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".

Disappointing Day

It was club night tonight but I got a phone call at 1600ish to say that Rob who was running a Black Seas game was not going to make it due to the weather, I could totally understand as the whole day here was windy and wet. This did not seem to alter the amount of customers who braved the downpour and mini hurricane to upset my day. With no chance of getting some free time to organise a game before the PO closed I decided I too would call it a day on the club. We have the big Christmas game next week so we should all be there, I believe it is a grand Muskets and Tomahawks game, no doubt with many twists and turns knowing Rob.

I woke to a disappointment in an email which notified me that my third Kickstarter would now be late, the people concerned have let us all know, in too much detail if you ask me, why it is being delayed, so we will see what happens. My second Kickstarter is now about to enter its fourth year of delay, the famous Lindybeige of Youtube fame who as far as I can see has no intention of ever completing his Kickstarter, I have been trying to get my money back by annoying him in the comments but of course he just keeps deleting me. I wrote to his publishing house and still no answer back, this is bodering on 'the principle' so I may have to hound him to the ends of the earth. No more Kickstarters for me, one out of three is not a good ratio.

Every cloud has a silver lining of course and I managed to complete my Soviet Scouts tonight, they are from Crusader (I think) and are very nice figures, I painted them in Amoeba camouflage in what I believe is the Autumn pattern. These guys have some nice abilities in Chain of Command and I look forward to giving them a try.

During my last CoC game I used 'covering fire' for the first time and had no decent markers to use, so I looked in my spares box and came up with some bases, flock and wisps of grey wool and hey presto, fire markers. While I was on my markers kick I needed some Patrol Markers for the game, so I spent an hour or so sorting out Soviet armoured insignia which I could use, I await the 40mm round bases so that I can print, cut out and stick them on.

My birthday is coming up and No2 son gave me my present when I was through last weekend, he insisted I open it in front of him so I did and decided this gave me the green light to go ahead and build the Soviet GAZ-AAA truck with quad Maxim machine guns which he had got for me, there was another kit but that has to wait now until Christmas as my real Christmas present will not be released until January or February, long story. As you know I have already built the kits No1 son paid for, but I am not finished, the kits my wife kindly bought me should be here this week, one of which I will get on my birthday so more building and painting. Will all this stuff eventually see the battlefield, it will if I have my way.

I have been scrapping around and found three more figures which I may as well paint as have lying about, two scouts and a tank commander looking at a map. I think the latter is Warlord, I got the Rubicon free sprue and to be honest I am not impressed, I prefer the chunky look to the perfectly proportioned Rubicon dolls, I cannot get past the hands, they just don't look right, having said that the crew on the quad look nice.

I needed one more thing to complete my Russian forces, Russian dice, yes I was daft to get them, I have a house full of dice but not Russian ones you see, each of my armies has to have their own dice, no matter how crazy that sounds.

Nearly forgot, almost complete, not only did I get the dice I said I wouldn't, I have also ordered up a complete Russian village which I also decided I didn't need until a few days ago. Mate Colin at Charlie Foxtrot has cut all I need and the Royal Mail elves are bringing it as I type.

Private Schmitt not General Guderian

Club night last night and I agonised all afternoon on a 750 point army list for the upcoming Bolt Action game against Simon's Russians, no matter what I concocted I never got what I wanted, I always felt short changed. The 750 limit was due to the game being on a club night, it is better to get a game fought to a conclusion than put on something huge which ticks all the boxes except a satisfying finish, another reason is that we are still getting to grips with the rules as no sooner did we feel we were getting somewhere than 2nd Edition landed on the mat.

The Russians get an extra inexperienced platoon because they are, eh, Russians, so I knew Simon could match my infantry and also get a nice tank, I cannot get decent sized squads and a tank, and don't talk to me about the Stuka zu Fuss appearing any time soon. So I was back with my trusty Marder, I might have to look at getting one of those half tracks with the anti-tank gun for smaller games, anyway I also gave all the squads a couple of panzerfausts, I also took a mortar to hopefully give Simon's inevitable sniper a bit of bother and keep his head down.

I didn't need to take any buildings to the club, as I have mentioned before we now have some WWII houses for use so I took all the ancillary stuff, trees, hedges, walls etc. We set up a simple scenario from the book where whoever held the most objectives at the end of the game won, I felt good and had the choice of which side to approach from, so off I set for several buildings to hide in. The Russian tank was on my right so I put the Marder behind a house to wait for a good shot at it while also hoping that it might take the odd pot shot at Soviets in buildings.

A very smart objective marker!

 Early on I had to move the Marder to get a shot at the sniper hiding in a nearby building as my mortar was dropping shells everywhere but on the pest, I thought I was safe but the Russian monster moved and got a shot on me, it missed, thankfully, as it was near the end of the turn my infantry could not attempt a shot at the enemy with their 'fausts as they had already been activated. Simon also took this opportunity to send a squad scurrying towards my extreme right, possibly to assault the house or the Marder, I needed two German dice to come out of the bag next, a big ask but my luck has to change at some point.

First die out, German! I was now left with a dilemma, reverse the Marder and take on the infantry, shoot the infantry in the open with my squad, or shoot the tank with either the Marder or the infantry, take out the tank the enemy infantry will probably shoot up or destroy the Marder, damn open topped vehicles, take out the infantry the tank will shoot again at the Marder. I shot at the infantry with my boys and wiped them out, sadly the next die out was Russian.

The Marder was indeed hit, but wait, a fire only, would the trusty crew put it out and remain in the fight, no they wouldn't, deciding discretion being the better part of valour, live to fight another day or whatever, they fled. Up until this moment Simon had had no luck, his shooting barely gave my men more than a slight cut but now the pendulum swung with a vengeance, in quick succession I lost two more squads and failed several morale throws while my men dropped like flies. I cannot tell a lie, I was a bit dejected, I was going to rush the objectives to get a good score on the last turn but that plan went south and Simon grabbed the win with two of them while I had none.

We are planning a much larger game with plenty of time to spare a week on Sunday, it may simply be a scenario I come up with or if it is points it will be much larger than 750 so that all that lovely stuff I have in the boxes can come out to play.

Elsewhere we had a LOTR game, a Roman Civil War clash with To The Strongest and some players were having an introduction to Scythe, a sci-fi boardgame, a full house just about.

I have managed to save a few quid from repairing the Batmobile to get twelve Saxon archers from Gripping Beast, a lot of the time I provide both armies for anyone I can rope into playing WAC locally so I need to have a better choice of numbers for my skirmishers, hence the new archers. Feeling the hurt from last nights game I may also have to look, as the Germans did themselves, to a cheaper alternative to my tanks, a StuG in other words, where did I put that Christmas list.