Ups and Downs

I had thought my wargaming was going to slow down but it hasn't, so three recent battles to showcase. I was at the club again this week and was showing 'Lucky' Jimi what War and Conquest was all about, I think he felt sorry for me as I continually moan about not enough games of my second favourite game. Anyway I brought along Thrax and his boys and more Barbarians, I offered Jimi a choice of sides and he took the Romans, both armies were infantry as I did not want to complicate the game by introducing the different cavalry and their styles of fighting.

 

The Barbarians attack.

  

Steady boys, steady.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clash of arms

We lined up and off we went, I simply went straight for the Roman line hoping to knock a few of the cohorts out before I was flanked as Jimi had one more battle formation than me. I hit the Roman left and the routed Auxiliaries took their skirmishers along with them, this time I caught the routers and that was one down four to go. Jimi got the drop on me and hit my centre warbands while I left my last one to threaten his right as he hesitated. Numbers told in the end and the Roman centre lost one unit while another was in trouble. Jimi now turned a cohort to hit my winning warband in the flank but I got in first and hit his Lanciarii, before his legionaries could take advantage of his formation change the Lanciarii broke and ran. The Germans had won.

It was good to take the troops to the club but there was not a lot of interest shown as everyone else was busy. I enjoyed the game albeit it was a 'training' bash and I think Jimi also enjoyed it, his reputation for desperate dice did manage to turn up at awkward times but at others he pulled off some nice throws.

Matt Crump was back from his European battlefield and Museum trip so we played out the second game of our Gembloux Gap campaign. Matt had withdrew from the first clash and was again attempting to push the French from the village of Perbais. Although the Jerries got extra support points for their second attempt I felt fairly confident as we set about the Patrol Phase. I was taken by surprise and failed miserably with this, so much so that my Jump Off Points ended up pretty useless for me, even as a defender, Matt had managed to get a couple right on my flank.

Plan A.

 

Ooops, Plan B then.

 

Mortar incoming!

The Germans close in.

 I held back most of my infantry but did take cover in a couple of buildings, before this however I had put down my rifle grenadiers to cover a dangerous Gemans JOP but within minutes Matt had wiped them out, the morale loss hurt me and and I fell from 11 to 8 as the team broke and the leader was killed. I used a Shabby Nazi Trick to close off one of the JOP's and covered another from a nearby house, this forced Matt to advance across mainly open ground. I had been busy moving my armour, an R35, up the road to get into a firing position, it managed it and as it settled down to wreak havoc on the Boche Matt managed to blow it up with his infantry gun. 

After that I decided to try and inflict some damage but that plan didn't work out either, Matt dropped a mortar barrage which in the end did no significant damage to my guys but anywhere I did manage to pop my head out was covered by the infantry gun, an off table MMG and German infantry, my morale fell to 3. It was all up for the French, I had been outplayed and sent packing, well done Matt. Due to the difference in morale and the fact I only gave two of his guys a headache Matt hardly suffered at all. I think next time will be a trip to the Dungeon.

Two days later it was Seven Years War and a game with Ian, I asked Chat GPT for an idea and it gave me the bones of a scenario, nothing fancy, a meeting engagement and although the objectives were to capture the ridges held by the other side it would be down to who was left standing. Ian took the French and I was the British, for ever looking over my shoulder to see if the council would be hammering at the door to take my Union flags.

 I got two Dithering commanders and one Reliable, my cavalry turned up with a Dashing leader, Ian also had two dopes, one Dashing and his cavalry was Reliable, the CinC can be used to make one poor commander reliable and we both did that. Ian's Dashing fellow was in the centre and I hoped he would advance quickly into the waiting muskets of my centre, he did but it took time. 

British left flank.

French left.

The battle begins.

