Volo dicere ad Goth.

Once again things were left to the last minute for the club, maps to draw, customers to serve etc. Simon got in touch and suggested a War and Conquest game I know he likes Romans so it was an opportunity to get my Patricians on to the field of battle, these, like the Twelfth have a fearsome reputation and during their outings earlier this year destroyed their opposition. I really like this army. I decided however to go out on a limb, after all what is the point of having all sorts of troop types if you just use the same ones all the time? I decided to rely heavily, as they did, on Foederati for my strike force while the solid Roman infantry held the line, so to this end I took two units of Alan cavalry, expensive in a 2,000 point army but why not, I also took my Goth nobles on foot with a Goth general commanding my allied troops. The Romans consisted of three Legions and some skirmishers, I did not have a lot of missile troops as I was hoping the Alans would help here as they had bows along with a host of other weapons.

Simon had the Twelfth and took four cohorts, a large number of Auxiliary light infantry, massed archers and some cavalry. As we deployed I put my strike force on my left, the cavalry I was hoping would catch the enemy flank as they worked with the Goth foot, I hoped their archery would cause problems for the enemy. My Legions would simply hold their ground unless an opportunity arose to go forward, I was a little concerned about my right flank as Simon had the numbers there, but I would retire if I had to to give time to the left and centre.

Patricians on the left, Thunderbolts on the right.

 

Things looked really good as the battle began, the Roman cavalry got cold feet but instead of retiring took the opportunity to run along the length of my army and then throw themselves at some skirmishers who promptly ran away and exposed the cavalry to a charge by one of my Legions. Simon had started his reserve cohort on a march to his right, this didn't unduly worry me as I thought one of the cavalry units will catch it in the flank, another cohort came close enough for me to charge in the Goths, I stood back well satisfied. My right was under a bit of pressure but the Roman lights got tied up trying to run down my skirmishers so that left a straight unit for unit fight in the centre.

My shooting up until now had been dismal, and now my combat rolls went the same way, despite everything going for them the Goths failed to dent the enemy and spectacularly failed their morale test and legged it, the first time ever this unit has let me down. Worse was to come as both the Alan cavalry commands also failed their test and joined the rout, I did not have a left flank. Meanwhile on the right Quinta Macedonica were losing their combat, but they manfully stood their ground despite this, this gave my centre an opportunity to advance, the Anglevari hit a cohort while the Lanciarii Gallicani charged uphill into the archers who had been tormenting them all along.

Just before it all went wrong.

Oh dear.

Things got a little better as the Alans, under my withering gaze, decided to rally and ensure Simon could not ignore them and turn in and hit my centre. As the clock ticked away the Patricians got a slight win at the end of turn six, of the three combats still taking place I would have won two and Simon one, lest the dice gods saw fit otherwise, which they can do of course. If Simon's cavalry had not been so mad it would probably have ended a draw, I don't think he will try that again.

And 'Volo dicere ad Goth' is "I want a word with that Goth". I had some really dismal combat throws, Simon got no hits at one point until I reminded him he could reroll in the first round, he then promptly got three bloody kills! The Alan cavalry worked OK, I say worked but they didn't actually do much, I missed skirmishing horse archers, I think I will bring the Huns back next time.

So that is it for now, possibly another WAC game next Thursday against Kevin or maybe something else, Muskets and Tomahawks at the club, always good fun on Tuesday and during the week back to the new army and more furious painting.

I was looking at Gangs of Rome until I got so much rubbish I turned off notifications on Facebook, I wonder however if it will just be like all the other 'Gang' games but set in ancient Rome, I also do not succumb to the lore of size 10 supermodels with Herculean statistics killing everyone in sight, enough with the female characters, sheesh. The missus has just asked me what I want for Christmas and my birthday, guess .............. pikemen!

Springtime for Seleucis

On the field of battle by early Spring is now becoming a reality as I plunge forward with my new army, the other night I finished my fifth unit out of a possible total of around sixteen for the full monty or bifter as we Scots say, or we do on the West Coast. I should definitely have enough to take a small selection to the club for a game, around 2,000 points.

In order to have something to paint over the festive season in case I finish the Skythians, which I should manage, I have ordered up a pike phalanx and some officers. I intend this phalanx to be a 'normal' phalanx so it will in the main have the linen armour with the front rank only in metal. I don't know a lot about these armies but from what I have read I tend towards the rear ranks not having armour, Aventine do have some unarmoured pikemen but the rest are so nice I have decided the guard/elite phalanxes will have mainly metal armour while the others will have mainly linen.

