For King James

 After a few weeks poor Rob was well enough to make it to the club, he brought a Jacobite scenario using Muskets and Tomahawks rules, strangely though these Jacobites were in Welsh Wales. The lord of the manor was a Jacobite supporter (based on a real person) and had at his disposal a number of Scots left behind when the lads returned north and sundry others loyal to the 'king over the water'. Myself and Ian were the local government troops tasked with capturing said big wig and taking him to the nearest gaol.

As we approached the manor there was a party in full swing and we held off until several hogsheads of ale and porter were imbibed in order to make our mission easier, sadly as Ian's troops moved on the main building they knocked out a drunk sentry who dropped his musket and the shot alerted all and sundry. Ian's men now took on some militia in a nearby barn and was roundly whipped while his remaining troops invaded the 'big hoose'. I charged another barn and beat up the militia hiding there before moving to support Ian, I was fairly slow but managed to pick up a suspect from the mob escaping the mayhem in the manor, he was either the lord or his brother.

The Manor.

My boys arrive.

Several civilians ran around like headless or rather drunk chickens, I managed to hold off several attacks and make my way to the departure point, most of the enemy now seemed to concentrate on Ian's men and a great many bit the dust. I did begin to wonder just how many Jacobite sympathisers were in this part of Wales. Just as I got close to my objective more of those disloyal types managed to bar my exit, however despite several furious melees I managed to get my hostage to safety, but only just, it turned out he was m'lud's brother. I think we also got the man himself or perhaps he was killed in the confusion, someone in fine clothes was.

Jacobite supporters.

My stalwart lads ready to head home.

A fine bash and well run by Rob with his usual trademark stunts "do you really want to look in those barrel's in the courtyard?" 

I have completed yet another unit for the Romans, an auxiliary cohort stationed on the Rhine frontier, V Dalmatarum, a veteran cohort who had all been given Roman citizenship for their service. I have another to paint but have decided to take a rest from heavy infantry and instead do a unit of skirmish archers. I am painting these guys a lot quicker than I thought I would. 

I have dug out the red carpet here in the Bunker for some wargaming royalty (tongue firmly in cheek). David Bickley of GHQ popped in on Thursday and we spent a good time chatting on various topics of our great hobby. I also have Rob Broom coming for a couple of days gaming on Sunday so I will be busy. My Seleucids and the Thunderbolts will be out in force, our third game will be a large Dark Age bash. Depending on how we get on we might manage a small Bolt Action game before he leaves on Tuesday. I am really looking forward to these games. Rob is bringing Spartans and his Masai, the latter I think I have already said are beautiful and will be pretending to be a Warband army, think Celts with feathers. The last time the Twelfth fought them back in 2016 I got a Triumph out of it, can I repeat this feat of arms?

I have also been busy on the map front, I have a couple of projects which for some reason seem to be never ending, a correction here, an amendment there. I have started on the Arab-Israeli atlas and am looking forward to seeing the printed version of Wargaming the Italian Wars after its debut at Salute, I have seen a proof and it is wargaming eye candy at its best.

Arab-Israeli atlas.

 

History of 8th Virginia Regiment AWI.

 

History of Saudi Arabia.

Ein Volk, Ein Rubbish.

 Bolt Action this week against Michael's Yanks, not an army I would use myself as I find rules make excuses for them, much like Romans and Normans as if they do not want to offend with an intimation they might not be as good as the general public and movie makers think. I had this mindset when I read my first set of rules back in the olden days, WRG 1925-1950, and could not understand, having been brought up with Hotspur, Valiant and Commando comics why the British would need to take a morale test, and horror of horrors even fail!

I digress as usual, I decided to do something different and took a Volksgrenadier platoon supported by a Brummbar, veteran squad (for which I used my Kriegsmarine in order to only take one box) and a panzerschreck. This was out of my comfort zone as Bolt Action does not do justice, in my opinion, to Volksgrenadiers and their organisation is not historical. They are green and of course carry a fair number of assault rifles whose range is much less than rifles and therefore need to be carefully husbanded yet manouvered close to the enemy. I have the figures so why not.

