Whoo, whoo

 Another visit to Matt's Dungeon, always a pleasure, this time I was greeted by his new project, a model railway which trundled around almost on the ceiling, the ridiculously small space hosted workmen, bridges, sheep pens and a station! As ever with Matt, all done to perfection, stunning, you have to see it to appreciate the work.

We were doing a 'Back of Beyond' game where I was the British supported by an armoured car and howitzer along with Indian troops and Afghan mercenaries whose loyalty may be suspect. The Russians also had a number of tribesmen, a howitzer and a lovely model Tachanka machine gun wagon, I was quite taken away with this piece, Warbases sell them. There were three objectives, on my left a railway wagon with an armoured car on it, a road junction in the centre and on my right another railway wagon with fuel drums. I decided off the bat to fight for the armoured car and sent British and Afghans towards it, I wasn't quite sure whether to just concentrate on the junction or try and get that and the fuel dump, in the end I put my howitzer and MMG opposite the fuel dump with the hope of making it costly for the Russians to take while keeping a squad in the area ready to pounce if the opportunity arose. Everything else was going for the junction.

Somewhere in the back of beyond.

Beautiful terrain.

I had some Bengal Lancers and was at a loss how to use cavalry in a Bolt Action setting so simply threw them up the road at the Tachanka and wiped it out, this left me able to push some Indians and British up to take the centre where they stayed put. The cavalry then wiped out some Russian affiliated Afghans before falling to regular Soviet rifle fire, but they had done spendidly and assured that in order to get the centre back the Russians would have to take some hard decisions. The Soviet gun was pretty useless as was my own, the medium machine guns of both sides also turned out to be bad shots. Over on my left I had made it to the wagon with the armoured car and set up a nice defence line as a Soviet horde appeared from over the hill, OK, two squads. I lost quite a few men from one British squad and pulled the survivors back into cover, I had to do the same with one of my Afghan squads, this rabble now decided they were on the wrong side and shot into the backs of my stalwart Tommies. These cutthroats were then put to the bayonet and my boys went back to their defences.

My left flank advances.

I take the centre.

The lancers arrive.

Reds get surprised.

 Some desperate hand to hand combat took place on my left but the line held, the Soviets were now running out of men along with their opportunities to retake the junction, they did however ignore my ineffectual howitzer and machine gun to take the fuel dump a second squad made a desperate run at the junction into my waiting defenders only to be gunned down. As the clock ticked down and we got one last move I could rely on keeping the centre but the Soviets could grab the flank objectives, sadly for Matt his right hand squad kept refusing to move and therefore I was now two objectives up, that spare squad I mentioned above now moved to contest the fuel dump, the British had won.

My armoured car secures the centre objective.

Very impressed with this model.

 I have said it before but it is a real joy to play in the Dungeon on one of Matt's lovely set ups, just what wargaming is all about for me. Matt is also far more lenient with the rules than many wargamers and concentrates on commonsense and playability, another plus for the Dungeon.

I got my new metallic paint box from Army Painter, a nice deal from Wayland Games with free postage. First off there were a couple which as an historical wargamer I will not use nice as they were, Red Copper, Rough Iron and True Copper, I gave the first two away. The paints flow better than Vallejo metals which can be like porridge, especially Gunmetal, they also cover easily, well they do on a white primer which I nearly always use. The Weapon Bronze is just that and has a reddish tint to it, it is not a shiny bronze. I decided to use the Greedy Gold for my bronzed armour which is more akin to artwork and reenactor bronze armour, I got one more bottle just in case and got Tainted Gold, I might use this now and again but it is not shiny. Bright Gold is beautiful and bright, perfect for decorated armour on officers etc. Cobalt Metal is blueish and good for tinting mail, I will use this but sparingly, Gun Metal is nice, better than Vallejo. Plate Mail is fine and does what it says on the tin or bottle in this case. Shining Silver was a let down, Vallejo and GW are much better. So I didn't do too well out of the deal after all, the only colours I really like are Greedy and Bright Gold.

I have almost completed the first twelve figures for I Minerva and moved on the second batch, I have an idea the vexillation will be complete at the weekend. I have to once again thank Phil Robinson for sending me more freebies in the shape of some shield transfers.

Work in progress.