I have just added a unit of Thorakitai which will operate on the flanks of the phalanx, these were quite different to the phalanx but able to fight in a like manner if called upon, they were armoured and carried a large oval shield along with either javelins or a long spear or possibly both. Although wearing armour they were especially adept at exploiting rough terrain, they were very close to the Thureophoroi as a troop type, my plan is to use them along with Thracians and Thureophoroi with cavalry support to protect my flanks or possibly destroy enemy flanks. For the time being they are a small unit of sixteen, depending on my experience on the field they might be given the opportunity to upgrade to twenty-four.

My granddaughter is here for the weekend and I was dragged into Lancaster for some Christmas shopping, not much as we have already got most of what we want online. It was dreadful, the car parks were like Wacky Races, it was cold, damp, crowded, not a nice way to spend an afternoon. So I decided to put a smile on my face slipped into Waterstones and got a new Batman novel, I know I could have got it online cheaper, but I feel now and again I have to support a bookshop, even Waterstones (the only one within 100 miles). I also OD'd on liquorice which is not good for me but I love, novelties, Zouts, and cartwheels along with some Nanny State 0.5% and very salty peanuts (also not good for me) for binging Netflix's The Punisher. The cartwheels in the market were 12 for £1 but so far I have had 15 in one pack and 13 in the other, result.

Kevin is busy this week so no Monday boardgame, our weekly game may also have to wait until next Saturday instead of Thursday. I should be at the club this Tuesday but no idea yet what I am doing. I have completed severalinteresting map projects and having got my feet dry I am once again off to the trenches for another sixteen maps.

Stony Point, also the template for an atlas with around 200 maps.

View From The Window

I was told a few weeks ago that negotiations on the sale of Washington House were underway, it would seem then they have come to naught as nothing more has been heard, I am told the price has been dropped considerably but I am not sure the sellers have a good idea of considerably.

I have had a large, glass corner cabinet in the shop now for at least a year, maybe two, and it has not moved, I have even tried to give it away to no avail, so with the new carpet tiles due I decided to once and for all get rid of it, so I phoned up 'Furniture Matters' a charity, to come and collect. Charlie and Fred arrived on the day and I watched as they entered the shop, stopped, and looked up and down at the cabinet rubbing their chins.

C&F: We can't take that mate.
Me: Why?
C&F: There's glass in it.
Me: Yes, it's a glass cabinet!
C&F: Is it safety glass?
Me: I don't know, I bought it when the world was not insane and you used safety glass on aeroplanes.
C&F: Our hands are tied, Health and Safety mate, innit.

I had of course known I was wasting my time, but there you go, confirmed. I then phoned a 'Man with a Van', can you get rid of a cabinet for me? No, can't do that, I would have to get a permit and then they would charge me at the tip, too much bother, that's why there is an upsurge in fly tipping you see, no, you don't say. As a last resort I phoned the St. Johns, no they didn't want it either, no call for dark wood these days, we'd just be left with it, better you are left with it, ta ra love. In a rage I broke it down and carefully packed the bits in the new car and took it to the tip, where I had to visit three different skips under the scrutiny of the Guardians of the Refuse in their luminous uniforms, in order to eventually rid myself of it.

Have you noticed now that the first thing a delivery guy and his mate do is find a reason not to deliver your goods, my new cooker from Curry's was a no no as my kitchen is, wait for it, up a set of stairs, could I vouch the stairs would hold the weight of the cooker, no, but the other one and the rest of the furniture managed to get up there no problem. We actually had to cancel the order as they would not attempt the stairs, the new outfit took theirs up no problem. The Openreach woman didn't want to put my fibre broadband in as she had to climb a ladder. The miserable so and so who came to put my new PO equipment in last week immediately said, no way, I can't get into that, it must have been put in and the counter built around it. No, the counter has been here at least 30 years, the PO equipment was put in eighteen years ago, mind you he said it as if I was someone who cared, it wouldn't be me for the highjump because the new equipment was not installed. Guess what, he did manage it once he actually tried.

