First Play: Wars of the Roses

I was lucky enough to be given a copy of the Z-Man Games Wars of the Roses: Lancaster vs York boardgame for my birthday and thought I would report back on my first game.

Wars of the Roses, designed by Peter Hawes, is a 2-4 player game lasting around 3 hours.  The first thing that struck me was the weight of the box.  Not only is it stuffed with components, they are all really nice quality.  There is a large board depicting England divided into six regions each with their own royal castle, large and small towns and port. There are four thick player screens with castle artwork to conceal the players' planning charts each with useful historical and game related information printed on the inside.  There are an assortment of wooden cylinders and cubes in each of the player colours and some black and white cubes (for bribing the nobles).  Then there are the thick tokens and cards representing troops, money, nobles and the like.  Finally there are the cards representing the locations, nobles etc.  The boards, screens, tokens and cards are pretty clearly laid out and very nicely illustrated.

At its core this is an area control game played out over five turns, each representing a number of years.  The objective of the game is to amass victory points through controlling the various regions.  Each turn is broken down into eight phases:

1. Determine Turn Order
2. Draw Cards
3. Collect Income
4. Planning
5. Deployment
6. Bribery
7. Combat
8. Parliament

Turn order is determined by reversing the players' positions on the victory point track, thus the player with the least points will go first.  Then a number of cards are drawn and placed face up next to the board,  These represent the castles, towns, ports, bishops, nobles, ship captains and mercenaries.  The players take it in turn to choose a card which will become theirs to control.  Income is determined by totalling up the income generated by the cards that the player controls.  Play then moves on to the planning phase which is the meat of the game.

Players need to determine whether to move their nobles and ships, raise troops, bribe their own nobles to stay loyal or opposing noble to swap sides and spend money to influence the King to make them the Captain of Calais.  Other than movement these actions all cost money!  Once all the players have finished planning then the screens are removed and the remaining phases are played out based on what they have planned to do.

Attacks on castles, towns and ports can only be made when a player has a presence in the relevant region, which is where the nobles become important.  Combat is based on a simple majority approach but does deplete your forces dramatically, which is where player order becomes important as locations can change hands more than once in a turn.  Parliament is dependent on the balance of control in each of the areas influencing which house is in the ascendancy.

I have only had a single two player game so far but really enjoyed it.  I suspect that the addition of further players will only make the game more interesting and I am looking forward to getting this back to the table as soon as I can.

First Look: The Devil's Wind

The Devil's Wind are a new set of Indian Mutiny wargames rules by David Bickley. The rules a 43 pages long in full colour and have photographs on almost every page of figures in action on the tabletop.

They are intended for multi-figure bases and can be used with a variety of figure scales. Suggested base sizes are 40 x 50mm for infantry and 80 x 50mm for cavalry and artillery. Units are typically 4-5 bases each and the number of figures per bases is suggested but each takes 4 hits before removal (which will mean either using trays and removing figures, marking the bases or some other form of bookkeeping).

The rules do not have a figure, time or terrain scale and take up the majority of the booklet with only a single sample scenario. They use a mix of d6 and d10 and follow a pretty traditional movement, firing and melee  sequence. The Imperial troops move and fire first and in various situations troops will have to take "pluck" (morale) tests.

I haven't had a chance to play the rules themselves as yet so I can't comment on how they feel but I was rather disappointed with the general layout and editing. The text is generally black on a biege texture background interspersed with brown and uses a variety of fonts and point sizes.  The photographs could have done with either better selection or editing as some are dark or poorly focussed. Whilst all the elements seem to be present the explanations could be clearer and could have done with a good proof read and edit (for example the pluck rules are duplicated in two places entirely word for word).  I can understand the desire for a glossy look but the quality needs to be more than skin deep and a little more time on the layout could have made a huge difference here.

So, in summary, my first impression was that these are a little disappointing for their £12.50 cover price. I am hoping they will change that initial impression when I get a chance to have a couple games with them.