And so to last night, Chain of Command with Simon, somewhere in the Don Basin as 6th Army strikes for Stalingrad. I chose a Panzergrenadier platoon and went heavy with armoured support, a Pz III, Pz II and a 250/1 halftrack. Simon chose a Soviet infantry platoon, two flamethrowers and two minefields. I was attacking a village and Simon was defending, I was determined to actually attack rather than sit back as you can do in CoC and simply out shoot the enemy. 

My objective.

Taxi!

Workhorse but getting old in '42.

I did however set up two squads to cover the advance and sent another in the halftrack along my right flank, I pushed the armour as fast as I could as I wanted this to lead my attack but it took time and I always seemed to need the command dice for something else. Simon tried an advance and got shot up then withdrew to cover, this gave me time to get the armour a bit further on. I then found an opportunity to run the halftrack up and dismount the passengers to assault the survivors of a shot up squad on the right. This was successful and put the Soviets on the back foot while their morale was dropping due to losses As the German armour began to pick on the remaining squads we called it a day, with only one flamethrower left now the Reds had little chance of holding off the German panzers.

Pz III.

The armour in support.

 Sadly the Russians were outclassed from the start and Simon suffered from a few bad die rolls while I for a change was on fire, especially when wounding and killing Soviet NCO's. The only Russian vehicle they could have had was an SU-76 due to the time period and support points and this might have made a difference but who knows.

I have bought the latest issue of 'On Bloody Ground' dealing with Sub-Roman Britain, written by my good friend Dave Toone and his son Dan, the series draws on their experiences with WAB and War and Conquest but with their own unique take on fighting large battles, you won't get away with doing Hastings on a two foot tile with 25 figures. As you know I am a WAC fan but as Hail Caesar tightens its grip on the club and no one seems eager to enjoy WAC perhaps I can persuade someone to take an interest in OBG. Dave missed his vocation as a double glazing salesman as he persuaded me to take a look with his unbounded enthusiasm, also I liked his idea of holding weekend meetings, something I still miss with WAC and even being a newbie I would try and take part. 

Postie on time for a change.

Parthian Shot: The last time we celebrated the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar I remember the lunacy of two model fleets being Red and Blue, not British and French seemingly in an effort not to affect the Gallic sense of pride but more to indulge the morons in charge of the celebrations. Can you remember 'Nelson' wearing his life jacket in the dinghy! Although these days perhaps the kids do think the fleets were Red and Blue. The same thing now seems to have happened with the naming of the latest nuclear submarine, HMS Agincourt will now be HMS Achilles, I remember the Battle class destroyer HMS Agincourt as I rowed past her at her moorings in Pompey harbour waiting for the knackers yard. I have no problem with Achilles as it is a proud name to carry, but I do find the nonsense that it will upset the Frenchies a bit of a storm in a teacup.

Crises, what Crises

 All my preparation for the new army figure wise has been done, bases and movement trays are ordered to be picked up at Vapnartak in York, where I hope to also get tufts and flock. I have no patience and while waiting on Victrix to start selling the LBMS transfers I ordered up a set for my first vexillation from A&A Miniatures, I may have to go down this route again.

I have been through the Army of Maximinus Thrax book and elsewhere only to find out most of what I look up is the usual might, possibly, may etc. when it comes to what the legionaries actually wore in the 3rd Century. This is of course only to be expected when putting together finds from all across the empire and trying to make sense of them all. So as a wargamer you have to make a decision and stick to it, for example cataphracts are heavily armoured but did not always ride barded horses, clibinari on the other hand usually did, hence most peoples idea of a cataphract. The lamelar hoods worn by quite a few wargame figures for this middle period seemingly are not really a thing and if they were they would have been worse than useless at fending off a blow to the head. There is also no real proof of heavily decorated shields a la Dura Europos style, despite the lovely art in the book, of course there is also no real proof they weren't. And don't get me started on Lanciarii, were they light or heavy troops, did they form up as close order or did they skirmish, did the legionaries use pilum, spiculum, spear or long spear and on it goes.