My niece received a house recently and was waiting for an inspector to visit so that it could be made habitable for her, small problems if any could be fixed. She was seriously asked to sit outside the house for four weeks from 0800 to 1600 each day, excepting Saturday and Sunday of course, because the Council would not give her a time and date for an appointment. That is until my sister got in on the act, job sorted.

I was also maddened by having to deal with a banking problem this week, I phoned one bank to be told it was the other bank's problem, then I got the same from the second bank, I went too and fro at least three times. I also got to talk to people half way across the world who did not understand what I was on about. But what really took the biscuit was trying to tell the robot answering machine what my query related to in a Scottish accent which it quite obviously could not handle, it did pick up some words which were not meant for it and are universal, not Scottish. I managed to hold on to my sanity only because a kind lady pointed me in the right direction despite telling me she could not infringe the data protection act or financial regulations act to help me.


How have we turned into a nation of can't do rather than one of can do, how did we ever defeat Hitler or run an Empire, how did we turn the corner and run scared from a bunch of European nobodies whom we saved on two occasions.

I have just been notified that part of my duties as a Subpostmaster is to be on the lookout for modern slavery and if I spy any I am to report it right away, this is in keeping with the Modern Slavery Guidance for Subpostmasters booklet I am to receive in the next few weeks. I didn't know when I signed up to this I was being recruited to watch for money launderers, financial irregularities and now white slavers. I am an upstanding member of the community and naval veteran but I am not Elliot Ness.

I started watching the BBC's Detectorists when it first came out and quite enjoyed the first season, it was easy watching and quite pleasant. The second season was not as good, it had its moments but something was going awry. I have now sat and watched the third episode of the new series and our two hero's have now morphed into a couple of gutless wonders afraid of their own shadows, I have never seen such pathetic looking men in my life, no, I tell a lie, the guy in Motherland beats even these two useless articles. But back to the originals, one looks like he is ready to burst into tears at a moments notice while the other does an excellent job as a doormat for everyone to walk over. One has a wife and the other a girlfriend, how did they manage that, what on earth would a woman see in these two?

There's Always One, err no, Two

In wargaming you must have come across that guy, the one who points out that the pattern on your Greek Hoplite shield is a modern one and there are no wall paintings or old vases which show what you have painted, or the brass button on your 6mm Hussar should in fact be silver just to ruin your day and make his. He turns up everywhere, you feel his presence before you see him, he is usually alone and has an intent look about him as he scours the tables looking for points to score.

Sadly the internet has now allowed this creature a whole new way to vent his spleen at what he sees as ruining his hobby. I have fallen foul several times in the past and have suffered the slings and arrows of his and his followers ire. I once casually mentioned that most battles before the age of gunpowder tended to be fought on fairly open ground, possibly with a hill somewhere, I was immediately deluged with the names of battles which supposedly proved me to be a raving lunatic. They did in fact rather prove my theory in most cases on closer inspection. I was also nearly strung up for having the temerity to point out that a certain wargame company, in contrast to nearly every other one I have dealt with in 50 odd years, treated me abominably because my denouncers had met the guy and he was very nice! I still pass him at shows and throw him my disgusted look.

What brought this on, well I'll tell you. Now and again I pop my battle reports on TMP, it brings more hits to my blog and hopefully some people will enjoy the write up as I do with many others. The first comment was simply "Imperial Romans v Punic Carthaginians?", and your point is? His point was obviously I was an idiot, they didn't fight Carthaginians, duh. But the second comment agreeing with the first took the biscuit, "there is no excuse". Why would I need an excuse to fight a wargame with a friend on a rainy afternoon with the armies we had available, was I to tell Kevin not to bother but come back in six months when my Republican army dated for two o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, February 260 BC will be ready.

"I just brought Imperial Romans"

 I learned many years ago that to wargame the Ancient or Medieval period it was best to stay 'in period' but this is not always possible, I would not fight any of Kevin's armies with my Patrician Romans because I think their cavalry is too good for the opposition to have a chance. I also do not allow the Twelfth to bring their cataphracts to a battle against Kevin for the same reason, but the troop types in the rest of the army are fine for a clash with Greeks, Carthaginians, Macedonians etc. One of my detractors has posted over 14,000 times on TMP, he must be fuming............

Carthage Is The New Enemy

Terrible day outside, third day of atrocious weather so it was just as well I had organised a game. It was a War and Conquest bash and instead of Greeks Kevin had brought his Carthaginians minus elephants, for now. I wasn't quite sure what I would be up against as a Carthaginian commander has a lot of choice in what to bring to the battlefield.