WW2 Med: GIs

Here are a couple of photos of my Artizan US troops for my WW2 Mediterranean project:

The Mutiny: Badmashes

And now some figures from Mutineer Miniatures:

The Munity: The Men of the Empire

And now some personalities from Wargames Foundry:

The Mutiny: Civilians

Here are some more figures to add to my Indian Mutiny collection - this time some civilians from Wargames Foundry:

Soviet Afghan War: The Soviets

Next up, some opposition for my Mudjahideen:

Soviet Afghan War: The Mujahideen

Switching to another current project, here are the first batch of figures for the Soviet Afghan War - the Mujahideen.  These are Mongrel Miniatures figures (available in the UK via Newline Designs).

The Mutiny: Uniformed Mutineers

The next unit for my Indian Mutiny project is some uniformed mutineers (with some slightly less regulation command!) - once again these are from Mutineer Miniatures.

Next I'll be basing up some in dhotis and then some irregulars and badmashes.

Broadside 2011

I went along to the new wargames show at Sittingbourne today and met up with a couple of friends. For a first show I thought they had put together a pretty decent selection of traders and games. There were a smattering of better known names and some smaller traders but it was difficult to tell what type of business the were doing - which will be crucial for the future of the show.

There were a few nice looking games on show and I picked up a few bits and pieces (but was pretty restrained due to our impending move).

I will certainly be adding the show to my calendar if they decide to make it a regular feature.

TooFatLardies Summer Special

The Lardies have released their Summer Special for this year and it has lots of interesting stuff in it as usual.  I don't propose to give a full list here as they have the contents listed on their website but rather pick out a couple of items which caught my eye.

First up they have a supplement for Sharp Practice (their Napoleonic skirmish rules) which covers the French & Indian War along with a scenario.  Given the nature of that war I think there is some real potential for more moderate sized games as the traditional large Seven Years War battles simply don't feature in the theatre.  I'm trying to avoid being inspired to start yet another project on this!

Then there's a supplement for If the Lord Spares Us (their WW1 Middle East rules) allowing them to be used for the Western Front along with a scenario and also one for Gallipoli.  I have been wondering both about doing something with ITLSU in it's original setting and also, separately, about higher level WW1 in a smaller scale - so this will be an interesting read.

As you can see from the front cover, there's also a riverine supplement for Charlie Don't Surf along with a couple of scenarios.  I really don't know too much about this aspect of the conflict so that'll be interesting too.

A couple of early WW2 I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! scenarios are also very interesting, particularly as there hasn't been as much focus on these rules in the recent specials.

I know that Lenin will be interested in the scenarios for Through the Mud & the Blood covering 1920s Mesopotamia (interesting to contrast that with the current conflict too).

With a whole number of scenarios for their other rule sets and a terrain building article I think there's plenty here to interest anyone who likes the Lardies stuff and it's still at the old £5 price too which is nice.

Project Update: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

The idea for this project came from seeing the Mongrel Miniatures Soviet and Mujahideen ranges some years ago. Then Mongrel disappeared and it wasn't until Newline Designs started to import the figures again from their new owner that it resurfaced as a potential project. I was just about to put an order in when I spotted some of the figures on eBay in their original 8 figure packs. Never one to ignore a bargain, I put a bid in and was lucky enough to get them for a really decent price. I then picked up a few other bits and pieces from Newline to fill in a couple of gaps.

The first batch of figures are now back from the painter and I have just started basing them up. I've got a platoon plus a couple of support weapons for the Soviets and about the same for the Mujahideen. The packs I bought also had some figures in winter uniforms and it's these I will be using for my Cold War Gone Hot project (although I had quite a few more to get to bring these up to platoon strength).

In the interim I have picked up a BTR70 from Copplestone (which I believe is the old HLBS range) and am considering getting a BMP or two but at £25 each I suspect that may be a little while off! Other than that I already have pretty much everything else I need in the way of terrain from other projects.