I advanced my left fairly quickly and the French opposite also came on in the grand manner, my centre advanced to the stream and halted, the troops there came under artillery fire but they weathered it well, my right slowly advanced through the wood on that side of the battlefield and I was happy for the French to attempt to get to grips with that brigade. I was hoping I would win elsewhere and then claim victory. My artillery now played on the French centre and they were devastating, causing battalions to retreat and disrupt Ian's advance. On his right however he reached the stream and charged across it, my boys stood and their crashing volleys caused mayhem in the ranks of the Irish and German mercenaries, routing some and causing others to fall back.

Battle commences.

The British cavalry triumphant.

The French right in trouble.

The magnificent Royal Artillery.

 Ian eventually managed to get some troops up to engage my centre at the stream but once again my artillery chased some of them away, my infantry then stood up manfully and put the rest to flight, although I had by now lost two battalions.£;  &

The French left with nothing happening.

The French centre collapses.

The French left also collapses.

Earlier in the game the cavalry reserves of both sides had turned up, Ian again being aggressive and throwing them across the stream, one squadron charing some infantry and the other being charged by my cavalry. This was a disaster for the French as the infantry volleys put paid to one squadron and my cavalry routing another. After this I sent my cavalry to the left flank as a large gap had opened in the enemy line and I wanted to take advantage of it. On my right I kept my boys in the wood while the French commander there was having a dreadful time inspiring his brigade to move forward. By this stage the French were close to breaking point and were not in a good position so Ian handed over his sword.

I know someone has to do it but it is not easy attacking in Honours of War, add this to the fact my shooting dice, especially the artillery were extremely good and you have a recipe for disaster. It was a good fight and nice to see the SYW back on the field of battle, and no knock from the council.

 I picked up the new car a week ago and promptly got lost after leaving the showroom, finding myself in darkest Lancashire along a country lane which was flooded, this necessitated a U-turn on a road not much bigger than my wargame table with other irate drivers to my rear. Obviously there is more to the story but I won't bore you with it. It has taken us several calls to BMW and looking at videos on YouTube to work out the tech on the thing. Remember when you got the key and off you went.

 I know the world is mad and I generally just shake my head these days but the fact that NATO have issued guidance on using words which offend, offend who by the way, like airman, serviceman and anything else which mentions the overwhelming majority of people in the armed forces of the organisation. I had just got over this when I found out that the MOD have decided RAF vegans, all 7 of them, can have vegan uniforms instead of the normal ones. And they expect our enemies to take us seriously. 

Still awaiting scans.

 Oh, I nearly forgot, I have now had, thanks to some bots, over a million views, did I mention that before? 

Some New Stuff.

I was going to have a quiet week this week but it didn't turn out like that. I went along to the club to take part in a game of "Beneath the Lily Banners", not sure what you would actually call the period but it is around the late 1600's? This is a new project for several club members and new figures are being added every week as the forces grow. I am unsure of the scale, it looked about 10 mm to me, maybe 12, the troops did look very nice and Stuart Simon's contingent were exceptional in this scale as is his 25mm ECW armies.

The battle was between an army of Jacobean Scots and English against Dutch forces loyal to the Crown. At first although the loyalists were better troops it did look like they were outnumbered, especially on my flank facing a much larger force opposite. I decided to take a little wood to my front with dragoons as a speed bump while my infantry camped on a nearby hill, I had an idea that as my cavalry should outclass their opponents I would sweep forward and put the enemy horse to flight. Needless to say Plan A did not work, the order system went against me and only one of my two squadrons charged forward, nonetheless this unit was quite successful routing some enemy and throwing their flank into disorder before being chased from the field. The dragoons did their job and held up the enemy foot for a time which was also played on by my artillery, they therefore reached my own infantry line having been badly shot up.

The enemy advance on my boys.

My one squadron attacks.

Defend the high ground.

Jacobites. Was expecting official to remove St. George's flag.

Over on my left Simon had advanced to the line of a small stream while being attacked by Stuart's lovely cavalry, this did not prevent them from being shot up and routed however. The Jacobean infantry on that flank seemed happy enough to remain in position for most of the game, or that is how it looked to me. Night fell and the victory went to the loyal forces of King George.

