Tiger, tiger

 Last Tuesday was a busy day, the Penrith Dungeon in the morning and the Club at night but like all plans this one did not work out. Rob caught a cold so we would not be going to the Sudan to fight the Fuzzie Wuzzies but I did drag myself out of bed and head off north to Matt Crump's.

In the Dungeon this time it was somewhere in Sicily, the game was based on the fight for Biazza Ridge and I was James Gavin of the 82nd fighting against the Hermann Goering division while Matt took the bad guys. I had a platoon of elite paratroopers along with a second platoon of regulars, two Shermans, an anti-tank gun and an MMG, I was up against the elite Jerries of 'call me Meyer' who had five squads, some halftracks, an armoured car, mortar, anti-tank gun, MMG and.....a Tiger!

Another lovely battlefield.

There were three objectives on the table, one of which was miles away and a shoe in for the Luftwaffe boys, the central one was closer to me on the ridge and the third, on my right, although closer to me was a hike through some rough ground to get to it. I therefore decided to go for the centre and right, the Paras would be in the centre with Gavin. On turn 2 when my second wave turned up I sent them to the right but for some reason I thought if my tanks went left and killed any Germans around the objective I might slip one squad up the road and steal it, not a great idea as it turned out. Oh, I forgot to mention I had naval gunfire support (one of my old jobs) and if it hit it would simply make a mess of everything in the area as 15" shells would. I started off well with HMS Ramilles wiping out the Jerry anti-tank gun before failing to hit anything at all. 

The Paras arrive.

As does the armour, in the wrong place?

Gavin led his men up on to the ridge and then came under heavy fire and I began losing men and a bit of my nerve, the tanks clanked up the road and began shooting anything they could see, badly. Matt had sent two squads in half tracks up a country track on my right and was closer to that objective than my men, it was going to be a struggle as the Germans also sent their armoured car into that area. More Yanks fell and although I was managing hits I was not converting them into kills, I gave up all thought of stealing the left objective and for a moment swithered about pulling one of my Para squads back behind the ridge. Matt's advances were looking good and my casualties mounted. In came a swarm of panzergrenadiers against my regulars and they wiped out one of the three squads but they did take casualties, I did try and take advantage of this but my boys refused to move.

The Jerries attack my right.

A hit from the navy.

The big cat.

I manage to hold the right.

The centre holds, just.

Then the Tiger turned up, where was it going, if it supported the attack on my right I think I would have lost out but instead it went after the two Shermans, one of which promptly hit the beast and caused it to reverse. Return fire imobilised one of the Shermans but it could still fire. I felt slightly better as I mopped up the right flank holding it securely, but knew Matt would attempt a rush now against the centre if not to take it then to contest the objective. The Tiger moved forward again only to be hit this time by the anti-tank gun which again caused it to retreat. It looked like things had swung my way but there was still possibly one German squad which might make it on to the ridge. Then what sounded like an express train whooshed overhead and the squad disappeared in a puff of high explosive, Ramillies had got the range and put the icing on the cake. Matt surrendered.

 

The Tiger so close.

My armour moves to the centre.

Whooosh! The last gasp.

Another good game and interesting scenario played out on a lovely table. I didn't manage much of a chat as I was going away with the Memsahib for a couple of days and had what seemed like a ton of things to orgainse before heading into the Lakes.

I have a couple of map projects which seem to be hard to pin down and complete and a couple more in the queue. I got a heads up from Helion about the possibility of doing another atlas of between 80-100 maps on the Arab-Israeli conflicts, it has not yet been confirmed but is looking good and the author has already been in touch.

Now, readers will know that I am not shy of using the LMF to enhance my wargaming and I do not shirk from shelling out the spondolicks, however I was running out of PVA/Wood Glue for basing and as I traversed an indoor market in Morecambe I asked a vendor if he sold said product. I should have known better, I'm 72 after all, I purchased a small bottle for £2, this should have screamed at me but I ignored the little guy on my shoulder telling me "You'll be sorry". I glued my latest troops to their MDF bases the other night and the glue was sticky and runny, sure enough in the morning when I picked them up to add the sand the figures came off in my hand. I headed off to town and spent nearly £15 this time on the good stuff along with some superglue, kicking myself all the way home. 