I plan to use this as my first real outing with the new Force on Force rules and I have managed to find a copy of The Bear Went Over the Mountain to provide some inspiration for scenarios.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I have the figure basing completed.

The Mutiny: 53rd Foot

Despite having to pack up my room to put the house on the market, I have still been managing to make a little progress with my various projects. I just finished basing my second unit for the Indian Mutiny - the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot - who took part in the relief of Lucknow and earned some 5 VCs during the Mutiny. The figures are from Mutineer Miniatures. Apologies for the photos - they were taken in a bit of a rush!

The One of Our Satellites is Missing Affair - Episode 1 - Access Denied

Our last game of the weekend was a first outing for 7TV, the new cult TV rules which Lenin had picked up at Salute.  He picked one of the scenarios from the rule book to start us off:

Satellites are going missing. Clues lead our heroes to investigate a private factory, but attempts to enter are blocked by heavy-handed security. Unwilling to wait for their bureaucratic superiors to get official access, the heroes disable the security systems and sneak in. Can they find further evidence of their enemy’s plans?

With two male heroes at my disposal I named them, rolled up their stats and decided on the gadgets - and so Wellington Duo and Vasya Pupkin were born...

Initially our infiltration of the compound went well.  Despite the awkward routes that the seven guards adopted the two agents managed to get to the lab.  Vasya broke out his lock picking kit and opened the main door and they were inside.

After some extensive searching around, the key information was found and a swift exit was made.  It was at this point that things started to go a little awry.  Whilst they were hiding under one of the walkways to avoid the guards above one of the other ground level guards spotted them and opened fire!

Unfortunately neither Duo nor Pupkin were armed with anything more than pistols and so the guard out ranged them; however his aim was a little off so they managed to slip round to the other side of the supporting column.

At this point the guards above spotted them and they came under a hail of fire from the walkway and one of the chemical tanks.  The two agents split up with Wellington rushing around the chemical tank and Vasya fixing a device to the column.  Once attached Vasya sprinted away and there was an enormous explosion as the micro explosive detonated.  The walkway collapsed eliminating the guard on it and blocking the way of the ground level guard; leaving the one on top of the chemical tank as the only immediate problem (the other four guards rushing to the scene were a future issue!).

Meanwhile Wellington donned his climbing suckers and ascended the side of the tank away from the ladder and behind the guard.  Reaching the top he fired his automatic and the guard tumbled dramatically off the tank.

Pupkin had taken refuge behind some barrels but he was discovered by another guard, who had be sent to investigate by the chief henchman.  He easily dispatched the guard but then had to engage in a deadly game of hide and seek to avoid the main heavy.  Slipping away he managed to sprint out of sight and find cover behind some pipes.  Meanwhile Wellington was making his way undetected via a rather circuitous path to join up with him.

The chief henchman wasn't fooled for long and accompanied by another guard started a to search for Vasya.  With discovery imminent Vasya used his miniature laser to cut through one of the pipes near the guards and the contents burst out and almost immediately caught fire.  The guard caught the full force of the blast but the chief henchman was only thrown to the ground.

Under cover of the explosion Duo and Pupkin moved position to nearer the perimeter fence close to where they had originally cut their way in.  But the henchman had only been winded and after picking himself up and dusting himself down he advanced on their position.  Turning the corner he spotted them and took a swing at Pupkin.  Fortunately it missed and Vasya leapt to defend himself.  The two evenly matched opponents circled each other punching and blocking with Vasya using his knowledge of pressure points to try to land a knock out blow.  The henchman was fighting with less finesse but his brute strength was impressive.  Finally Wellington took an opportunity and landed a crippling blow and the two agents were able to escape not only with the information but also with the film from Vasya's miniature camera.

All in all a really fun game and 7TV are likely to return to the table in the not too distant future.