In the event the army was a mix of different troops, Celts, Africans, Libyans etc. there was one warband and three phalanxes along with supporting troops. I had brought what is becoming my core forces for a 3,000 point battle, two normal cohorts, two green cohorts, one auxiliary cohort, supports and a unit of Contarii as I expected at least one half decent Carthaginian cavalry unit.

Thunderbolts on the left, Carthage on the right.

The Emperor surveys the scene.

After we deployed, with Kevin again fearful of his flanks and putting terrain on both, I thought they were still vulnerable and I decided to go forward quickly with my right, my left I was not so sure about and wanted to use the hill to my advantage. I did not manage to snatch the initiative until the last two moves in the game, so my left was caught off guard as the large Celtic warband came storming forward towards my archers, they received a hail of arrows and failed their morale test spectacularly and bolted, I sighed with relief as my Lanciarii were not in position yet to harass the flank of the warband. My left was safe for the time being.

The warband flees.

Carthaginian centre advances.

Roman right races forward.

On the right my horse archers shielded the advance of my Contarii which I was sure would beat the Carthaginian cavalry given a chance, but they didn't do very much else except of course survive the enemy archery. My two green cohorts advanced swiftly and Cohors II hit the enemy to their front whil Cohors III manoeuvred for a flank charge. The enemy cavalry had decided to move to their right so things were looking very good here. Although my boys put the enemy to flight their support came through and gave me a hard time, holding up my victory here for a couple of moves.

Roman left stabilises.

In the centre I took the fight to the enemy centre rather than wait, the plan was for the flanking units to get behind the enemy while my legionaries bravely held up their opponents, I was fighting for time. I managed to win the first clash but lost the next round as numbers told against me, however I managed to stop both units from routing, it was going to be touch and go whether help would arrive in time.

Here they come!

Victory looks settled on the right.

Clash in the centre.

Meanwhile on my left the Auxiliaries had vanquished their foes and turned in to the centre, the large warband continued to suffer from missile fire but managed one last effort to take the hill, they failed in this and were swept away in the rout. I now lost both my centre units but they managed to outrun their pursuers so I might have had a chance to get them back, one at least. I smashed into the pursuers making them stop and turn back. My Contarii rode down one phalanx but I had asked too much of my Auxiliaries and they in turn were hit in the rear by the Carthaginian cavalry, it was too much and they dispersed. A look across the battlefield showed mainly Roman units closing in on what remained of the Carthaginian army, it was over.

Roman centre collapses.

Recovery and the end.

My Romans have to win the flank battles against these phalanx armies otherwise it is an uphill struggle, the Carthaginians proved a worthy foe and they can only become more dangerous, the Thunderbolts will have to be on their toes. I had a couple of turns where I could not inflict any casualties and Kevin had a few disastrous morale throws at the beginning but managed better later on, my horse archers couldn't hit a barn door but they stayed around as a shield so did their job. Cohors I had a hard time again but I cannot blame them against a phalanx, if they and the Praetorian's had held just one more turn....

Royal Navy Loses Out

Miserable day again as I walked down to Kevin's for a shot at some naval warfare, it was a quick-play game of Napoleonic period combat entitled Master and Commander, of course it was. The game was fairly simple, a few hex sheets and some nice thick card counters, the only drawback with these is the colours chosen to represent both sides, they look quite similar if you haven't been to Specsavers and the ships can easily be confused. I don't bother much with 'quick-play' as I like to take my time with my games, however I do see the point, this game is very quick and the mechanics are fine if you are not too bothered about reality. The only real bug bear with both of us was that if you wanted to stop your ship instead of having a collision you simply let slip the anchor, but, if you are a naval veteran like me you know that does not bring you to a shuddering, instant halt. Perhaps we got that wrong, there were a few other things but in the interests of fast play you have to ignore them.

