Down with the Yoof!

 Picked up grandson James on our return from Claymore for a week at Casa Papa's. I have been educating him in old sayings like "once in a blue moon" and movie quotes such as "Get away from her, bitch!" and "bajes! We don't need no steenking bajes" etc. while sitting through some purely action movies.

Part of the deal of course was a couple of wargames, I settled on Bolt Action rather than destroy his mind with Chain of Command, so I set up the Budapest canister drop scenario. James took the Germans while I led the Russian attack, we also again set up possible air strikes. As the battle unfolded I managed to take out a King Tiger with a lucky shot from a T-34/85 while my infantry got to their canisters, medals and food were found, no ammunition, James found the same along with medical supplies, to win we now had to take the enemy canisters or control a glider which was about to crash land somewhere on the table. James managed a few runs by a FW-190 while I got one from a Yak-3, they mostly strafed the infantry squads. 

Somewhere in Budapest.

Hurrah!

The Germans had a second option if picking the 'golden die', this was a HJ tank killer team which was using the sewers to move around unobserved by the Soviets. These kids were a one shot wonder and popped up in the rear of the T-34 and let loose, the tank shuddered to a halt imobilised while the lads again went underground. The glider crashed and thankfully did not land on top of anyone but right next to some Volksturm and a Russian squad, so that objective for now was contested.

Yak-3.

Tiger kill!

Luftwaffe turns up.

HJ suprise the Soviets.

As the clock ticked down I failed to move some Kriegsmarine from one objective while James took one of mine protected by some NKVD troops, he had snatched a victory at the last moment. This is quite a good scenario for Bolt Action.

Next up was a large War and Conquest Roman civil war game, James took Emperor Maximinus Thrax's Rhine veterans while I commanded my favourites, the Twelfth. The battle began as both sides advanced their flanks replete with cavalry and skirmishers, the opening moves did not go well for the Thunderbolts and I lost both as my cavalry fled. I now advanced my right flank cohorts quickly before the enemy cavalry reorganised, the rest of the army waited while James moved his veterans towards them.

Legio XII Fulminata.

Rhine veterans.

Thrax on the left, Thunderbolts on the right.

Horror! My cohorts on the right were now destroyed and sent fleeing, my whole right flank had now gone, I had made a libation to the gods but it was obviously not enough, defeat stared me in the eye. What had happened to the Thunderbolts? I was now forced to lead my last legionaries off their hill and into James' veterans while I sent all my skirmishers to annoy the victorious enemy cavalry on my left and keep them occupied. Against all the odds my boys smashed the enemy and cut through Thrax's centre, capturing the Emperor in the process, the pendulum had swung in my favour. As we approached the last turn victory was tantalisingly close, it would depend on whether Auxiliary II could hold off the veterans of XXII Primagenia, up until now they had managed spectacularly.

The armies advance.

Thrax's victorious cavalry.

Struggle in the centre.

Thrax's winning Contari.

My boys about to break the enemy centre.

The last desperate combat.

We decided we could not end the battle at this point and that winning or losing would depend on that one combat, whoever won would claim the laurels. Sadly my Auxiliaries had nothing left having held the veterans for three turns and James turned his luck around at the last gasp. Victory to James.

A great game and I had warned James at the start I was not going to hold the Twelfth back. I was shocked when my right flank went but the boys almost turned it around and although the Auxiliaries had been beaten they had put up a magnificent fight against a superior enemy. I remain disappointed in my cavalry.

Busy again next week, Chain of Command with Matt on Tuesday and ACW on Thursday with Simon. The bunker remains open for business.

 

Claymore 2026

 Ken Reilly, more famous as the Yarkshire Gamer, asked for volunteers to play in his award winning 1499 Siege of Forli game and I decided to jump in with two feet. As you know I have armies for the Italian Wars and play Furioso rules which is convenient as Ken also uses them.

My missus insisted on coming with me and I insisted she did not drive so we booked for a couple of nights on the Leith waterfront. Our journey north was halted for an hour or more at Langholm as it was their Common Riding, a tradition of horse cavalcades enacting the old custom of inspecting the town boundaries, which involved closing down the main A7 road, I was slightly miffed. The whole town was also closed apart from the pubs so we stopped at Hawick for lunch, our second disappointment began. I expected more of such an historic town. We eventually arrived in Leith and dinner on the waterfront was very nice, although the range of alcohol free beers was pretty poor with stuff I had never heard of, no matter, an early night as I had to be at Claymore for 0800.

