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.