each of them and polished them off with a single shot each! I didn't fare too well the second time around either. If it hadn't been for the intervention of the townsfolk, in the shape of Adversity Jane and Al Cursengine, the game would have been over very quickly. As it was the Wellers got sprang Rick but left their leader lying in the main street of Malice.

Marathon 490BC
We finished the day off with a game of Commands & Colo(u)rs Ancients with a scenario from the first expansion Greece vs the Eastern Kingdoms. As always it was an entertaining game.

Gaming Weekend - Day One

As you may have spotted from Twitter last weekend was another of Lenin's visits and we managed to pack quite a few games in.

On Saturday we decided to use my terrain mat and so two winter games were on the agenda:

Lake Kokkojärvi, 30 November 1939, 15:00 hours
I adapted a scenario from the SkirmishCampaigns Winter War booklet for the Two Hour Wargames reaction system. We decided to give the new Chain Reaction 3.0 rules a try to see how they differed from the standard Nuts! WW2 rules which we normally use.

That gave me a chance to not only use my newly painted 28mm Bolt Action Russians but to get my Brigade, Bolt Action and Baker Company Finns out again.

The scenario was set shortly after the initial Russian invasion and the Russian objective was to try to prevent the smaller Finnish force from withdrawing off the table. The Russians tried to advance across a frozen marsh in order to outflank the Finns but unfortunately the ice cracked and they were forced to seek a safer route. Their main force was spotted by the Finnish LMG team who managed to keep them pinned down and another flanking manouver by the Russian maxim team was halted as they tried to set up. The main squad of Finns then began a withdrawal to the ridge at the back of the board and it was then a race to see whether the Russians could catch the LMG team before they joined them.

In hindsight when I scaled down the scenario to suit the figures I had available I gave the Russians a much harder task as they would have been able to deploy another force to pin down the Finns giving them a much more challenging withdrawal.

The new Chain Reaction rules are indeed laid out more clearly (but obviously don't include the WW2 campaign information that Nuts! has) and so will form the basis of our skirmish games from now on.

Fantasy Napoleonics

In the afternoon we moved on to a Fantasy Napoleonics game to allow Lenin to table his Alternative Armies figures and give the Too Fat Lardies' Sharp Practice another outing.

The scenario consisted of three units of zombie infantry and one unit of zombie Cossacks assaulting two units of elven infantry in their camp. We started the game on blinds with the elves having posted sentries and initially things went well for the undead. But then the elves revealed their artillery piece and one of the zombie units tooks a serious pounding. The zombie unit which deployed on the elves' flank was held up by fire from one of the houses and, whilst the cavalry managed to outflank the elves on the other side they didn't get the chance to activate before the elves had withdrawn into the camp. The cossacks then moved to outflank the elves once again and then inflicted a devastating charge. The breakthrough allowed them to chase the artillery crew away too. Then the elven light infantry returned from a scouting mission and managed to inflict some serious damage on the flanking zombies. A further charge from the cossacks was easily seen off as the light infantry were still in the woods.

With the cossacks spent and two zombie units having taken a beating the undead withdrew leaving an elven force which was in an equally bad way.

Workbench: Renegade WW1 British 18pdr

Just finished assembling my 28mm early WW1 British 18 pounder from Renegade:

It's a nice clean casting with virtually no flash at all and assembly was relatively straightforward.

Sloppy Jalopy Austin Armoured Car (the parts)

Here's the next vehicle on the assembly line, the Austin armoured car from Sloppy Jalopy:


As you can see the main body is in resin with the balance being white metal parts. The resin casting isn't as detailed as white metal or the resin vehicles I have from Force of Arms for example. In addition, there are no preformed holes for the various parts like the mudguards, something the Force of Arms vehicles did have. Whilst an assembly guide was provided it isn't entirely obvious where some of the parts should be fixed (or how given the lack of holes) and the side guard and step have only a small flat area for gluing which may not make for a strong bond.

I report back once I have assembled it.

Lancia Armoured Truck (the parts)

Here's a quick picture of the Musketeer Lancia armoured truck straight out of the bag:

Quite a few parts as you can see.

Battle for the Heights of Carillon, July 1758

For the first time in too long I actually hosted a game at the club last night. I chose a battle from the French & Indian War, the Battle for the Heights of Carillon (or Ticonderoga if you prefer) from July 1758.

The game gave me an opportunity to dust off my 15mm Essex figures and use my new Terrain Warehouse Vauban defences to use as Fort Carillon along with my own breast works for those on the heights. I chose the Habitants & Highlanders rules by the Canadian Wargamers Group as they are easy to pick up and allow for some manoeuvring on the table.

Whilst both sides had similar numbers of units the British had a number of substantially larger ones including, in particular, the 42nd Highlanders. The British objective was simply to reach the fort, of course the French were to have other ideas.

The main challenge for the French was that, whilst they were able to place works on the heights, there was sufficient room on the table for them to be outflanked by the British. Indeed, with the French safely behind their works, the British did start to try to move to the Northern side of the heights. They deployed with some provincials in front in skirmish formations followed by the British line but with a signficant part of the force, including the Highlanders, moving to bypass the heights.

Ben, playing Montcalm the French commander, decided to be bold and advanced one brigade out over the works to swing round and attack the British flank. He also advance to challenge the British skirmish line which, with some spectacularly bad luck with the dice, crumbled. The British were then pinned by the French, unable to advance past them without exposing their flank, and left to attack the main French position on the hill.

Despite the French advance there was some interesting replay of history with the 42nd attacking up the hill against determined French resistance; however, they took some substantial casualties and, in the end, their army morale broke and the game was a victory for the French (as it was historically).

Spring Cleaning

With a few days off around Easter I thought it might be an idea to sort out the games room. As usual I had massively underestimated both the amount of stuff I have and the scale of the task.

So here I am, about half way through, having sorted the wheat from the chaff (the latter currently in the garage awaiting either an eBay posting or the dustman) and reorganised what remains (almost). I fully intend to actually label the boxes this time (especially as my memory seems to be getting progressively less reliable) and eventually compile a complete inventory of everything I have.

Surprisingly, I haven't found too much that I had forgotten I had but have found rather too much that I haven't done much with. As a result I am going to re-examine some of my priorities in order to get a couple of stalled projects to the table this year. Mind you it will come as no surprise that the ones which have stalled have been those missing one of the essential ingredients (figures, terrain, rules, scenarios) and I will need to fill the gaps in order to move these ones forward.

Front Rank - They Know How Service Works

I put in a large pre-order to Front Rank for collection at Salute. Given the size I couldn't check it at the show so it had to wait until I got home. Much to my disappointment there were 6 figures missing.

I emailed them straight away and got a response the same day and got the figures in the post on the following day.

My test for customer service is how they deal with things when they go wrong (after all everyone makes a mistake now and then) and Front Rank passed with flying colours!