I have made some decisions, helped by the range of figures I can use, my army will consist of five close order vexillations from four Rhine legions, I Minerva, XXX Ulpia Victrix, VIII Augusta and XXII Primigenia along with a detachment of Praetorians, for identification I should be able to add the Legion's emblem i.e. bull, capricorn or scorpion etc. to a Vexilum standard. Other Roman troops will be Lanciarii, ballista and two or maybe three cavalry units. These will be supported by four infantry and three cavalry Auxilia. Nearly all the army is well armoured and it will have a lot of missile power. I have read a lot on the Roman army, mainly from Augustus until the Fall of the West and the more I read the more impressed I become.

I am very happy with the figure range from A&A Miniatures, they require very little in the way of cleaning up, and once primed the detail is very easy to paint. My boys will not have a uniform look, the figures contain several different armour styles and can have a mix of rectangle and oval shields, also tunic colours will not be regular red but a mixture, officers will be red. I have bought a bundle of Army Painters new Fanatic Metallic colours, I got a good deal from Wayland Games and free postage. Some of the colours will be of little use to me but overall I will stick with them as they are impressive and cover well. I had a wargamers moment about the colour of bronze armour, the Weapon Bronze didn't seem to cut it and did not look like the colour you see in most illustrations, the kind of bronze you see on re-enactment armour looks like gold or brass most of the time. I therefore chose to go with Greedy Gold which seems to suit my needs but I am not completely convinced so I am going to give Tainted Gold a try, but you don't get that in the box of 10, so I had to make another order. 

I Minerva work in progress.

 I got into another game of Midgard at the club and I won again, the rules are just not for me. My main reason is I do not need another set of rules, the ones I have work fine for me, so why jump on the latest bandwagon. This seems to be an old-fashioned attitude these days.

Strathclyde and Saxons vs Vikings and Mercians.

 

 

My troops cut their way to victory.

I almost forgot, before starting the Romans I found the need to sort out some of my Italian Wars spares and was lucky enough to manage a small pike block from the pile. These guys are mercenaries under Ludovico de Medici and fighters in Papal service.

  There was another large clash at the Gin Pig in Grange last Sunday, I had my son and his family staying and although given the green light to attend I thought it more prudent for my welfare to forgo and instead help out with breakfast etc. Talking of big games, mates Billy and Robert north of Hadrian's Wall are re-fighting Fuentes de Onoro on their own with over 60 battalions on the table, they are averaging one move every three hours!

One flank of Billy and Robert's game.

Club night this week was very different, I have been refusing to play with Julian or Ryan for years and at a loose end I decided to take them on their word. Could they sort out a Warhammer 30K Horus Heresy game for me. So I found myself up against Ryan's Emperor's Children with my or rather Julian's Yellow Fists. I caused quite a stir when people realised what I was up to. This game was another win for me as I managed to secure more objectives than Ryan. It was sheer luck helped with some timely advice from my opponent. We only scratched the surface of the rules and it seemed to me to be fairly easy to hit something but quite another thing to kill it. It was a bit of fun and the figures and the lore behind it all is enticing but I will not be donning my power armour again any time soon.

The good guys.

The bad guys.

Despite the desperate weather I had an away game today in Penrith in The Dungeon with Matt Crump, the drive back was horrendous in the torrential rain. I managed to survive passing the woman texting in her 4x4 and the beer can swigging lunatic on Penrith's large roundabout and got home in one piece. Of the game more anon.

Parthian Shot: The miserable SNP is thinking of banning birthday cakes from child nurseries in order to look after the weans' health. Surely a nice day with friends, being the centre of attention and tucking into a big cream sponge for one day a year is better for your health than forcing a stale bannock down your throat. And this one cracked me up, crowds waiting for hours in queues for tickets or the latest hair dryer now wear adult nappies so they do not lose their place!

On To Washington!

 I have put in my first order for the new army, I chose some safe troops which I know will be in the army, legionaries and Moor light cavalry. I have had a quick look at the make up of 3rd Century Romans but have still to read my book rather than just glancing at it, along with some research online, although I usually find the latter to be less good at specifics than a book. My main concern is whether during this period allies were used under their own leaders, I think we are still a way from Foederati joining in large numbers. The Moors were certainly with Thrax on his expedition and units based on heavy, lance armed cavalry had been added to the order of battle, but would the Romans have taken along friendly tribes of which there were many on the opposite banks of the Rhine and Danube? We will see. On the subject of figures good friend Phil Robinson very kindly sent me some A&A miniatures he had in his lead pile, some Romans and a pack of Moorish light cavalry, how good and fortuituous was that? Maybe the gods smiling on me as I had just sent off some spare transfers to a guy in Welsh Wales who needed them.