I was last at Claymore two years ago, maybe three, before that it was when it was being held opposite the Museum of Scotland and I couldn't even guess how long ago that was. I arrived on time and met Ken and the other six guys  who had agreed to help, the table was stunning, some 2,300 figures in technicolour, banners flying and harnessed for war. Ken introduced the rules as four of the players had never played before (Andrei had come from Croatia to play) and we took our places, I had a mixed force of Landsknechts and Italians in the centre opposite Jason who commanded the Swiss, I knew just how dangerous these men were, Jason did not. The whole point of the day was to showcase wargaming the Italian Wars, the amount of gaming we could get in was simply a bonus.

As the game kicked off around 1000 hrs everyone's cavalry leapt forward while the infantry found their way to the front blocked by the horse, I did not have a lot of cavalry and neither did Jason, certainly nothing like the swarms on both flanks, I was also happy not to rush my foot forward and be crushed by the dastardly cash greedy Swiss. I did however hope to sweep away the Swiss cavalry and their Italian mercenaries and although starting well the combats bogged down and I eventually basically lost. Jason had got one huge pike block closer than the other and seeing there was a hedge to its front I knew from experience that there was a good chance it would not move through it without being disordered, my plan was to position one of my blocks to hopefully take advantage of this possible mayhem.

It was not to be however as by now there was only about fifteen minutes to go until the show ended, so we finished off that round and called a halt. It had been a long day with an hour off for lunch, Ken didn't get much time to himself as he did a sterling job fielding all the questions and visitors through the day, a lot of people were impressed and my lasting memory will be of a young lad and his sister staring in pure awe with mouths open at the spectacle, grabbing at his fathers arm to see what he had seen. Hopefully a convert in years to come.

A huge thanks to Ken for allowing me to take part and to the other six lads who were a pleasure to meet and play against.

Claymore was far better than I remembered and it was busy, there were lots of games in the same mould as Forli, large set pieces to showcase the hobby, there were also many smaller games and quite a few participation games, all in all a diverse mixture. I had the good fortune to run into some of my Old Guard from our big ACW game of a few weeks ago, Robert, Billy and Davy, the bus load of Groupies Robert had promised sadly never turned up, I knew 'Wargaming Celebrity' would not fly and tried to tell him.

Some of you will know I have been taking a fiver to shows now for several years, more than I can remember, so I decided on a heartfelt plea from Ray Rousell 'for gawd's sake spend that fiver' to do just that. I admit the M8 Hellcat cost more than the fiver and the pain was almost unbearable, but I am now officially skint. 

A great experience and I need to get my own Italian Wars back on the table.  

 

Achtung Panzer!

 Today it was back to Chain of Command and our Abbeville campaign, this is the second phase and now the Germans are attacking. This scenario was to be 'Blitzkrieg' as per the 1940's Handbook, Matt had twelve support points against my eight, at first this looked pretty good for my put upon BEF but it was not to be. The British support could not be brought on the field until they had gathered two Chain of Command dice, twelve rolls of five, this restriction severely curtailed what I could use against the enemy and was frankly really bad news. Matt as usual had a cunning plan and he turned up with a PzIV and a Pz35(t) against my Boys anti-tank rifle so I would at least cause them to repaint the scratches if I hit.

Matt could have simply ran his tanks along the road and off the table, but he preferred to make a game of it in true gentlemanly fashion. He brought a couple of squads on in the large wood which covered most of one side of the battlefield and I met him with two of mine, I played aggressively despite hearing the clank of tank tracks and shot up one of his squads and brought down a Senior Leader. The Panzer IV turned up to support the Jerry infantry and I tried a couple of times to catch it on the flank but missed each time, but no matter it was not dealing out a lot of hurt and my infantry continued to pick on the second enemy squad who had advanced while the other withdrew. My shooting was much better than Matt's and his morale fell.

The second panzer now turned up and tried to motor down the road but again luck was not with Matt and the driver was having trouble getting the best from his engine. A good volley now hit the remaining squad and I captured a Jump Off Point so German morale fell to three, despite having a double move Matt could do nothing to change the fortunes of war and he called his attack off.