I was preparing to settle down and map for the rest of the week when Paul asked for a game the next day on What'sApp and I decided in a high pitched camp voice, if that's possible on a PC, that I was free. We decided on a 1940's clash somewhere in France with Paul as the Jerries and me as the French, I was the defender and would not have my support forces until the first turn ended, this in Chain of Command can take a very long time, so I would be outnumbered from the beginning.

You will have to be a certain age.

The Germans turned up with a couple of squads and an armoured car, at this point I had no anti-tank weapons but managed a couple of times to frighten the crew of the 'little tank' into retreating, but of course it came back. I very slowly built up towards a CoC dice to end the turn while Paul was overwhelmed with CoC points. One German squad tried to advance but was caught in the open and became the target of most of the French lead, it eventually broke and ran, this meant the enemy now deployed an infantry gun to put pressure on the French line and it had an immediate effect. My squads now began to suffer very high casualties, dead rather than shocked, two of my NCO's also got hit and one killed, my morale plummeted to 5 from 9, things had looked so good a moment before. 

Battlefield.

My line.

The Jerries close in.

The game changer.

The 'little tank'.

I had managed at last to end the turn and on trundled my game winning armour, but it was no game changer, it turned out to be useless and as the pressure mounted I pulled back all my squads out of harms way. I did manage this quite successfully but the writing was on the wall and my morale now fell to 3. The crew of the infantry gun were now desperately manhandling it into a better position so in desperation I deployed the last of my reserves in the hope I might pick off the crew or even better wound the leader, when the smoke cleared there was no visible effect on the gun crew. A further turn of deadly fire from Paul put my morale at 1 and I gave in.

 I did look like winning at one point as the Germans came up against my defenders but my morale simply crumbled under the withering fire as my NCO's hit the deck and my return fire merely gave the Jerries a few headaches. I have used that little R35 tank before and it has never been successful. I think in the future for single games I will just use morale ratings of 10 or 11, I never use the lower 8 anyway, the wounding of a couple of Leaders accompanied with lousy morale throws can end a game before it gets off the ground. The wounding or stunning of Leaders cause enough realistic command problems without artificially causing your platoon to leave the area.

Staying with Chain of Command in the next day or two I will have completed the bulk of the Fallschirmjager platoon and they will be in action against American paratroopers in a few weeks. I have enough left over figures for a fourth squad but am waiting for their LMG teams and a sniper to arrive from Black Tree Designs, I have used these guys once before and they are notoriously slow. I have painted this new platoon almost entirely with Contrast Paints, quiet in the back. I never thought the GW paints had a range suitable for WW2, I suspect Vallejo or Army Painter do. Mate Stuart Dobson put me on to a video showing how it could be done and I thought his efforts on his Voksgrenadiers looked fine for my paras. I started and was very happy with the speed and the results, halfway through the troops I changed a few of the colours to represent my own thoughts on the webbing and camo smock, my choices are not as stark as the original suggestions, well I think so. These types of paints are looked down on by many but I think they are wonderful, and I have hundreds of Roman and Italian Wars figures to attest to this. If you ever only buy one, buy the magical Guilliman Flesh.

When it comes to books I am loathe to read women writers, I did however get carried away by the author of 'Eagle Days' who did a presentation on WW2TV. I have now returned it to my shelf, it is supposed to tell the story of the Battle of Britain from the German side, I did not really get this impression, there was a serious lack of information on actual combat experience from the bomber crews and fighter pilots, maybe I picked up the wrong vibes from the programme.

 So just as I was thinking about what was next I found that the second book in Rick Atkinson's trilogy on the War of The American Revolution is out, it has only taken six years so I am wondering if I will still be around when Volume Three appears and will I actually have time to read it, these are vast tomes. I have tried many times to read about this period in history and all have left me unsatisfied, Atkinson however is brilliant and really brings the whole thing to life, already I have only managed the prologue and know it is a winner.