'Lucky' Jimi and I settled down to Bolt Action for the first game of the year, his mountain troops versus my Russians. Once again I decided to think outside the box, I kept my force Early War and took three squads backed up by the useless Ampulomet anti-tank mortar, a T-34/76 and a T28 (a first for this tank), along with an infantry gun. A young lad, Adair, new to the club asked if he could join and why not, he chose to join Jimi, they had a Panther, a PzII flame tank (my Luchs sitting in for this) and three squads, I think. We put three objectives on the table and whoever held the most at the end would win.

I now bring transports and had two trucks, one I sent up to unload beside a farmyard on my left centre, the other I sent up the right. The Jerries looked to be making an effort to attack all three objectives, I concentrated on the middle and right flank, during the second turn I went to unload my squad from the right flank truck and realised it was empty as I had already laid down the squad which should have been in it! I compounded this mistake by realising with a flame tank to my front I needed to quickly abandon the farm I had so easily grabbed.

T-34/76.

I grab the farm, bad move.

Adair's Panther after Bovington Panther.

As the action heated up I was winning the firefights apart from seemingly being unable to kill off any of Jimi's veterans opposite my right, despite having a full squad and my multi-turreted mechanical monster hit them. My T-34 on the left did manage to hit the Panther but only got a turret jam out of it, the Panther missed several shots. Young Adair was no slouch and decided to ram my T34 rather than shoot his less than accurate gun, I have never seen this done but I survived it and both vehicles ended up nose to nose. Lucky for me Adair seemed happy to keep Jimi's reputation for bad dice alive as he failed time and again to 'light up' my troops while I caught quite a few Jerries in the open as they made for the centre objective.

The monster.

How are we going to get over a hedge?

My troops grab a victory objective.

We called a halt on turn five, I had two objectives and the Germans one, a good win for the Reds.

Last night we finally managed to fight our first Shenandoah Campaign game, a Union division encamped around the town of Woodstock was attacked by a Confederate division, not quite Shiloh but similar. I was going to umpire but Ed offered my one of his brigades to take part, I was set up on the Federal left, there was another brigade to my right and one being held off as a reserve. Fran put his whole division opposite our right flank and it turned out for a time he had three brigades against one, then as he was forced to pull back as my troops began to advance and threaten his right it was two against one. A really good effort, he had the good fortune to have organised his attack before Ed had received his cavalry so managed to gain an advantage on position.

View from the Reb lines.

View from the Union lines.

The Federals were wrong footed and to add insult to injury the Confederate artillery was devastating and cut a swathe through the Union defenders on the hill as they lay down to minimise the effects. With the Rebs noticing my rush to help they peeled off troops to prepare a hot reception, meanwhile the tsunami of gray began to engage Ed's defenders and casualties mounted. First the Federal cavalry ran despite a valiant stand and then two blue regiments were cut to pieces and joined them. Things were looking very bad.

The Rebs turn up.

More of 'em.

The Federal reserves had now arrived and took up a defensive position on the edge of the town just as I was beginning to get within musket range of the enemy. I had tried to help the situation with counter-battery fire on the Rebel guns but my crews were hopeless, the other Federal battery while not as bad was unable to fire on the main Confederate assault columns and instead took potshots at the infantry protecting the Rebel batteries. 

Federal right flank.

Under attack.

John Wayne is late.

Woodstock.

I was now feeling confident of overwhelming the hill on which the Confederate guns sat but they now turned their attention on my boys and stopped my skirmish line dead, plan A had suddenly gone out the window. Ed, was being urged by his commanders to withdraw while he could, I would have fought on but perhaps I was just enjoying myself. With a heavy heart and Confederate taunts Billy Yank retreated.

The reserves arrive.

Ed decides to retreat.

My useless attack on the left.

A good game and a solid fight, luck was certainly with the Rebs as the Union artillery basically did nothing to help the defence and having the disadvantage of deploying first it was always going to be a tough time against an aggressive commander like Fran. In the cold light of day however things were seen to have been a lot more even in casualties than we had thought the night before as one Union brigade had basically ceased to exist. Confederate casualties were fairly high but were spread out between the division while four Federal regiments had bore the brunt of all the Yankee casualties. The battle was unusually safe for commanders as no officers were shot during it although several must have holes in hats.