The good stuff.

Some new paints to try as well.

Talking about spending money, we were away at a Spa Resort in the Lakes for a couple of days for the Memsahib's birthday, lovely place but we spent two days being drenched in rain whenever we ventured outside, I sit at home now looking out the window at a glorious day. The Lakes were busy nevertheless and damn expensive, parking was normally £5 for a couple of hours and a piece of apple pie a tenner!

Should have went to Ibiza.

I splashed even more money this morning as I ordered up more troops for the Romans, enough for three auxiliary foot units and a bunch of skirmishers. I have finished my second regular vexillation, this time from IIII Flavia Felix and have begun work on some Roman horse archers. I also sent for several sets of transfers from LBMS (now run by Victrix), so I should be all set for the next couple of months.

I am halfway through 'Late Roman Combat Tactics' and I am more than impressed, the Romans basically, or at least during the mid to late periods, fought by numbers. They had drills for all occasions and all enemies and if these were followed by commanders it usually resulted in a Roman win. It is not an easy read and relies a lot on early Byzantine treatises which were heavily influenced by what we would call Late Roman manuals. 

Parthian Shot: I know the world is mad, or at least anything to the left of the old Iron Curtain, but the French city of Lyon has taken the biscuit by paying Psychics thousands of euros to ask nearby animals and plants about local planning issues. At one meeting Poppy was given a seat, no, not a person, a real Poppy, the plant! Yes, Lyon city council is dominated by......the Green Party. The defence rests M'lud.

Another week another battle.

 I had a game in the diary with Julian, we returned at last to the Italian Wars, as usual I was running about like a blue ****** fly juggling maps, real life and games. Handily I was working on Helion's book on wargaming the period and settled on the Battle of Novarra, for no other reason than it looked an easy set up. I don't have all the information on the scenarios, only the maps but Colin Ashton, co-author, kindly sent me his information on the battle and this helped me set something up for a game, this is my interpretation until the book is published.

Basically the French are surprised by the Swiss attack, to replicate this I (the French) could not move for two turns as my men were running around donning armour and finishing off a cordon bleu meal. Julian simply came on in typical Swiss style, although I was outnumberd in infantry I was hoping my cavalry could hold my left flank and maybe secure it, my right I held back waiting.

The Swiss.

The French right.

The French left.

Swiss left, French right.

The Milanese came on at a pace way before I could move my heavy cavalry over to intercept them, the French heavies start in a very awkward position. My mounted crossbows were hit and dispersed while the Stradiots managed to evade and keep clear of the armoured horse while throwing useless javelins at the pike block. On the right my crossbows were equally useless as the Swiss pike blocks got ever nearer my lines. The largest pike block now hit two units of Landsknechts and a murderous combat ensued, my smaller block was pushed back but the other held, at one point I came so close to pushing the Swiss back only to be ruined by some fiendishly lucky dice thrown by Julian, again! Another enemy block now hit my remaining Landsknechts, these boys fought like Trojans and came so close to winning I shook my head in despair as the clockmakers rallied and turned the tide on me.

Trecate village.

Both sides advance on my left.

Ditto on the right.

Shoot guys, shoot.

Meanwhile on the left I had managed to ride down the annoying Swiss crossbowmen and was now about to go for their artillery. The Milanese had given up trying to catch the lighter horsemen and turned towards my approaching Gendarmes, I was looking for a win here as my fresh horse thundered in, it was not to be and the melee rocked back and forth until both sides broke while their leaders who had been in the front rank fled the scene. This left me one Gendarme unit to throw at the Swiss in the field, in they went and duly bounced off, I was gutted, surrounded by light cavalry and flanked by heavies the Swiss laughed in my face and stood like statues. To make matters worse my Landsknechts now gave up the fight and also fled, just as in the real battle the French had been routed so I handed over my sword.

Push of pike.

 

Clash of heavy cavalry.

 

It's all over.

 

A sad end.

