Hell in the Woods

 Been back at the painting desk this last wee while. I got my Nuns for possible inclusion with an upcoming campaign, they will double as refugees or useful if I ever get a chance to put my church on a battlefield, had it for years, a couple of new vehicles for the Road to Bremen campaign are also complete. The Kangaroo APC was a resin piece from Warlord and very nice if pricy, there was also two sprues for make up some soldiers being carried and sticking out of where the turret used to be, I only put three together and never again. I hate all that sticking of arms, weapons, helmets, rucksacks et al, all with parts that are particularly prone to breaking if you are not careful, I have dropped metal figures on the floor and they simply shrug it off and off we go. I also repainted a small Dingo recce car, I had forgotten what green I had used for my British and it stuck out like a sore thumb, it has now been rectified.

Next up was some earthworks from Ironclad Miniatures, just what I wanted for the Italian Wars, I kept it simple and bought a can of brown paint, sprayed them then drybrushed the woodwork and earth, very pleased with the result. I also really need to get back to my Stradiots who were pushed to the back of the queue while all that was going on.

I almost forgot to mention my other new addition, streams with bridges from Andy at The Last Valley, I have rubber and cloth stream sections but decided my new room needed something better. 

While on about painting Jimi surprised me at the club with a small vignette of a little cart, a very tired looking horse and a well wrapped up infantryman trudging through some cold terrain. Jimi wants to paint up a German force for Late War and has bought some cavalry, beautiful figures and the company also had the little cart, I intimated if he bought the cavalry I would like to add the cart. So a nice gesture and a beautiful addition to my scatter terrain. 

I also for no particular reason treated myself to a Winter mat for the Eastern Front, I don't have any snow based figures or vehicles but I thought it would still be OK for Russia as the cold sets in. I received the mat but immediately did not like it, the non snow parts were blue and there was a lot of them, maybe it is supposed to be melting snow I really do not know, I did know that it would bug me forever. In the end after rolling it out several times I decided to send it back, I had to pay the postage but for the sake of my sanity it was the better option. I now wait to get my refund.

Bolt Action at the club again last Tuesday, I offered Joel a game using the same secret papers scenario I had played with Jimi the week before. Joel was Soviets and plays in a lot of tournaments so has a very different play style from my usual opponents at the club, I was of course Germans, I took four squads slightly smaller than what I normally take, a couple of trucks as transports and a PzIII N to support my infantry, I left my anti-tank capability with the squads and their panzerfausts.

 

Truck with machine gun, yeah right.

The fight for the centre.

Using transports again, but no machine gun.

PzIIIN for support.

Late to the party.

Just like the last time we played Joel went full aggressive mode from the beginning, he surprised me with three two man tank hunter teams which became a pain in the bum and then ran a truck up to near one of the objectives and seized it with his officer! The Hero of the Soviet Union died very quickly of course but gave me a fright nonetheless on turn one. Joel managed to get a look at the left hand objective but it proved empty, we now both moved on the two which were left, a huge, bloody fight began around the central objective with both sides striving to clear the enemy to get a look for the papers. As the game counted down the Reds managed with the help of a T34 to also seize the right hand objective and I could not budge them from it, we got to the end of turn five and we decided the middle objective was held by no one but the Soviets could claim the right hand target, and yes, the papers were under the right hand objective. A win for Joel and a hard fight for both sides, he had kept me on the back foot for most of the game and I only wish after all the blood spilt over it the papers had been in the centre.

I spent most of Saturday building the table for a Johnny Reb game based on the battle of Champion's Hill, while also sorting out the troops and typing the OOB's. The Rebs are basically defending the hill and surrounding area against a Union assault, at the beginning it is a pretty even fight despite the Rebs being outnumbered slightly, as the battle progresses more troops for both sides arrive.

Champion's Hill

Union left.

Confederate left.

Triage.

I took the Union right flank while Ed took the left, as we surveyed the battlefield it looked good for the Federals to take their right flank objectives of a bridge and ford while Ed could put two brigades against one protecting the crossroads, it was obvious then that if we got those three then the Rebs would have been pushed back and we could possibly claim a victory on the hill as well. I did not forsee any problems taking my objectives despite the fact the Rebs were dug in on the hill.