The scenario involved an aircraft about to crash on the battlefield with important papers aboard, whoever had the most troops closest to the plane at the end would win, where the plane crashed was unknown to both sides. I actually have a nice shot down FW190 but at the moment cannot get to it, a shame. I deployed troops at both ends of the table to use the available cover to get close to the enemy, completely forgetting the plane was likely to come down in the centre area. Michael was more spread out and covered the centre with two squads, he had an anti-tank gun opposite my left and a Sherman opposite my right. I was quite aggressive and moved my men up quickly deciding to take losses in order to hopefully take advantage of my assault rifles to even things up.

My less than enthusiastic boys.

Yanks.

 Bolt Action has this rule whereby troops which, although green, may contain more experienced men, so when a green squad loses a casualty you roll a die and they can suddenly turn to regulars or even veterans, they can also take more pins so it is not all good news, but the odds are you will suddenly have a regular squad at your disposal. Anyway as the bullets flew both my right flank squads became regular, I smirked inside.Then disaster struck, both those squads now failed morale tests and for two of the games' six turns did nothing, on the other flank my heavy assault gun opened on Michaels right hand squad and caught them all under the template, only throwing ones would save them, out of eight dice I got five ones! The scream of an aeroplane engine now rent the air and down came the wounded bird, almost right in the centre where I had nothing but close to several Yankee squads, I stared defeat in the eye.

Volksgrenadiers.

Brummbar.

A very cautious Sherman.

In the Navy.

I now pushed the heavy tank along the road in order to wipe out any Americans near the crash site while attempting to move some men to the site despite their lousy morale. Twice the tank shrugged off hits from the anti-tank gun but just as I needed it to survive and move it succumbed. The game limped into one extra turn and this allowed me to get my panzerschreck team to dispute the objective, but only just, if Michael had assaulted them instead of trying to shoot them he would have wiped them out and won, instead I had managed to tip the scales to a draw, not a very satisfactory one for me though, my report card said 'should have tried harder'.

The Volksgrenadiers were very good and their firepower offset their inexperience, but if the enemy get a shot in first it can really hurt them as they die on a three, I was lucky to turn two squads to regulars but their failing their morale twice meant disaster for me, that and as usual trying to kill the enemy rather than taking note of what I had to do to win.

Last week it was another miserable night and a swine to park for some reason with cars all over the place, we only have one back street at the club, by the time I got somewhere I thought it would have been easier to walk to Lancaster, I had thought of staying in with my feet up but I had told Rob I would take part in his Muskets and Tomahawks game so being a man of honour I drove into the dark to navigate the myriad roadworks affecting Lancashire at the moment. 

I was British and in command of four units of irregulars two of which were Scots, I had to make my way to the opposite end of the table where some boats were being protected by a small force of Regulars and Milita and this would earn me points. In between were some American Militia and opposite me at my end of the table were some Indians and American irregulars. I decided to swamp the latter force with superior numbers then make my way to the boats, I was helped in this as Ed (seemingly bouyed up with enthusiasm by the Happy Fairy) split his forces, two units towards me and a couple towards the boats.

Scots wha hae!

Save the boats.

Ed's boys.

I was very aggressive and threw caution to the wind and it paid off, first the Indians were cut down followed by a colonial unit, I was decolonising you see. Michael, defending the boats was having a hard time and for a while it looked like the Americans were getting the upper hand. Somehow Ed's flank attack was held and pushed back, a boat which had been damaged by artillery was repaired and despite the loss of a couple of units Michael weathered the storm. Meanwhile I now pushed my men to attack the rear of the American Militia which had the added bonus of taking pressure off our stalwart boat defenders. The Happy Fairy had seen which way the wind was blowing, left Ed and settled on my shoulder as I gave a poor rendition of British Grenadiers as I finished off Rob's uppity Militia. A British win.