If you peruse the photgraphs you will see most of the Swiss pike blocks received heavy casualties but Julian pulled it out of the hat time and again while I didn't, in wargame speak he rolled 5's and 6's while I managed 1's and 2's. Nevertheless it is an interesting battle and the gods teased me twice in the infantry melee only to snatch my good fortune away again. I had a couple of thoughts on the rules, it is difficult to get your head around the fact that a pike block is almost impervious to cavalry, probably right but annoying nevertheless. They were subject to several morale checks due to shooting but Julian sailed through them. Fatigued troops, having just charged for instance, have no penalties to their fighting ability, I am going to amend this. Another good game though and always a pleasure to fight Julian.

I did go to the club this week, twice. Because being an old sod I forgot the dials required to play X-Wing and had to go back home to get them, speeding along the M6 like I was at Brand's Hatch (remember that). Jimi and I need to read the rules before arranging a game, I was at my usual and winging it hoping nothing untoward turned up, but of course it did. We still managed to get a draw with two kills each although there was no way what I had left could take down the Milenium Falcon. It doesn't help that the owners of the game basically turned it loose last year and now only the fan base are left to play.

Not much on the painting table this week, but I did manage to finish two bolt shooters, so that is four units of the new army ready. I also got another package from A&A, these will be an auxilliary infantry cohort, Roman horse archers and Clibinarii, probably mentioned this before. I have managed to clean and prime the vexillation from IIII Flavia Felix despite the cold, I now use the wife's old hairdryer to help the process, this works a treat as it was Harry Freezers today.

I put on the second season of SAS Rogue Heroes during the week, I set a record as I made it through at least 10 minutes. OK, I get it it is not historical but basing your whole knowledge of WWII on Captain Hurricane and Maggot Malone from the Valiant is a bit over the top for me, they'll be grabbing Stuka's out of the air next. I shudder to think how they will ruin the upcoming 1066 saga, after all it is the BBC.

 Parthian Shot: I cannot remember when I joined the Navy in 1968, 8th October 1000 hrs, there being a Gender and Sexuality Network branch like there is today, head honcho a marine corporal no less. The service now imitates the old Swoppets figurines, remember changing the bodies? In the Navy now officers must wear proper jackets with markings but from the waist down they can wear any national dress they can lay claim to e.g. sari's, kilts, kaftans, kimono's etc. Why should Britain tremble.

Battle of Thomson's Farm

 I gave the club a miss last week but should be there tomorrow for that X-Wing game with Jimi, I seem to have a million things to do before then, sort out my forces, blog post, tidy wargame table and make my mind up about Wednesday's Italian Wars game with Julian along with getting on with maps, projects are building up with interuptions by Real Life.

I will park it all for now, we had our second ACW campaign game yesterday, a cracker as a certain Irish comedian used to say, perhaps not all would agree. General Bolton's Union division had slowly made its way along the  Forest Hill - Woodstock road and then stopped short of a junction heading south, meanwhile they had been spotted by the Confederates of Rawsthorne's division who just happened to have a spare brigade on loan from Johnson's division. Outnumbering the Yankees Rawsthorne decided to attack, being cautious Bolton had stopped on a hill and was luckily readying himself in case of just such a Reb attack.

Union forces, will be on left edge.

Confederate froces, deploy on left.

The Federal forces were aligned across a large hill, Gary took the bulk of his division and formed up to the right of the road with two brigades and a battery of guns, I took the third brigade to the left of the road with a rifle battery and two cavalry regiments which I flung out, dismounted, on the far left. The enemy massed their brigades in the centre of the battlefield with a few regiments thrown out on both flanks to pressure the Union line and keep it fixed in place. Sadly for them the two regiments on the left received heavy fire and both routed for the rear, the ones on the right slowly made their way through a wooded hill while the Union troopers waited.

Gary holds the hill.

Dan advances.

As the mass of gray approached the Union position Gary also stood waiting, I on the otherhand I marched my large regiments forward with the intention of bringing on a firefight which I thought I could win as Dan's command to my front looked weaker. I think Gary has the largest of the Union divisions in the campaign. James had bravely continued his advance against Gary's line and was recieving deadly fire from the defenders as he tried to force an opening, he did manage to force part of the line near the road to retreat slightly and get to the fence line strengthend by hasty works but continued to lose men in large numbers at close range, the Federals grimly held on.

Rebs still looking good.

 

The high water mark.