In the first conflict I was the Americans and had to escape the clutches of a British squadron, being an old tar I instead tried to engage the enemy, shades of Nelson there, but I failed miserably, you have to be very lucky to get a hit in this game, even if you can see the whites of their eyes. One down to the RN. In the second game I took command of a weak French squadron against a much better British one, we both thought the result would be a foregone conclusion but almost at once I captured one of the Brits and within a short time I had captured the rest of them apart from one I sent to the bottom. Despite having to half some of my crews to take over the captured vessels this had no detrimental effect on the parent ship nor the captive. We tried one more scenario but gave up as the British had no chance of catching the French before they escaped off the 'table'. This left the final action, we both had a decent little fleet and this time it was a fight to the death, the British had to wipe out the French and the Frogs had to counter this by causing more damage to the British. This was a grand little game and I pulled a victory out of the hat for the French.

So there we are, an afternoons fun once again, Kevin now has some 1/4800 ships and this will make the game look a lot better, it is a fine little game for a rainy afternoon but we might have to sort that emergency stop. He is getting a well recommended game for the war on the Eastern Front in WWII, a command and colours block type game, we may have that for next Monday.

I have just completed my two skirmish units, slingers and archers for the new army, I have put them on 25mm bases this time rather than 20mm as the latter slip on slopes, they are not only more stable but they look better. I am once again racing ahead rather than taking my time, I cannot help it, I started a lovely unit of Thorakitai yesterday and expect to finish them by the weekend. These are troops midway between Hoplites and Phalangites, they have armour and carry a long spear as well as javelins and have a large shield, they have not long been released by Aventine and they are lovely, especially the command figures, beautiful.

I am not going to the club tonight, I have some stuff to complete map wise and want to get it off the drawing board and away, I do have a game on Thursday afternoon, this time the Twelfth will be fighting Hannibal rather than the Greeks, I look forward to it.

Ecgfrith Turns the Tide of History

Home alone again as the missus has had to house sit down south to help my son, long story, so of course this afternoon was free for wargaming, I arranged with Kevin to refight the Battle of Nechtansmere which in reality took place somewhere north of the Tay in Angus. It involved the Picts and the Northumbrians of King Ecgfirth, it was a large raid in part to teach the Picts a lesson as they had been encroaching on Ecgfirth's territory, which back in those days took in a large part of southeastern Scotland. The Pictish king, Bridei Mac Bili, was an aggressive leader and an experienced warrior, he managed to ambush the Northumbrians and inflict a heavy defeat on them killing Ecgfirth.

Picts on the left, Northumbrians on the right, Forlorn Hope and Van up the top.

Kevin was Bridei and I was Ecgfirth. The Picts had the advantage for the first two game turns and their cavalry made a wide detour to come in on the flank of the Northumbrians as they faced the Picts on the nearby heights, the Pictish forlorn hope which had lured the enemy on now stopped and threw in a wild charge on their pursuers, things had started well for the wild men. As the cavalry maneuvered, the centre of the Pict line raced downhill and clashed with the Northumbrian right, Ecgfirth looked around in dismay as his hearthguard battled to their front.

The Picts advance.

Brutal combat.

Despite some of the Northumbrian cavalry being defeated and the second unit being forced into a death ride against Bridei's hearthguard the Northumbrian infantry began to get the upper hand. The Pict forlorn hope was held then routed in a surprise melee result while Ecgfirth's hearthguard beat and caught their opponents. The Pict cavalry and Bridei's companions defeated everything in front of them and opened a large gap between the Northumbrian van and the rest of the line, another Pict unit although losing bodies in the centre, simply refused to run.

Picts threaten the Northumbrian rear, but then pull back.

On the Northumbrian left the Picts were heavily defeated and put to rout which left several Northumbrian units to turn and advance on the centre, Bridei was losing the numbers game and as his army started to disappear over the hills he decided to pull back and reform, blocking the way home for the enemy. But first he had to destroy the Northumbrian van, despite all the odds this unit held the hearthguard then turned the tables and routed them, with their king and best fighters seen falling in the heather the Pictish cavalry could do nothing more than ride into the sunset.

Bridei and his hearthguard die in the centre.

The game was kept simple as I don't think there are army lists out there for the Picts and Northumbrians in 685AD, so both were typical of the period in that they were all unarmoured apart from the hearthguards and cavalry, we know there were armoured cavalry at Nechtansmere. All were armed with shield, spear and javelins and had average morale apart from the king's bodyguard. I only used two small skirmish units in each army as this was a stand up, brutal, Dark Age combat. Things played out well, the Picts took advantage of their opening moves and threw in several charges, sadly the infantry did not do as well as the cavalry, for the Northumbrians it was the opposite, their infantry fought extremely well while the cavalry were dispersed early on. I am glad it turned out a good game, I would like to fight Clontarf next but sadly do not have nor will be getting a pile of Vikings, but you never know.