Drama in Dahomey

Following the reunion games Lenin and I decided to extend the weekend and put on another couple of games just for ourselves. The first was a chance for me to get my Dixon Dahomey figures to the table for the first time using Two Hour Wargames' Colonial Adventures rules. Once again Lenin took command of the colonial forces.

The games was set in September 1892, some time after the main French column has begun to advance through the jungle towards the capital Abomey. The column had already fought and defeated the Fon army at Dogba but as a result they need resupply and the objective was to escort an element of the supply column part of the way from Porto-Novo to the main column.

Despite being relatively inexperienced Captain Clouseau was well advised by Sergeant Frakov and put scouts ahead and to the flanks of the supply column. He took command of half the Legionnaires in the van with the remainder under Lieutenant Le Pice at the rear.

With the jungle being somewhat different to their usual postings in North Africa the scouts were understandably jumpy but after a couple of false alarms the column made good progress towards the river crossing. It was here that a sharp eyed Legion scout spotted the Fon waiting in ambush for them.

Shots rang out from the Fon and they had barely been returned by the Legion when the ferocious Amazons rushed headlong into a bloody melee with them. The Captain went down in that first volley but Sergeant Frakov held the men together in the fight.

The superior training of the Legion meant they were able to maintain the initiative and step back and fire at the Amazons between the bouts of vicious hand to hand fighting but the sheer weight of numbers began to take its toll.

Meanwhile the Lieutenant on hearing the firing began to bring the rear guard up to assist; however by the time he got there the advance guard were forming a brave last stand with the Sergeant. Some of the Fon had broken off to loot the supply column but with the Amazons lying dead or dying, the intervention of the rearguard saw them take a number of the mules and flee into the jungle.

With many of the column bearers having fled too the Lieutenant had a difficult job reorganising the column and was forced to use some of the remaining Legionnaires to carry the supplies. And with their diminished number they began the advance once more.

A couple more false alarms unnerved the troops a little but a genuine attacking force was spotted advancing toward them in sufficient time for a firing line to be organised. The firefight was terribly unevenly balanced. After suffering many casualties and inflicting only a few the attackers melted away.

The column then picked up their loads and marched on...

Moving House?

The powers that be have decided that we need more space and it was either give up my games room (obviously not an acceptable option!) or move.  So I have now had to pack up the games room and return it to it's former life as a bedroom or limit our potential buyers to gamers...

The upshot is that I will be a little constrained on progressing my projects but will try to keep them moving along with some accompanying posts - so please bear with me.

Wargames Reunion: Retimo Airfield

Our second reunion game was one Lenin and I had been thinking about for a while - the German assault on Crete - in 28mm using our combined figure collections. We chose to use the Two Fat Lardies' I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! rules as the game was rather too large for Nuts!

The Germans had an ad hoc formation from the 2nd Fallschimjäger Regiment based around the remnants of the 2nd Company, I Battalion and supported by elements of the Headquarters Company, I Battalion, 9th Company, III Battalion and 13th Company. Their objective was to take Hill 'A' which dominated the airfield. Whilst they were facing remnants of C Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Australian Infantry Regiment supported by elements of 1st Platoon, 1st Australian Machine Gun Company.

Both Lenin and I were playing in the game (largely to take advantage of playing on a larger table than normal - 8 x 6') but decided to let the other players take the lead as we had set the game up. As usualy I played on the German side with Lenin taking the Aussies.

The German plan was to advance up the road on the left flank and secure the farm buildings then move into the woods and secure the other farm at the other end of the table before assaulting the hill itself. Things started to go wrong for them pretty much straight away. They hadn't read the brief fully and so didn't take advantage of the initial bombardment available and then they were spotted whilst still advancing in the open on the road. The Austrailians were dug in on the hill so the ensuing fire fight was somewhat uneven with the Germans pinned in the open gradually taking more and more casualties.