My boys get stuck in, but not hard enough.

I sent all my brigades forward against Fran while hoping to crush his left with artillery and infantry then swing in to mop up. As the Rebs opened up one of their batteries ran out of ammo, somebody stop me! Well, the 17th Georgia stopped me, nothing I could throw at this regiment could budge it and while attempting to do so my brigade failed miserably and my window of opportunity began to slip away. As the whole line now blasted away at each other my boys had a really hard time causing casualties on the Confederates behind their hasty works but I could do not afford to waste time and had to try and use my superior numbers.

I move on the Reb centre.

Over on the left Ed slowly advanced while James prepared his men to defend the crossroads, this was interupted by a marksman who shot down one of Ed's officers bringing a halt and confusion while he was replaced, a more likeable officer eventually took over. I was still trading shots with Fran's line and noticed I seemed to be losing the numbers battle, especially on the right. I moved up fresh regiments and even managed a charge but in the end got nothing from it, that damn 17th Ga. still held its position, on the other hand with my lines thinning out and my right hand brigade losing two regiments I had one unit much like the 17th which stood its ground round the flag, I was for quite some time fearing a Confederate advance but it never transpired, I doubt I could have stopped it.

Desperate close range firing.

Ed was now up and putting pressure on James, however the outnumbered Reb defence of the crossroads area was also putting up a stiff fight, Ed would eventually almost sweep away the Rebs in this part of the field but it had taken too long. In my sector I had eventually managed to move into the expanding gap between Fran and James, but I was fought out and did not have anyone in reserve to push my limited success.

The crossroads so near yet so far.

We got to move 10 which is when two new Confederate brigades would turn up just south of the crossroads, three Union brigades would turn up on turn 12, but we had been at it for nearly five hours and although there was a slim chance that Ed would take the crossroads against the arriving Reb reserves it was wishful thinking and would involve a lot more fighting, it would have been interesting nonetheless. On my side I had been fought to a standstill, my efforts had resulted in heavy losses and there was simply no fight left in my division. I had managed to cause some hurt on the Rebs but their losses were not as concentrated as mine so my morale suffered correspondingly. The first part of the scenario is actually a good fight on its own, you would need to leave the table up and return for day two to finish it properly and I didn't have the time for that needing the table for Italian Wars this Wednesday. Maybe in the future, I would like another shot at it.

Another busy week here in the War Room, a game on Wednesday and another game next Sunday with my son and grandson, not sure yet what we are playing, and I draw swords again with 'Lucky' Jimi at Bolt Action at the club tomorrow.

New Blood and Back On Track

 We had two of our grandchildren here last week, Gabrielle of course was not interested in wargaming but James was and the first words out of his mouth was "Papa can we have a wargame?" So in the interests of the hobby and bonding I set up a small introduction to the Seven Years War for him, nice colourful soldiers and flags a plenty. The game went well although it was technically a win for me, but who is counting. The next day found us on the plains of Northern Italy, my French took a pounding as James led the Imperials to a hard fought victory, but as I said, the result doesn't count. Tuesday was club night and I took him along to a game of Black Seas kindly set up by Rob, we were the British and although we did not manage to gain our objectives we did sink some Frenchies and took a prize back to old Blighty so Rob gave us the win. What was the downside to the visit, I had to sit through the latest Ghostbusters movie which was a traumatic experience, especially the £7 hotdog.

Italian Wars.

Seven Years War.

Rob with the patience of Job.

The new room is now done as you know and these will be the last photographs I shall bore you with, they are out with the old and look at the new. I should be able to give you a look at the outside in a couple of weeks, then you are free.