HMS Tartar 4th Commission 1970 17

On the way back to Bahrain we spent a night looking for a lightship which had slipped its moorings, we didn't find it, that was left to someone else, we had a date with RFA Rosalie for mainly ammunition replenishment and after that we headed for Bahrain. This time we had several mechanical and electrical problems to solve, the former quite serious but this gave the rest of us time for relaxing.

I volunteered to go sailing, real sailing using the dinghy thingy that we had onboard, this was normally officers only but my mate Coop, who was part of the Fleet Air Arm crew onboard persuaded me to go along, the FAA crew being only four in number were much closer than the rest of us. I felt like the proverbial spare ***** at the wedding and it was even worse when I was crewed up with the Captain for a race, what did I call him, it wasn't an official do after all, he simply called me Anderson or you there. At one point in the race, which he took very seriously, a string broke holding the front sail thing, he told me to grab the end of the canvas and hang out over the front of the dinghy, I had in effect become a bit of rope. I never took up the offer of sailing again.

We had a show put on at Jufair for us and the rest of the British forces in the area, Army and RAF, it starred Barbara law and Wee Willie Harris, and the event is completely non memorable for me, perhaps I was on duty. I managed to survive my first Ramadan, something which was completely alien to me but we were all reminded not to offend the locals as we went about our business.

Wee Willie Harris, words fail me.

 We had been due to sail on November 7th but we were still not ready and the other ships, British and American did as we were to take part in a large exercise called "Midlink". We did manage to sail the next day, better late than never, we met the rest of the 'fleet' at Bandar Abbas on the 10th, nine ships in all. That night instead of going ashore it was decided to have an 'Operation Awkward', where we were supposed to be under attack from enemy divers and we all had to listen intently for sounds of mines being popped on the hull while many of us patrolled the decks, there may or may not have been divers around but it certainly was awkward if you just wanted to get to bed. There was shore leave the next night, I was of course on watch but from the tales brought back I didn't miss much.

So, we are all geared up now for the morrow and several days of pretend warfare, we all hope to get through this and then head for Singapore.

Two Bombers and One World.....errr

Another dark miserable night when no one should be abroad, but it was club night, I took along my Wings of War stuff and went again for a 'points make prizes' game. This time we had two British bombers on a mission escorted by six scouts (Simon, Julian and Stuart) while the dastardly Huns also had six scouts in an attempt to stop them (me, Rob and Andy). Where I could I gave people the choice of aircraft and again everyone rolled for Ace abilities, Julian got two, I got one which was pretty much useless as I had possibly the best aircraft on the table, Fokker DVII's, I don't recall anyone else getting anything. So, the rules were again simple, -1 for getting shot down, +2 for a kill, +5 if you shot down a bomber and the bombers got +5 if they hit their target. It was decided half way through the game it was a team effort, but watch this space.

Both Andy and I came in on the flanks of the British force, my plan being to get on the tail of the bombers while Andy at this juncture just seemed to want to fly about miles, OK, a foot, behind the targets, Rob bravely went head to head with the enemy.

Rob's death ride.

Sneaky Red Devils.

For a short while the British escorts seemed nonplussed but they had dealt out a tremendous amount of damage to Rob's DVIII's and down they went, they now did an about face and came back on myself and Andy. I was in an excellent position on one bomber and continually sprayed bullets into the monster, although I took hits they proved in the main to be harmless. Andy now seemed to be the main focus of the RAF but he became the first German pilot to make a kill. The bombers were now on their approach run and I had watched one of my Red Devils smash into the ground in flames, but I took my revenge as my target exploded and fell in bits from the sky.

And then there was one.

Re-grouping.

We couldn't stop the last bomber dropping his bombs and I was on him as he turned for home, but so was nearly every other aircraft in the area, the resulting confusion as everyone tried not to collide allowed the bomber to get a head start on the way home, my new plane spawned in a perfect position behind the mayhem and he made a beeline for the tail of the bomber. My veteran at last could take no more and he spiralled out of control for mother earth however his last shots had also sent the second bomber to a fiery grave. Rob and Andy had also helped bring the beast down but the honours went to Jasta 18, as did the last German kill of the day as my man also took out a badly damaged Snipe.