Eventually we managed to take advantage of the limited cover at the base of the hill but our fire was relatively ineffective agaist their position. With no smoke for thr light mortars and assault under heavy fire was going to the very costly and so the attack was stalled pretty much straight away.

Due to some rather poor communication on the German side the blinds advancing down the side of the hill to outflank the Australian position were simply dummies whilst the one behind us in the farm yard turned out to be the third platoon!

Fortunately we were reinforced by a medium mortar and an infantry gun and with their support we started to advance up the hill but it was terribly slow going.


Our plan had been for the morning (real time) to be the evening (game time) and for the afternoon to be the following day. So when lunch (real time) came around the Germans still had not taken the hill. Fortunately for the Germans, the Australians received an order to withdraw (higher command thought they had better intelligence and wanted to consolidate their forces) which allowed the Germans to occupy the hill unopposed. When the Australians realised their mistake the organised a counter attack for the next morning.

During the night the Germans had been reinforced with two medium MGs and an anti-tank rifle team but had run out of ammo for the mortar and had been unable to manhandle the infantry gun up the hill. They reorganised their force into two full strength platoons and started to dig in. The Australians had four understrength platoons with medium MG support and two light tanks for the attack. (At this point I had swapped sides to help with the numbers too)

Unfortnately for the Aussies their troops and armour were almost immediately spotted and came under fire. Even with smoke from the light mortars the attack became heavy going and things began to slow down. One of the light tanks threw a track when crossing the ditch at the edge of the road and the MGs were held up for some reason.

The attack devolved into a rather unequal fire fight and when the second light tanks attempted to move into support it was assaulted by the Germans and caught fire. The only close assault was thrown back by the Germans for little loss on their side and the attack stalled.

The attack then turned into making an orderly withdrawal for the Australians, which proved difficult under the heavy German fire but over half the force managed it.

Wargames Reunion: Battalion Assault

After some time in the planning we managed to arrange a reunion with a few gaming buddies. We all used to be part of the same club but over time have moved to different parts of the country and so only usually catch up individually or at Salute. We decided it would be nice to actually have a couple of games together; however the logistics proved a little challenging but this weekend we managed it.

Our first game was a 20mm WW2 battalion level assault on a French village. Our first task was to actually plan the logistics of the approach to the start line, the preliminary artillery and then the assault itself.

Initally we struggled to sort out travel orders and timings but eventually spotted that it was actually impossible for us to move our troops and attached tanks up to the start line in time for our scheduled kick off. We eventually sorted out the order of march to the debussing point and the final approach to the start line along with the timings in order to scheudle the artillery bombardment. We plumped for a long but possibly rather slow rolling barrage to cover our advance.

With planning completed we moved into the next phase of the game. Almost immediately the plan started to go awry as the road we were planning to use wasn't cleared on time so we were 30 minutes late getting to our debussing area. We then started to move the troops up onto the actual table. Moving through the hedge lined fields proved quite problematic and the units moving up the road found it partly blocked by thre Recce unit holding the start line. Fortunately the MPs attached to the Battalion HQ were able to sort out the jam fairly quickly.


At this point the enemy, who had heard the tanks approaching, started dropping artillery blindly on our moving troops. Luckily we suffered very few casualties and were at our start positions pretty much on time (we had allowed a little time for problems forming up). Then the artillery barrage started and we moved off. Whilst the attack was starting the various MP, medical and other units formed up in the appropriate positions.

Our plan for the assault was relatively uncomplicated. We had deployed our recce and MGs to cover the right flank and the four infantry companies each with tanks attached were advancing two up, two down on the left. A and B companies were intended to push through the hedge line to the left of the village. C and D companies were then to swing right into the village itself and, if necessary, push through to clear the right flank whilst A and B started preparing defensive positions for the anticipated counter attack.