Dan bursts through but is isolated.

Meanwhile I had now a decent firing line set up but threw caution to the wind and charged my boys forward hoping to catch the Rebs on the hop, I managed this and my attack swept the first gray line back behind their supports. At the same time Dan caught me on the hop with his charge and I lost my guns and a regiment, two Confederate regiments were now behind my line, I looked to the right for support from Gary. Earlier in the game Gary had tried to fire my battery and I declared "Everything left of the road was mine Gary!" this was remembered with some hilarity as I now pleaded for help from the other side of the road. No matter I had managed to get my reserve regiment into a position to take on the confused Rebs to my rear, the same thing happened to my front as Dan wrestled with my succesful attack and at one point looked like stabilising his position only to have this snatched away by the dice gods as the 24th Michigan against all the odds stood their ground in some horrendous hand to hand combat. This whole desperate situation left both myself and Dan shattered and a huge hole between my command and Gary to my right, one Union regiment had been captured and the Rebs had two march into captivity. As the continuing firefight to my right had now weakened James' attack Gary moved his far right troops into a position to charge and roll up the Reb left.

Gary under pressure.

My troopers move forward.

James is shattered and orders a withdrawal.

 Looking at his shattered brigades James sounded the withdrawal, my own brigade was in a precarious position but had managed to blunt Dan's attack, it would not have stood much longer. Confederate casualties had been very heavy across the board while most of the Federal losses fell on one brigade, the loss of regiments captured added to the tally, the Rebels also lost a brigadier captured and one killed, while General Bolton died later of his wounds. And there you have it, the Battle off Thomson's Farm, I shall get all this sorted and we will move on with the campaign.

I have finished my second unit for the new army, a unit of light cavalry, Equites Mauri, obviously from Mauritania but always simply called Moors? There are no transfers to fit the small shields in the A&A section of Little Big Man Studios range, so I got some from Victrix and cut them to fit so that they looked more like Roman auxiliaries than having plain shields. Next up are the two bolt shooters then a vexillation from Legio IIII Flavia Felix, I have two more infantry units and a clibinari unit coming. While I work my way through 'Late Roman Combat Tactics' there are references to 'Clubmen' being used against heavily armoured cavalry units, now I know there are Palestinian Clubmen in the figure range but the ones mentioned in the book are Germans, now that might be interesting. 

As I said I have a game with Julian on Wednesday and then a return to Penrith the week after. Simon at the club is planning a WWII campaign and has asked for players, I have put my name in the hat, I believe it will involve Sicily.

Parthian Shot: What's in a name. Do you remember when the local surgery had receptionists, our local now has 'Patient Advisers' who really should be renamed 'Patient Blockers', I do wonder at the training involved as there seems to be a different one dragged in off the streets every time I go to the surgery. Anyway there is a surgery in Kendle which goes one better, they have 'Care Navigators'.

Nellie the angry elephant

 Friday and another War and Conquest clash against Ian's Classical Indians, this time we went large, or largeish with 3,000 points, this still only allowed us both to field half the figures we have.

I have a little system for laying down the terrain, once it is down the pieces are then possibly moved so you do not always get the effect you are looking for. In this game it was a disaster for the Seleucids as most of the terrain moved towards my side of the table and a large difficult hill ended up right in the centre of my deployment area which restricted my deployment somewhat. Despite this my plan was to advance as quickly as possible to limit the incoming fire from the bamboo longbows and slay the infantry as they were inferior to mine. Sadly for me I found a line of elephants blocking my path to the rabble.

Indians on the left, Seleucids on the right.

Indian centre.

Seleucid centre.

I pushed my whole army forward especially the flanks with the thought I would kill or ride down the enemy skirmishers and chariots, this was successful on the right as Ian lost his light chariots to the Skythians but on the left my vaunted Macedonian light cavalry were shot up and routed. I loosed arrows where I could at the elephants but only managed a few hits, my bolt shooter failed throughout the game to hit anything, so much for that plan. Ian managed to rush one elephant at my Purple pike block and to my disgust they ran taking the Blue pikes with them in sympathy, nearby my second unit of skirmishers had also routed from incoming fire, I had also had to pull back my otherwise victorious Skythians due to incoming missiles. To make matters worse one of my elephants went out of control and started to head towards the right of the battlefield, I had almost nothing left, a humiliating defeat was on the horizon.