Aaaaaargh!

The British also managed the last kill of the game which left the scores at 13 each, however my lawyer has just informed me that the British did not take a -1 for each bomber, but it would be churlish of me to mention such. I will say that Jasta 18 took home the cup for shooting down two bombers and a scout, a magnificent effort (too much?)

No matter, a great game and a lot of fun, the last bomber also hit his target before he was shot down.

"George flies in to save the day" courtesy of Stuart Dobson.

Heavy Weapon

I treated myself to a Seleucid war elephant, I intend to get two eventually but wanted to get started on the first model, I have no actual plan yet for the building of the new army apart from having to wait for the new cavalry. I do have an idea to get at least 2,000 to 2,500 points of core troops then add the rest as I go along but it is subject to whim so far.

Yes, the elephant, a lovely model from Aventine, I went for the traditional howdah along with armour and the lovely trunk which has grabbed a nearby soldier and hoisted him on high. I followed two tips, use a dusting of Bicarbonate of Soda with the superglue for the new Aventine metal, a light dusting is more than enough and paint the mahout and mount him before doing the howdah. The turret sat quite awkwardly so I folded some kitchen roll, lathered it in superglue and stuck it under the centre of the howdah and then sat it on the back of the elephant, this made the whole thing very stable, any suitable material would do. To decorate the base I used a couple of shields I had in a bag from bygone projects, a spare spear and a hollowed out Greek helmet along with the usual tufts.

So, I am moving on to two skirmish units, more will be ordered up in a week or so, I am thinking more support troops, for some reason I feel like doing the phalanxes last, weird but there you go.

I popped down to Kevin's this afternoon for our Monday boardgame, Tricorne again and the Battle of Monmouth 1778. For this battle the winner had to get nine victory points, the British get two for every hex they held on Perrine Farm ridge, but if moved off the hex they would lose them.
 

 I managed to draw several Right Flank cards at the beginning and off I went for the ridge, I also managed to get up and take the hedge line in the centre, I did not want to do anything with my left. I was doing very well at first and American casualties mounted, however, twice Kevin drew a rally card which meant he made good all his losses, as the battle unfolded I too now began to take casualties. For several moves I had to use all the cards I could to keep the attack going in, this was difficult as most of my hand allowed me to attack on the left, not the right and my centre sat around making tea.

Eventually I did manage to get my boys on to the ridge and luckily it was the Highlanders, these brave troops fought back every assault thrown at them, and there were plenty as the American commander became desperate to win back the ridge. I now decided to use those Left Flank cards and successfully threw back the American right, why didn't I do this before?

As the last Continental assaults failed I held enough of the ridge to declare victory, well done the Jocks. How did we ever lose this war, it seems very difficult for the Americans to win a battle, so far the British are usually concentrated while the Rebels have units way back from the front line, even with some good cards Kevin could not stop my attack. It seems that during the game you can get an attack started but keeping it going becomes the hard part, you can usually manage to move something but not in a coordinated fashion. We are going to try something else next week for a change, tomorrow it is Wings of War again at the club and on Thursday I am looking at a Dark Age scenario based on the battle of Nechtansmere from my scenario booklet.

I Deserve It

I have been on a small spending spree recently, I jumped into the Mafia scene with a box set of Gomorrah and the movie 'Suburra' which is now a Netflix crime series, these are Italian productions and the former is quite gripping and manages to surprise, it is also quite manner of factly violent, it happens but is not dwelt on. On the strength of these I will probably buy Romanzo
Criminali as well.

I got two more DVD's, Mel Gibson's Apocalypto and an old favourite of mine Guns at Batasi, a wonderfully evocative movie of the end of empire and old fashioned British grit which has sadly gone the way of black and white movies. Along with this is the latest Walking Dead book, number 14, I am kind of stuck with these as there is no point stopping now, it does not interfere with the television series as they have gone their different paths.

I have been 'that man there' and you always knew it was you!

My first Aventine elephant arrived at last and tempted though I was to build it this lunchtime, I have put it off until this evening, a very bonny thing it is too, I hope I can do it justice. I also have slingers and archers now in the pipeline waiting to be primed and painted. If the new cavalry are out I will get them otherwise the next order will be line infantry. I have now sorted the movement tray out for the heavy cavalry and this time gone for the one with the 3mm lip, I think this is better than what I have been using.