No matter, we had a good time and the Rebs have drawn first blood, our second battle will take place on 9th February, I am not going to make any predictions as I was sure the Yanks could have held Woodstock in this one.

Parthian Shot: Civil Service people at the Land Registry to strike 'indefinately' due to their harsh employers (you and me) who want them back at work, like during the Victorain era but with endless tea breaks ad Hob Nobs. If you have been waiting for a search or a call back on your title plans or summaries you might already have thought they were on strike.

I am Politician material.

 Happy New Year. I had hoped to have a battle report from the campaign in this post but circumstances were not such that I could get the players involved together for the Battle of Woodstock, so hopefully this will be upcoming at a later date.

Why am I now suitable to be a politician you ask, well I already cannot look at myself in the mirror as I am a shadow of my former handsome self but the main reason is that I too am able to do a U-Turn and go back on a promise. No more projects I have shouted over the last few months, maybe one of those miscreants who delve into ones past online utterances could prove it was even longer. I have been brought to such a pass by a Christmas present.

The item in question was a book on the army of Giaus Julius Maximinus Thrax (the Thracian), who led an expedition deep into Germany, far deeper than most historians allowed for prior to the discovery of the Harzhorn battlefield (2008). A Roman victory against the German tribes for which Thrax is the main contender although the exact date and leader cannot be determined for now. I have two Roman armies but have always had a soft spot for the middle period which my troops do not cover, Armorum & Aquila (A&A) Miniatures have ranges which cover the 3rd and 4th Century, I was hooked.

The culprit.

 The illustrations in the book are quite striking, some of the facial expressions are a bit strange and the face looks like it has been trapped in the helmet. The armour detail is exceptional and I doubt you will find this in wargaming figures, these guys as well as looking frightening also looked sharp. As ever the shields draw me in, in nearly every case they are the artists represenatations based on Legion symbols and unless you are good at hand painting you will have to rely on transfers, thankfully Little Big Man Studios do a range which will fit. The book points out that the famous Duro-Europos shield would be useless in combat as it is too thin, part of another decorated shield found in the city is also unsuitable for combat, so again I suspect these were for ceremonial/guard use.

I also have to mention the work of Phil Hendry who ran a blog years ago which detailed his building of a 3rd Century army using A&A figures, the force is simply inspiring and I have never forgot them, I will be using his blog as a starting point for the new army. Phil's troops were based in the East of the empire while I will be concentrating on the Legions of the Rhine and Danube frontiers who more that likely sent vexillations for the expedition into Germany rather than the complete legion. I believe my favourites, Legio XII, were on the Pannonian frontier around this time and if so probably had a presence in the invasion. Further research will follow.

Phil's troops, hope he doesn't mind.

 Will I get these troops on the table, who knows, maybe once in a blue moon but I don't care, well I do, but in the end the research, collecting and painting will keep me sane for the coming year and a bit.

In order to clear the decks I have managed to get another small pike block from out of my lead pimple, this leaves about 20 figures in the tin whose fate will be to remain there forever. I am painting them up as a Papal contingent which includes mercenaries of Ludovico de' Medici. As I am moving on to the Romans these will be the last Italian Wars figures for a long time. While on the subject of the future I am getting an urge to add figures to Cohors I of the Twelfth, I know it should be twice the size of a normal cohort but adding a few more figures will scratch that itch, also I can order them from Aventine when I get the cataphracts for the German invasion, sorted.

Over Christmas I managed to finish my four new buildings, two barns and two houses, nothing spectacular but decent kits, I might add a bit more weathering to the two houses.

The club starts back on Tuesday and I have a game of Bolt Action to kick off the year. I am also going to go to York this year to browse for bits and pieces, mainly scatter terrain, some paints and maybe the odd piece from the Last Valley, I feel the need for some more trees and maybe some smaller hedges.

Parthian Shot: In the new 2025 D&D rule book if you feel your adventurer has met a situation which is inappropriate you can hold out your palm or make a cross with your arms above your head to halt proceedings. The rest have not to discuss why you have called a halt but simply amend the play and move on without prejudice. I might try that the next time my one and only tank is punctured by a strike from an anti-tank gun.