And we are off.

Scots on the other side.

An excellent club game but very brutal and bloody, the sheer number of unique figures Rob can bring to the table always surprises me, especially the irregulars and indians, very impressive and fun to play with.

On the very quiet painting front I completed the final three artillery pieces which were given to me by Dan at the club, the crews are from Casting Room Miniatures as a change from my usual TAG gunners. Now thanks to Dan I have a very useful artillery train for the Italian Wars, I can also put a decent baggage train into the field as well, although I might get a few more wagons. Friend Charles Singleton is building a French army based on the battle of Bicocca 1522 and as he was in the area dropped in for a chat and to show me his Francis I command stand, almost a unit on its own it is very impressive, beautifully done.

Francis I.

More artillery.

Most of the heavy work is done on the War Room, it is now all the other jobs which have to be done and fall into place, electrics, bathroom, flooring and painting, also the old shop front is still there outside, I don't know when that is going. I suspect we might run into May before I am ready to get a game. 

My Apple TV subscription runs out a few days after the last episode of Masters of the Air thankfully, I have actually enjoyed this series and it has brought home the horror of flying heavy bombers during WWII whether RAF or USAAF. You know me, I could moan about some parts but have decided not to, I am keeping that for Shogun.

I see that Dr. Claire Millington, who? Has declared the new and popular Roman Legion exhibition at the British Museum fascist and sexist (of course it is) and, wait for it, "almost exclusively about the soldiers", who would have thought? Another university education not wasted.

A good night

 I am in hiding at the moment from everything Jubilee while my granddaughter and Evelyn remain glued to the television, I heard legendary waffle from Alan Titchmarsh talking about someone who was as close to a god as a human being could be, according to Al of course, so closed the door.

Back on terra firma the club game this week was Muskets and Tomahawks, an American force had set out to burn a blockhouse to the ground while the British and some locals tried to stop them, most of both forces were irregulars, even some sailors had turned up. Rob tried something different with the initiative cards this time, each side were dealt four cards to start the game, when one was used another took its place. This meant some difficult choices when you had a hand of cards only of use to the enemy but still had to play one on your turn, strangely this happened several times in the game with both sides reluctant to play and bring down hurt on their own troops.

My riflemen.

Jocks forward!

Indians.

 I was in command of some Scots on the British far left, opposite me was some Indians, that will have to do as I have no idea what the modern term is now, a gun, some irregulars and a squad of regulars, I decided to be aggressive and sent my musket armed men over a creek and through some woods, my rifle armed squad I kept at a distance and started picking off gunners, this was incredibly successful. Stuart threw his Indians forward but I beat them off with heavy casualties, the survivors tried again later but were wiped out by my devils in skirts.

Hold, hold......

 Elsewhere the American advance was piecemeal and looked like getting nowhere fast, eventually it did manage to get close to the objectives, a hut and the blockhouse, but there were still enough British to keep them from achieving anything. I had now wiped out the gunners and put enough casualties on Stuarts command that it could not advance and would surely fail the next morale check. I decided not to grab defeat from the jaws of victory and stood waiting in the woods until the enemy withdrew. My officer did get involved in a dual with his opposite number and sent the Frenchie packing, blood dripping from a serious wound. 

So all in all a good night for me and the Jocks. Simon also presented me with a present, a dice dungeon for wayward dice, anyone would think I was superstitious about the little cubes, but I think I might need a bigger dungeon.

 The Italian Wars project continues, I am now on to painting what I thought was going to be a French pike block led by Richard de la Pole, the last Plantagenet and known as the "White Rose", just as I had completed the middle ranks which contain the command figures I realised that he was in command of the Landsknecht mercenaries at the battle of Pavia, duh. My wargamers OCD kicked in and I cut the generic french flag off and replaced it with one more suitable for the 'Black Band' mercenaries. I am basing my armies for now around the battles of Biccoca and Pavia, this allows me quite a range of different troops, Germans, Spanish, Milanese, Venetian and Neapolitan to name a few. Once this pike block is finished I might move on to something else before starting on the second block as I have crossbows, cannon and cavalry waiting, the blocks can be used individually or brought together for a much larger unit. I shall have to consider getting some generals shortly.