Doomed charge by the light chariots.

Steady boys, steady.

Then Lady Luck intervened, all my troops rallied, apart from the out of control elephant of course which almost blundered into the Blue pike block on its travels. It was now Ian's turn for the bad luck, his left flank elephant went out of control and headed for the rear while two others refused to charge the Galatians, I had managed to get some breathing space. The elephant which had routed the Purple pikes now came in again but the lads had now found some grit on the hill and fended it off, I was now forced to charge the elephants which had stalled with the Galatians and Hoplites, a dangerous ploy but the only one left to me. Several desperate struggles now ensued. In the meantime I had once again advanced my Macedonian cavalry with archer and elephant support and wiped out the Indian right flank. Things looked better.

My elephant goes out of control.

The elephants get ready.

Courage lads.

Eventually I killed most of the beasts and forced another to go out of control and head towards the Indian left flank, the Galatians surged forward despite the deadly fire coming at them and took out the first of the Indian infantry, the Skythians rode back to support. The Indian spearmen looked on aghast as the Seleucids prepared to fall on them. It was all over.

The Indian general thinks of running.

The Indian left is destroyed.

What a change in fortunes and an incredibly exciting battle. My useless bolt shooter was a disappointment while Ian's volleys were deadly, I am also learning more about chariots and elephants in War and Conquest and they are very scary. Despite the Indian infantry being of low morale I suspect that if they had been moved up to support the elephants Ian could have sealed a victory, although to be fair they are just as deadly at long range due to the longbow effect and they have a tendency to fail morale checks without officers leading them. The Indians looked especially nice due to Ian using nail transfers to spruce up shields and elephants, a great idea, I would have said female nail transfers but hey, it's 2025.

I was pleased to finish my first unit for the new army, the first of many. It is a bit difficult to get transfers at the moment due to the change from LBMS to Victrix, I was lucky with this unit as I got some straight from A&A and some from Phil Robinson. I did however get two sets from Victrix which fit their own range, the small banner sheet will fit the A&A vexilum with a bit of trimming so I was pleased to actually get one which had I Minerva on it. The second sheet is a little large for the Moors' cavalry shields but I think they will fit with a bit of trimming, fingers crossed. As I start on the cavalry I have a second unit of infantry and two bolt shooters in the queue so thought it was appropriate to order another batch, more infantry, Roman horse archers and some Clibinari. I did varnish the figures in the end, a light one then highlighted the metal parts so they do not, hopefully, fade. The Twelfth look on with jealousy.

I went to Vapnartak in York yesterday, the first show I have been to in quite some time and it has been at least three years since I went to York but I actually had a list of things to buy and bases for the new army to pick up. We got there at 1045 in order to beat the queue but we didn't, it wasn't huge but it was still there, they really need to look at this, having said that there was a lot of punters there it was like sardines inside. Quite a few of the big traders were absent but on the other hand there were quite a few smaller outfits which I have never seen before, these were mainly selling 3D terrain and figures, all superbly done and at a decent price. I managed to get everything I went for and a couple of extra things so the trip worked for me. Here comes the moan, the wargames were basically hidden away upstairs on one of the mezzanine levels and that was it, a row of participation games which all looked very nice including our own run by Rob and Stuart and all seemed busy, at least before lunch. There was one large D-Day exhibit on the lower floor which despite being very nice did not seem to attract many people, perhaps because it was up against the traders. The only other large game worth mentioning and star of the show for me was Yarkshire Gamer Ken Reilly's magnificent Italian Wars game. For me the show worked in that I got what I went for and managed to meet and talk to several friends along with upcoming 'Wargaming the Italian Wars' author Conrad Cairns (Colin Ashton couldn't make it) and Helion Wargames supremo Charles Singleton, I am busy drawing the maps for the book at the moment.

My loot.

D-Day.

Rob and Stuart's game.

A nice table.

Italian Wars.

And again.

Parthian Shot: I saw a nice headline this week, "Trigger Warning: Your Local University, Literary Society or School Board May Contain Nuts".