I organised a game of Bolt Action with 'Lucky' Jimi last night but first had to pick him up, I had offered as the wheel on his car fell off last week while he was driving and the result was a right off. Once again I decided to go outside my comfort zone with my forces and I took two halftracks and a truck along with a Marder III for support. Now the Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions were the spearhead of the German Army and not a lot was ever successful without them, but on the wargame table you hardly ever see armoured infantry, especially in a points based system as you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere for the short duration of a typical wargame. Anyway, I had stolen a scenario idea from Matt Crump at Wargames in the Dungeon and decided this time to use transports, a first for me really in Bolt Action.

There were secret plans or some other special maguffin thing on the battlefield but neither player knew exactly where, there were three objectives but only one had the goods under it, I had let Jimi know about this beforehand. The game started well and I got my truck right up to the central objective while the two halftracks moved on the flank objectives, I added a supporting infantry squad on the right, Jimi was late to the deployment but the last die was mine and I took advantage as my Marder edged forward and took a long range shot at the British Sherman, a stunning shot took out Jimi's tank on turn one, things did not look good for the British.

The British attack.

As my troops debussed the British seemed to be drawn to the centre objective but they were advancing across open fields of fire and casualties mounted. My two squads on the right easily destroyed the enemy squad there and were preparing to mount up and continue to the centre. It was now with most of his veterans cut down and his remaining forces left with an uphill struggle 'Lucky' Jimi gave up. This left me in charge of the three objectives and the secret thingy was found on the right. Sadly Jimi's luck was diabolical during the game and using the transports certainly came as a surprise to him. I'm sure he will get his own back.

The Germans move on the centre.

Crippling fire mows down the Airborne.

But still they come.

A dying gasp from the British anti-tank gun.

The papers.

Whenever an opponent has the ill fortune to require a good throw and ends up with something bad I usually express my sorrow with false sincerity, "What a shame." This has caught on at the club and I have been a victim myself of this barb, so I got in touch with my inner artist and the result is down below.

 The club recently has taken an interest in Dark Age and Ancient battles and there is a large clash nearly every week now with some impressive armies. Now as you know this is right up my strasse and I have been looking for this for years, am I happy, no, not really. Hail Caesar has taken a hold and these mighty armies have either turned up or been built with this in mind, despite my joy for the lads who are obviously enjoying themselves I remain wedded to War and Conquest. Big Ed has decided to ensure I mend my ways and has got me to promise to join him in a game, it would be churlish of me to refuse but don't hold your breath.

Matt will be here tomorrow to continue with our Eastern Front 1941 campaign, it is game nine and if Matt succeeds in taking the village of Mikheykovo he gains a major victory. If I hold the hamlet we fight the last game as a German attack and I could, however doubtful, gain a minor victory, otherwise the laurels go to Matt. My main problem was that after being pushed back at the beginning I was too eager to cut the Russian supply line and forgot how to actually win the game, ouch. I have also managed to book some games here into May so Italian Wars, WWII, War and Conquest and some American Civil War are all on the cards.

To London!

 I have been a bit quiet over the past couple of weeks, mainly because I have been overwhelmed with priority map projects which took up a lot of my spare time. I have managed to finish the most pressing and although I am still busy the pressure is off. Also the club was very quiet due to all sorts and maybe people taking advantage of the spell of good weather, I was not up to a fully fledged game so settled for Blood Bowl with Simon, we had some fun and the Lemmings won 1-0 in the closing moments.

"It's a must win game for the Lemmings Jim"

"Or happy with a draw Bob"

My Italian Wars project is well and truly off the ground, in the next day or so I will finish the first pike block of Swiss in French service at 72 figures, it can easily be split into two 36 man units if needed. I can see a bit of a difference from the first figures to the last as I gain more experience painting the slashed fabric and colourful garb of the period, subtle but it is there. Now as far as I know the Swiss started the slashed sleeve fashion after or during their wars with the Burgundians, this could be utter rubbish of course, no matter as the Landsknechts of the Empire took the fashion to new heights of, eh, ridiculousness springs to mind. 

The Landsknechts are the darlings of the Italian Wars and every company does them to the detriment of the Swiss, French, Spanish and Italian infantry, now the former two at least are supposed to have taken the lead from the Germans but I am unsure that the latter two did. In order to differentiate I have not gone overboard with colours for my Swiss mercenaries in Landsknecht clothing, this might change when I get around to an actual Swiss pikeblock under Cantonal banners. I am aiming for the 1520's for my initial collection.