The barrage managed to keep the enemy's heads down and we advanced across the open ground and stream with out too much difficulty. Unfortunately the tanks accompanying D company bogged down in the stream but otherwise things were going well. As the barrage moved on we started to take flanking fire from the village and a minefield was encountered covering the front of the village itself. A and B company started to take defensive fire as we approached the hedge line but a determined advance with the tanks soon put paid to that. Trapped between us and our barrage to the rear their morale cracked and we captured quite a few of the enemy.


Then things started to go a little more awry. With D company without its armour taking heavy fire B company's flank was exposed to the village and it started to take heavy fire and suffered quite a few casualties. Also our force covering the right flank had been spotted and was taking quite a bit of fire too. A combination of mortar and machine gun fire sorted out some of the problem but we took more losses.

Eventually we organised ourselves and C company started to clear the village as planned and the Germans withdrew their remaining troops.

Our next problem was organising thr defence with our now depleted forces and also clearing the minefield to allow the resupply column to reach us.

Fortunately the enemy took some time to reorganise themselves which gave us just the breathing space we needed (although only just!).

The enemy attack consisted of a large infantry force to the right and front supported by Stugs to the left. Fortnately the infantry to the front advanced straight into one of our preplanned defensive boxes and we could drop artiller on them which put paid to that. However, we also lost most of the rest of B compan to enemy artillery fire and some of our tank support to some well placed German anti-tank guns.

Their armour didn't are too well either as our 17 pounders tooke out every Stug that came into sight. Things were looking a little more difficult on the right flank but with the combined fire of C company, our remaining MGs and the anti-tank crews adding their small arms we managed to do enough for the Germans to have second thoughts. This combined with their failure in the centre and on the left meant they began to withdraw.

It was a really fun game especially with the initial planning element. In hindsight there are quite a few things we could have done better - like read the briefing papers more thoroughly and ask a few more questions! But ultimately the barrage was the key, had that been different I think the whole game would have taken on a completely different complexion.

Stylish Blogger Award

My friend Geordie from Geordie's Big Battles has nominated me for a Stylish Blogger Award on the basis that I started him blogging and, apparently, am also to blame for his insanity (according to his post!)!

I would like to thank Geordie for the nomination and for singling me out as the person responsible not only for his mental state but also for inflicting it on the internet!  Seriously though, it was good of Geordie to nominate me; however, this award seems to have become something of an epidemic across the gaming blogosphere and so I am not proposing to fulfil all the conditions attached to it.  I am supposed to:

• thank and link back to the blogger who nominated me for this award;
• share seven things about myself;
• nominate 10-15 other blogs for the award; and
• contact the bloggers and tell them about the award.

I have already thanked Geordie and below I will outline seven things about myself (for those who are even remotely interested!) but I don't propose to nominate any other blogs.  It's not that there aren't lots of blogs I follow that deserve nomination, indeed a high proportion of these have already been nominated, but rather it's the feel that the stipulation of numbers of nominations makes this rather like a chain letter (which is something I detest).

I would also like to thank anyone who reads the ramblings I post here and most particularly those who comment - it's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself!

Anyway, here are the 7 things about me:

1. I was introduced to gaming through AD&D when I was a student but I only found wargaming some time afterwards;
2. I still have some of the AD&D miniatures that I painted which I bought at the shop which used to be in the basement in Oxford Street about where the Virgin Megastore came and went;
3. for several years I ran a BBS on Fidonet (before the internet came along);
4. I don't like points systems - battles are very rarely balanced like that;
5. I love rule sets which mean the troops don't always do what you tell them - for me that's part of the challenge as a commander;
6. I haven't bought a boardgame for over a year (because I don't have any space to store any more) but seem to always find space for more figures; and
7. Wargaming helped me learn how not to be a sore loser (and believe me I used to be)!

The Mutiny: 32nd Foot

I have just finished basing the first of my Indian Mutiny units - the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot from the siege of Lucknow.  The 32nd figures are from Mutineer Miniatures and the civilians from Foundry (the latter are a little smaller - but OK if not mixed in the same unit).

The men of the 32nd

Varied reactions to news of the mutiny