I had got off very lightly in this combat having fought it with only two squads while the third remained off table and my support had no chance of turning up until about midnight. Matt played like a gent and suffered for it as his attack just couldn't get off the ground. We talked afterwards and with the likely hood of three German tanks or four armoured cars turning up in the next game there was no chance of the British stopping a run for the table edge, so we decided Matt would win the next game and we will move on to the next table. Another difficult one for the poor British but with its own problems for the Jerries. This Abbeville has at least given us better games than the previous one.

I finished my American support troops a day or so ago, one more squad to go.

Tomorrow I will be heading north of The Wall to Leith as I volunteered to help Yarkshire Gamer Ken Reilly out with his award winning Italian Wars game of the siege of Forli at Claymore on Saturday. I have to be there by 08 double oh so it will be a long day for yours truly. A couple of my Grognard friends are making an effort to pop by. I don't expect to buy much but if I can find some stuff for my Yanks then I might get rid of that fiver I always take to shows

Mate Robert has been viewing my blog rants over the past years while continuing to recuperate from his recent knee surgery and to help him sleep, He has chuckled at View From The Window and given me stick for not putting a label on my wargaming journey through life so that he can find them easier, if you have missed these they are now under Why Wargaming, I am hoping to update this series with number 9 at some point soon.

I suspect the next post will be all about the Italian Wars. 

Rollicking Rolica

 A quick trip to Penrith this morning in lovely sunshine to hide away underground playing wargames. Matt had set out a larger table than usual for the Napoleonic battle of Rolica, I confess I don't know a lot about Napoleonic campaigns apart from a very basic idea. Despite my admiration for Napoleon himself. Matt explained that his French were sitting on a hill which was heavy going for the British to climb and then presumably assault. 

The battlefield.

The French.

My cavalry.

I had forces at the bottom of the hill ready to go while reinforcements would arrive around turn 4. I decided that I would attack the French left and try to overwhelm them while my cavalry and light troops would threaten the right, my centre would march forward and see what happened. As I reached the slopes I was slowed down and began to take casualties, you can shoot or move so it took time for me to get my men into a position where their numbers would count. My cavalry and light troops were doing a sterling job on my left and drove the French cavalry from the field and began to turn the enemy flank.

My left flank.

My cavalry move forward.

My centre advances.

Although my battalions were taking a thumping they managed nevertheless to stay in line and soon more Frenchies were fleeing. I had also now got an attack column on my right into position to assault the crest of the hill, despite everything these brave fellows also routed their opponents. My reinforcements now turned up and I sent them towards my centre, just in time as I lost a couple of battalions here, once again I managed to get an attack column into position only for it to be beaten by some Swiss as they charged down the slope in an attempt to halt the British advance.

Stalwart redcoats.

Chase them off lads.

My right about to crush the French left.

By this time the French left and right were almost non existent and my cavalry were now in the French rear. I turned everything I had against the remaining enemy infantry and another attack column swept away the Swiss, one French regiment remained but could not stand against several redcoat brigades. Matt handed over his sword.

The French right threatened.

More British arrive.

At them lads!

The tables had indeed turned, Matt destroyed me a few weeks before with my own dice, this time however lady luck wore a red coat and I pulled off some nice morale throws which kept my initial brigades in the fight and wore down the defenders. I was more than chuffed. Another excellent game in the Dungeon on a lovely table with beautiful figures. The rules were Valour and Fortitude which Matt enjoys, especially for larger games than Rolica. Next week we will be in the Bunker and back in 1940's France, it has been a while since I had Chain of Command on the table.

I am almost finished the book on Alexander and I have to say he doesn't come across well, the amount of times he promises mercy to forts or towns only to murder the populations once they surrender is quite horrific. I think by the time he returns from India he seems to be losing his mind, at least that is what the author seems to be implying.

I have been hit by the nostalgia bug and looked out some photographs of my time on HMS Sheraton, a minehunter. We were on our way to Gibraltar for deep sea sweeping trials (we could sweep as well) and stopped off at Portimao in Portugal. You can just see the bottom of the black Sandeman's Sherry logo which we used in one pic, the other we had just been to a local vinyard and we are carrying bottles of rose, most of which did not make it back to the ship.

Great day out.

Me, centre back.

Gunnery practice.

I have had my first treatment and spent a relaxing ninety minutes being 'filled up'.