 As you know I want to make my own flags and was slightly unhappy that having put shadows on them it dulled the colours a bit, I wondered whether I should just do the flags plain and have them brighter, I mulled this over and asked whether people preferred the shadowed or unshadowed, the former proved the most popular. I was still not happy so tinkered with the shadows again and will do so again today to get a halfway effect which I will stick to.

 I headed north yesterday to the town of Penrith, which to enter you have to negotiate one of the most diabolical roundabouts in the realm, I got it wrong of course and was thankful looks could not kill nor the honking of several horns. I had been invited by Matt Crump of Wargames in the Dungeon to play in a Bolt Action Operation Sealion game, one of a campaign Matt has been playing for a while that takes place as the Germans push inland from Folkstone. The game was set near a crossroads at Six Mile Cottages, the Germans had to capture it and of course the British had to hold at all costs, I was the bad guys and had a couple of tanks, an armoured car, some motorcycles, an infantry gun along with two squads of Fallschirmjager and three of infantry. I was up against four squads of British regulars, and one of local defense types supported by an anti-tank gun, an anti-tank rifle, an armoured car, a heavy machine gun and two tanks.

A beautiful table, makes all the difference.

 I decided on a pincer movement and a quick advance, the motorcycles and Pz38(t) along with two squads were on my left flank while the rest with a PzII and the infantry gun were on my right. The British held the objective with a dug in anti-tank gun and the locals, the rest of the troops turned up and made for the front lines, the tanks approached my left flank and my armoured car opened up on the least armoured tank stopping it in its tracks but failing to knock it out, the enemy tanks stayed in the area and the two of them dueled with my armour eventually knocking out both the 38(t) and the 222 but it took time. I fired over 30 shots at the local volunteers expecting to wipe them out and managed to kill one and dish out several headaches on the rest, it was going to be a short game as returning fire took out both my motorcycle machine guns. Meanwhile my right flank was still attempting to get into position while the British began to build up a defence around the crossroads.

My Recon troops.

Recon run into trouble.

British armour.

 As my dice luck plummeted in the face of Matt's good luck I stopped rolling on the hard road surface which tended to stop the die roll dead and switched to the adjacent field, the dice now began to roll better and my attack began to whittle down the defenders with some excellent results, helping with this was the fact Matt's AT gun twice ran out of ammunition so was unable to help the defence, a few of his units now gathering pins also failed to carry out their orders, a boon for Jerry.

British move on German right flank.

German infantry push for the objective.

At least they held the British armour up for a time.

 With the German infantry now closely supported by the PzII and the infantry gun (which managed one good shot all game, happily at the right time) it only needed a final push to gain the objective. With the game balanced on a knife edge and both sides exhausted the Germans sneaked in a minor victory, it was just in time as my assault squads were down to around 50% and carrying quite a lot of pins while the remaining British tank was now bearing down on my survivors.

Much needed support moves to the crossroads.

The final straw.

 There you have it, a very good game on a lovely table, the rules were V1 of Bolt Action but in the end it did not really matter much as I play V2 and Matt quickly cleared up any confusion. The figures were also very nice, the whole set up was perfect to be honest. And he really does play in a 'dungeon' in his basement, a dungeon where every piece of space is filled with wargaming paraphernalia and what must be thousands of troops.

Chain of Command on Tuesday night and a return to the Eastern Front I believe, I also have the third and final large Napoleonic game on the 8th of May in Grange. At least that is the plan.

My latest purchase, pre-ordered in fact, has helped put the excellent Douglas Murray straight to the top of the bestseller lists around the world.

 

Busy Man Again

 Last week I finished my three Grand Manner buildings which are for the Seven Years War, I have one BUA (built up area) with a small farm but decided I needed a few more and GM had a very good sale on just before Christmas. I wasn't looking forward to painting them as I wanted to get on with other stuff, however they turned out to be a lot easier than I thought, this process was helped by using mainly contrast paints on them, I am really sold on these, not all of them for historical projects, but a lot of them.