I know I am a miserable old sod but my excitement on hearing about a TV series on Harold Godwinson and that usurper William of Normandy was sent crashing when I realised the BBC were in charge. First off I have never watched it and never will, however I have seen clips and photographs, I will leave out the colour blind casting but the clothes and armour are straight out of someones imagination, if they got 'experts' in they must simply have listened then ignored them. Look at the Bayeux Tapestry for heavens sake. I also noticed that the battle was the usual two mobs running at each other and finishing in multiple single combats, I could be wrong as I only saw a few seconds of this but I doubt it. On the other hand I have started 'Penguin' and it is high quality drama with a good story and excellent script and acting along with beautiful filmography. Colin Farrel is uncanny as Penguin. I am addicted to 'Drive to Survive' and as such I know a thing or two about F1 now, the other night I watched F1 with Brad pitt and immediately saw problems, the major one being a size six model changing tyres in the pit, I could not stop laughing, the movie, it was fine. Box, Box!

 On that happy note, I'm off.

Onwards ever Onwards.

 My wargaming was not over when my son grabbed a victory from my Barbarian assault a week or so ago, I managed one day of rest when mate Robert appeared for the first of our two evening games. Robert had not played War and Conquest but is a seasoned wargamer and was happy to try the rules out, he chose the Seleucids as he has 'prior' with them, I decided to lead the new army putting aside my guilt of not commanding Legio XII.

The game was only over a few hours and was a typical ancient clash, infantry in the centre and cavalry on the wings, Robert kept his elephant way out on his right hoping it would disorder my cavalry, he needn't have bothered as my horse archers were routed by the enemy cavalry. I did manage to hit the behemoth later, it went out of control and as luck would have it it went straight for one of my victorious vexillations, the lads took this in their stride and Nellie hit the deck. As the phalanx reached my line several melees broke out but the Romans were left masters of the field.

A very mad elephant.

Phalanx v legion.

On the cusp of victory.

Thrax.

Seleucis.

Thrax's men had fought well against the pikes and I am sure Robert would be a serious opponent with a few more games under his belt, not that he did anything wrong in this small clash but we all know it takes time to get to grips with how a ruleset plays. I was just happy to play and get my armies on the table.

The next evening we settled on a return to old times and played a small Johnny Reb game, back in Scotland we had a small group which played a lot of ACW in my loft space, melting in the summer and freezing in the winter. Robert as always took the Good Guys while I led the Rebs. We didn't get very far as we chatted, reminisced and enjoyed throwing dice, Robert went on the defensive along a line of fences while I attacked, I had decided to put my strongest brigade into an attack on the Union left but we called a halt as time ran out and things were just getting interesting.

I have been doing quite a bit of painting recently, I got the artillery crew for my 88mm Bunkerflak but found only two would fit on the vehicle, the rest will be additional gun crew for games of Chain of Command which needs five men as opposed to Bolt Action which requires three. I had also painted up my last (for now) Roman unit over two days to get them on the table, or at least giving my son a choice of fielding them. I also managed to scratch an itch and complete some shieldwall markers for Thrax. This left me with nothing left to do for now so I turned to the Fallschirmjager given me by Robert, I had a look at a video on YouTube on using Contrast paints for Late War German troops in camo smocks. Stuart at the club had used this method on his recent Volksgrenadiers and I was impressed, I took the plunge and bought some extra paints and primer. I also needed some more grass tufts, some extra figures, a box filler from Charlie Foxtrot and magnets, I could have gone further and got Fallschirmjager support units but have decided to use my Heer units for these, no need to double everything up as I have done with other stuff. Will I be able to live with this, who knows.

Markers.

Artillery crew.

 Talking about old times, I had a Bolt Action game with Jimi last night, I have been concentrating on Chain of Command recently as you can tell and just could not be bothered to pick up the huge tome that is Bolt Action version 3. Yes there are some nice changes on the side of commonsense but yes, there is still some real stupid stuff in there. No matter I asked ChatGPT for a scenario and it came up with a Soviet attack on the village of Chernovka held by the Germans as they await reinforcements, the AI provided everything including the orders of battle, easy peasy. The AI obviously had a thing for the Jerries as the defenders included a StuG III and a PAK 40 against a T-34/76 and a BA-64 armoured car.

