East and West

A little pressed for time this week, several new map projects and another on Kursk, 1943, this will be the third and it has suddenly dawned on me it is the 75th Anniversary, hence the interest, a couple of the books are from Russian authors and one German, also one of the former may prove to be a tad controversial. No matter I am enjoying drawing these as they are mainly in colour which is no harder than black and white but somehow more rewarding.

Last week my main PC went down again, stop, start stop etc. I have had enough and ordered up a new one as I cannot trust this 'Friday afternoon' job, nothing but trouble since the day I got it, this has hit the Anderson mapping fortune hard what with the new chair, so I am entering a self imposed austerity campaign for the rest of the year. The new PC has just arrived, so a busy afternoon ahead for me.

A few days ago Kevin and I settled down to our second game of Holdfast:Eastern Front, I was the Germans this time. I cocked up the movement for the first two turns but soon got into my stride as we thundered into the Ukraine. As the campaign progressed I decided to head for Leningrad then turn south on Moscow, the winter of 1941 was a tough one on me and I could barely move my forces while the Luftwaffe closed for the winter. With the coming of Spring Army Group North plunged ahead while AG Centre wore down the Russian defences in defending the route to Moscow. By the end of the summer I had Leningrad surrounded and AG Centre could see the spires in the Red capital. However I could not shift the defenders of Leningrad in order to release two Panzer armies to reinforce the push on Moscow, Winter hit and it was obvious I was not going to take two major cities in order to win the campaign. I had made about four or five attacks on Leningrad and got nowhere, with the game over I tossed a pile of dice in disgust at my luck and if we had still been playing the city would have fallen! The winter of 41/42 had delayed me so much along with my stupidity during the first two moves that the Russians managed to get some tough defenders in the city, Kevin will be returning as the German commander in the next game.

Muskets and Tomahawks at the club last night, it was the climactic game in a series of three which began with the ambush of the British forces last year. This time we had a line of British irregular troops trying to stop Indian warbands from making off with their prisoners and booty, once again we each had a unit on either side and to stop any smart moves it was bad news if you met your opposite numbers in battle. I had a bunch of Scots led by the fearless Lt. Fraser Cameron (an ancestor of the brave Lord George Black VC, see Vapnartak report). Cameron advanced and fired on any passing warbands usually causing them to retire back into the forest, during one of these firefights he managed to rescue a young farmer from the savages. My Indians were very aggressive and caused one bunch of Rangers to recoil, this left a gap in the British line and they headed for it, Julian saw this and cunningly moved his men from across the battlefield to foil my plan. I managed to kill some of his men but they wouldn't budge, Ian now brought his Indians into play and I hid mine behind them, Ian moved the Rangers and I followed him across the river, first success for me.

If you got a group off the table you were given another, my second group sprinted down the left hand table edge pursued relentlessly by a bunch of white eyes commanded by Stuart, he would not give up and charged in hoping to destroy my warriors, but it was Stuart who lost and his men ran far enough away to enable me to get my second group of warriors off the table. Lt. Cameron meanwhile had pursued and caught the Indian chief, and although a fine warrior Cameron was deadlier and the brave man fell to a claymore swipe. The chief had been hauling a white woman along who surprised Cameron by lunging at him with a dagger, she was disarmed and set loose again in the forest, the Jocks now took it easy, sauntered back to the road and 'rescued' a wagon of corn and escorted it from the battlefield.

Roger's cosy little camp.

The 'lady' ran and was scooped up by a nearby unit of Rangers, here she joined another rescued damsel and was made a great fuss of by Roger's troops, who now hunkered down, set a fire, prepared a meal and sang a sonnet to the women, all of which gleaned him points from Rob the umpire. My squeals of indignation went unheard. As night fell we counted coup, both Roger and I had 30 points each, a toss of the die came down on my side and I was declared the winner, I don't think anyone lost as the game was great fun. I still feel that I should get troops for this.

Elsewhere we had a boardgame (Julius Ceasar), a Dark Age Saga game, and a Bloodbowl league game, eight of us played Muskets and Tomahawks.

In between everything else I have been getting up early and bedding down late to finish the next unit for the Seleucids, the Galatians. I wasn't too keen on the figures when I got them and was about to waste another £24 at Vapnartak getting Foundry Gauls to mix in, then thought better of it, I am glad I did as the unit has turned out fine, especially with the Little Big Men Transfers which are a delight for these troops. I now have a scythed chariot half done and my last phalanx primed and ready to go. I must slow down though, there is no need to hurry with these troops.