 

I got my first Italian Wars figures in the post last week, all Wargame Foundry, I was told that they would possibly take ages to get ready for painting but to my surprise I found there was very little work involved, hardly any flash at all. I had messed up as usual and not got enough figures to give me the 48 man unit I wanted, I couldn't let it sit so ordered up them up, Foundry put them in along with my large free order and did not charge the postage, I was also very happy to see that the men came with pikes, not a lot of people do that, so well done Foundry. I do not really want to rush this army however I started painting sixteen of the figures on Sunday, they are very easy to paint and I have decided in the main to use Contrast paints, some of these are more like coloured washes but others are just perfect and you can also mix the weaker ones or give them a second coat.

 I am suffering from a bit of Italian Wars overload at the moment, I found a few blogs which have information on wargaming this period and have added them to my list. In reading them I find the period is quite diverse and the choices a wargamer has to make to get an army on the table are many. Of course what does it matter in the long run as my forces will most likely only ever grace my own table and no one else I know does Italian Wars, although Julian is painting up some cavalry at the moment. But here is the rub, I will know that those Swiss are more suited to 1494 rather than 1525 or that captain in charge of the victorious gendarmes at my attempt at the battle of Pavia actually died at Fornovo 25 years before or they are fighting for the Swiss Confederation in 1513 but have French flags. I have decided on a compromise, the first troops will be roughly based on Pavia and then I shall expand backwards to 1494 bringing in different factions and troop types. See, that wasn't hard was it.

Most of the guys I normally game with were not at the club this week so I was teetering on having a break when Ryan asked if anything was going. I offered him a game of Blood Bowl Sevens, it was about time my investment in this game got an outing against someone other than my son. 

Jim: Lanark Lemmings v Carluke Crunchers Bob?

Bob: This game is all or nothing for the Lemmings Jim, unless it's a draw.

 The first half found the Lemmings struggling to get the ball and then clear it from their own half, the Lemmings dealt out some pain but not enough to halt the Crunchers and push them back or get an opening, all their time was spent defending and desperately trying to keep the Orks from making a touchdown.

Jim: Bob, the Lemmings have a lot going forward and a lot coming back to go forward.

Bob: It'll make people sit and stand up Jim.

The second half and the Lemmings are on the attack, the forwards bulldoze a path for the ball carrier and he can almost touch the scoring line, just one more push and the Crunchers will be unable to stop him. Egged on by the crowd the player leaps forward and crashes face down on the grass and the ball bounces away to be picked up by the Crunchers, the home crowd are furious. The Crunchers now play a blinding pass to an unmarked catcher in the Lemmings half, a leap and the ball is caught, the Lemmings are not in a position to intercept and desperately try and run back the length of the pitch. It is too late and touchdown for the Crunchers! The Lemmings receive and have virtually no chance of getting an equaliser in the dying minutes, sure enough the whistle blows and it is 1-0 for the Carluke Crunchers.

Jim: The Crunchers created seven chances last season Bob, 49 of them were from open play.

Bob: Today was a good stroke of bad luck for the Lemmings Jim.

Spectacular fail in the closing minutes

A nice bit of fun and we had a few laughs although I am beginning to get the sense that I need new D6's for the Lemmings, too many 1's.

I was supposed to be playing War and Conquest last Sunday but Mark sadly could not make it. I have a large Napoleonic game this Sunday in Grange-over-Sands organised once again by Rob and Julian, I missed the last one so I am looking forward to this one. I have also had an invite to travel up the M6 to Penrith next month for an Operation Sealion game with Matt Crump of Wargames in the Dungeon, I also have Partizan in May and a possible trip to Bristol in June for a games day organised by Rob Broom and hopefully some Chain of Command with mate Matt Smith. So fingers crossed.

The floodgates have now opened and last week I received three map projects (WWI, Falklands and the Quiberon Expedition of 1795) along with a request for some organisation diagrams. So I am once again a busy man.