Chernovka about to fall.

Jimi has winter troops.

PAK 40 late to the show.

For the Motherland!

I decided to simply run all my troops at the village and hope for the best before the Germans were reinforced, luckily for me Jimi held off his StuG and the PAK 40, in the latter case because he was unsure what it was and got it mixed up with something else. Jimi is not a WWII rivet counter like the rest of us. I was set upon by a sniper and a panzerschrek team and as I closed the range I managed to take out both of these although I still kept my T-34 away from the StuG. The Jerries countered with a small pioneer squad along with a flamethrower but they could not get the thing to light up and duly suffered for their rashness. To make matters worse the reinforcements only came on in bits and pieces. The Russian steam roller continued and more German units bit the dust, including the PAK 40 crew. With one turn remaining we called it a day, the Soviets had retaken Chernovka. Not a bad little game, Jimi being saddled with his usual luck just when he didn't need it.

We took the car in for a service last week to Mercedes Preston and I saw just what I wanted, unfortunately it cost £92,000 and the Memsahib did not like it, if there had been a small Batman logo on the door or bonnet I would have took my chances and lived a live of lonely penury. On the way out her loveliness asked me to pop into BMW, two hours later I signed on the dotted line. So a service turned into a new car. I really need to keep away from showrooms.

Mine.

Not mine.

On the health front, yep, still waiting. 

If only .........

I have now finished my War and Conquest weekend courtesy of my son Stewart. My new 3rdC Roman army is basically finished and ready for the tabletop and as much as I would have liked to lead Thrax's boys in battle my son Stewart regards Roman troops as walking tanks, so I let him take the new army. I have to admit I have a superstition about the 'Thunderbolts' and felt I could not abandon them so the first battle would be a 'Civil War', quite appropriate for the 'Crises'. I also wanted to show him that the Romans are not invincible so decided to take a Barbarian Warband army for the second battle, tongue firmly in cheek, again an appropriate clash for Maximinus Thrax.

The Twelfth mustered with four cohorts two of which were recruits, the supports were one Auxiliary cohort, some Auxiliary light infantry along with some skirmishers, the cavalry were horse archers and kontos armed Contari. Across the field were four legionary vexillations and some Lanciarii, these were supported by skirmishers, Contari, German cavalry and Roman horse archers, a bolt shooter completed the line up. I realised too late that my right flank was going to be in trouble, so I held the III Cohort back just in case, I then made things worse by losing my Light Infantry but to be fair they had refused to charge into the enemy javelins in the wood which then set them up as a target for the enemy Contari.

Legio XII Fulminata.

Thrax.

Thunderbolts on the left, Thrax on the right.

On the left I did manage to chase off the enemy horse archers but lost my own to the Germans, I now felt pressured to attack the enemy infantry before both my flanks failed. My assault proved a triumph and two of the enemy fled, despite being commanded by Thrax himself XXII Primagenia also fled in sympathy. Stewart looked despondent but my men could not catch the routers and most of them managed to rally and come back, my Contari tried to catch I Minerva in the flank but had to withdraw. So far my massed archers had failed miserably to inflict casualties on anyone they fired at, much like Stewart's bolt shooter, but unlike the Scorpio my archers broke for the rear having suffered horrendous casualties. 

Both sides advance.

My unfortunate horse archers.

German cavalry.

Still early days.

On my right Auxiliary I had fought magnificently but their enemy once again returned and just as things were again looking good they were hit in the rear by Contari, nonetheless they fought to the last man and tied up both these units for some time. Things are a bit hazy now, but the upshot was that I stabilised the right flank and routed the Contari and Javelins that were there, II Treverorum managed to hold out after being routed twice. Despite fighting a depleted II Cohort Thrax and his bodyguard were being beaten back. Stewart handed over his sword.

My Auxiliaries surrounded.

Roman v Roman.