 

Now they are correct, phew.

That's about it for now, I am taking the next four days very easy in training for retirement later in the year. I have caught up with all the priority mapping for now and will move on a 25 map project concerning General Suchet in Spain next.

Somewhere in NW Europe

 Having recovered from my visit the Partizan next up was a Bolt Action game at the club, Jimi has built up a British force and was eager to get it on the table. We picked a scenario at random and it was Double Envelopment which meant we both had to get troops into the others deployment zone and if possible exit troops off the table. 

I decided to play dangerously and looked at a Luftwaffe field force, they can have the French Char B as a flamethrower tank and as I have one why not, they get a couple of decent squads but the rest are Ostruppen  who are just rubbish, even I am not that desperate. Instead I went for a recce force (yes, that is me laughing) from the 10th SS Panzer Division, so I had two small squads, two bigger squads, an armoured car, a truck and a PzIII N. Jimi had three large squads, one small one in a carrier, an MMG and his bloody big tank, the AVRE with the spigot mortar. 

We set up with half our forces in our deployment areas and then reserves could turn up from turn two, I brought on all my reserves except the tank, which decided not to bother, Jimi also failed with some units and his HQ. The AVRE was heading for my left flank as was the carrier and its veteran kill team. I pushed one of my small recce squads into a house in the center only to find the Churchill had a clear shot and unlike the last time it appeared it was on target, the house and my team were blown to bits, I should have known better.

Safe as houses Hans.

Killer tank.

Ooops.

 A squad down but determined to put up a fight my armoured car started hitting the British in the center while hiding from the AVRE, Jimi, now desperate to push his advantage charged with his carrier, the little machine with a new paint job was hit by a panzerfaust and the passengers jumped from there into the teeth of a full squad of SS troops with two LMG's, it took a couple of turns but they were cut down to the last man. Soon after I also took out the MMG as it laboured forward on my right, the pendulum had swung. My tank now turned up after missing several turns, Jimi's HQ was still nowhere to be seen, the panzer got off one good shot and seemed to think it had done its bit.

Some of Jimi's nicely painted British.

The carrier before it charged.

The lucky shot.

 As the fight in the centre and right drew my attention I grasped the first dice out of the bag in order to kill off another British unit, I had forgotten about the AVRE, it slowly ground its way forward and took out another squad which I should have moved first. The clock was ticking down and Jimi managed to get his tank and an infantry squad into my deployment area, I only had the armoured car inside his but I got enough points from wipe outs to get a draw. 

Always nice to have an auto-cannon around.

Recce squad.

 A good game and Jimi must be close to a win now as his dice luck had vastly improved, well, improved, his HQ turned up just in time for the last turn. I can play Bolt Action but there are times when it just grates, the Spigot mortar on the AVRE has a range at best with the wind behind it of 100 yards, to load it the turret has to turn a certain way, the loader opens his hatch and cracks open the barrel like a large shotgun, his head and hands outside the tank, the charge is then loaded and the barrel slammed back into position, I doubt this was quicker than ramming a round into a normal gun. However in Bolt Action it is not a mortar but a heavy howitzer with the range to match, go figure.

I have been trying to rest my arm this week and so it has taken a bit longer than normal to finish the first ranks of my new French pike block. I have the next 24 ready to go once I decide whether to do the rear or middle ranks, probably the rear ranks as I still have some research to do on flags for these guys.

 I have finished several map projects over the last week or so which again did not help the strain in my arm but these are more important than painting sojers, in order to help I have taken to wearing a wrist support which I should have done long before now. Just as I was getting a hold on everything I received more projects, some examples below.

Shogun's Soldiers

Seven Years War

Belgian Congo

Falklands