The Rain In Spain

 I have recovered from my 'special' day last week and for now am back on an even keel, in so much as I can be in this madhouse of a world.

A flurry of activity in what I am beginning to call my 'Fortress of Solitude' this week, the floor is in, most of the woodwork is complete and the bathroom is also done. The shop front has now gone, well almost all of it so that leaves the new wall to finish and a garden wall to be built, obviously I am more interested in the inside and when I can annex it to my wargame empire. To this end I have now ordered bookcases, shelving, chairs etc. so light at the end of the tunnel and maybe a wargame or two.

New floor.

New front, almost.

Old Front.

This week I was introducing Fran to Chain of Command with the intention of kicking off a small campaign once everything is ship shape, I chose The Gembloux Gap as it is small and I can get my French troops out for a run. So I put something together for the game and off we went. I was the French and Fran took the bad guys, he took an extra squad and a PzIII, I had a Panhard armoured car and a 60mm mortar, which I forgot all about until the last turn.

Normally I would have waited several turns before putting my defenders down but that would not serve to introduce game mechanics so I popped a couple of squads and my grenadiers on fairly quick, the Germans managed to get most of their troops on and started to heap some hurt on my Frenchies or sit on overwatch waiting for the rest to turn up. I did not have a lot of luck and thankfully there were a few times when Fran also annoyed Lady Luck, I brought on the Panhard and traded shots with the PzIII to no avail, although I did catch its attention. 

As the time ran out the Jerries at last made a move towards my line but we stopped the game and packed up, Fran had had a decent run at the rules and is happy to give the campaign a try once I am ready, so I shall look forward to it.

This morning I headed north to Penrith and Matt's Dungeon, I asked if we could give WWII a miss and could he put on something colourful. I arrived to fight on the plains of Spain as two Arab armies faced off against each other at some point of the Dark Ages. We both had typical armies of the time and I also had a contingent of Christian mercenaries, Matt also had mercenaries, Turks I think. The object was to have more troops on the far side of a small stream at the end than the enemy, along with killing more enemy than you lost and thirdly there was an enemy camp which could be captured.

We were using Kings of War, a set of rules which I have never played and never had any intention of playing, simply because I have War and Conquest for my pre-gunpowder armies. It was going to be a sharp learning curve.

My first plan was to use my Christians to smash Matt's left flank and then turn in towards the centre and the camp over on the enemy right. This did not go so well and about three moves in I had a large gap in my line as I lost a couple of crossbow units and had had to withdraw my heavy cavalry due to enemy missile fire, it looked like an early bath for me.

 

The battlefield somewhere in Spain.

The bad guys.

The good guys.

I now made an effort on my left with horse archers and some medium cavalry and managed to see off the enemy horse on that flank, I now sent my infantry towards the enemy centre while Matt reciprocated, my right was only just hanging on and I sent some infantry across to stop my camp falling into enemy hands. Slowly, very slowly I began to get the upper hand on the right although things were still messy as both sides strove for an advantage. Then, out of the blue things swung my way and in the dying light of day I held my right, and smashed the enemy centre, the enemy were left with two units and the casualty roll was in my favour while my troops had secured the far bank.

My long suffering Christian cavalry get their own back.

I ford the stream and attack.

More troops are drawn into battle in the centre.

The game was different but exciting, the combat worked well but I had the impression that archery was too strong, now this might just have been because these armies relied a lot on missile troops and had plenty, Matt also assured me that it worked fine in the end, the jury is still out on that one. The rules are fast and easily picked up, I would be very happy to play them again, especially with the lovely troops and battlefields provided in the Dungeon.

I have to admit I am hooked on Shogun and this week I managed to get that tin of bog standard beer and enjoyed it with the latest episode last night, although I still can't get cheese and onion square crisps. I also got two new books having finished the two volumes on Rorke's Drift, due to my renewed interest on the bombing campaign against Germany I settled on 'Dresden' while my eyes also lit upon a history of the emperor Justinian. I should have looked at the latter closer, I make it a policy not to buy history books without maps or using BCE/CE rather than BC/AD, yes daft, but hey, that's me. Justinian has maps but I missed the other bit, grrrrrr.