Thrax leads XXII Primagenia.

My light infantry refuse to charge.

I made a mistake leaving my right at a disadvantage, however if I had put the Contari on the right my left would have been easily overwhelmed by two cavalry units against my skirmishers, so it was a hard decision and I was lucky that I got away with it. The Twelfth had proved themselves once again against a difficult opposition and remain No.1.

On Sunday it was a very different battle Barbarians against a well trained, professional Roman army. I fought one of the most memorable battles years ago against mate Matt Smith who took a Warband army against the Thunderbolts, the Twelfth gained their fearsome reputation in this battle which was a tremendous but ultimately victorious struggle, I wanted to try such a fight again. This time I was the Barbarians, and I kept it simple with five large warbands, some Noble cavalry and some skirmishers, I was going to keep it simple and just charge the enemy relying on my numbers and skill in the first clashes. Stewart brought three vexilations and three Lanciarii with two cavalry units and also some skirmishers. We deployed one unit at a time and by the end we were on the opposite sides of the battlefield.

Germans on the left Romans on the right.

Romans.

Germans.

 I thought the Romans were going to have difficulty getting past the terrain so set my warbands off immediately at speed to close them in even further. The Romans managed to grab a hill on their left so I decided to leave this alone, they were happy to stick to their hill so I took on the javelins with Warriors 2 and sent them packing. I also managed to rout some archers and a Lanciarii unit, on the debit side I lost a warband to Thrax and his bodyguard, however overall things looked good. On the other hand my pursuers continually failed to exert any enthusiasm and the enemy kept rallying, this would happen time and time again.

Roman archers run away.

My leader about to hit the Roman centre.

Things are looking good.

Intense combat.

My Leader fought magnificently in the centre but once again actually managing to maintain the success was sadly lacking, I had been doing very well on my left but again the Romans would flee only to come back as my men had left their trainers with the wagons. The Contari, who had routed three times now came to the party and caught a warband in the flank, this unfortunate unit now routed, my remaining warband on the left was now surrounded by Romans and although fighting like Trojans eventually succumbed to the pressure. I was now left with only two warbands and my Noble cavalry, the latter had been threatening Thrax and his men and would have found it difficult to ride past him to help on the left, maybe I should have at least tried but they kept Thrax out of the fight for most of the game. Soon I was left with only my leader and the remnants of his hard fighting warband, it was time for me to hand Stewart his sword back.

I am ready to charge the centre.

 

Get after them!

  

The above does not do justice to this intense conflict, at least twice it looked like the Romans were on the ropes but my lack of decent pursuit moves and Stewarts incredible morale throws allowed them to came back time and time again. I will admit some of his early routs were also the result of some bad morale throws on his part. This will go down in the annals as the Battle of the Whingers as we both implored the dice gods not to desert us, if only this or if only that, and yes, I actually changed my dice half way through.

We chose 3,000 point armies and took our time so each game lasted around five hours, with eats and some beers, a satisfying and best way to play a wargame. For me War and Conquest brings highs and lows, frustration and elation while allowing me to put large armies onto the table and throw buckets of dice, nothing else I have seen or played can beat it. Yes it is Old School, but tell me anywhere that 'New School' is better, in wargaming or elsewhere.

I made a supreme effort before the battle to finish off my last unit of Lanciarii so that Stewart would have the complete army to choose from, I also painted up my Slave Trader set from Foundry as the Rally Point. I was on a roll and managed to weather the Pz I and Bunkerflak, I also found another Panzer I in my 1939-1942 box, duh. I got a Luftwaffe 88 crew from Empress as they have jackboots for early war, I will only be able to put two figures on the vehicle as there is just not enough room, the others can act as extra gun crew for Chain of Command.

I have a busy week ahead, mate Robert will be here on Tuesday and Wednesday for some games in the evening although we have not decided what we are doing yet. I also have an important appointment with the NHS on Wednesday, or at least I am hoping it is. 

I continue with my work on the Arab-Israeli atlas, about a third of the way through now.