Soldiers of the Queen

Another lazy night at the club for me, Rob brought along his extensive Sudan collection for a Black Powder game, not a fan of the rules but I will eat my hat as they work fine for this and we always have a tense game. My default setting here is British and Jocks, no Johnny Foreigner for me, which is just as well as I was put in charge of the 'Highland' Brigade on the British left flank.

The scenario involved an Egyptian army dug in along a wadi protecting a small village and oasis, the Imperialists had a mix, the Jocks then a French brigade and lastly an 'Indian' brigade, the deployed in that order, me on the left, the Frenchies in the centre and the Indians on the right.

To take advantage of my excellent troops I quickly formed line and advanced as fast as I could, this left my artillery behind or without a clear line of sight but it couldn't be helped. Once at close range I opened up with my Royal Marine marksmen, a misnomer as it turned out, throughout the game these crack shooters caused one casualty and eventually simply retired having given up trying. The Scots on the other hand were brilliant, I did lose the Highland Light Infantry as they recoiled from an attempt to charge the wadi, however the Black Watch made up for it and stormed in routing their opposite numbers.

The Brigade will advance!

The Seaforths now took their turn and once again to the skirl of bagpipes the brave lads grabbed more of the wadi, albeit the Black Watch helped with this attack catching the Egyptians in the flank. A hole had opened up which would allow the French to pour through and rout the remaining enemy unit holding this part of the wadi, get intae them shouted the Jocks. Despite this urging the blighters simply marched up and took station behind my hard fighting troops in the wadi! Elsewhere the gaily caparisoned continentals were having a hard time closing with the enemy, 'whit are they up tae' thought my boys. Away over on the right flank the Indians were holding their own against several assaults by Egyptian infantry, cavalry and camelry, the British cavalry on this flank turned in a wonderful performance and threw back several enemy units causing them to eventually head for Cairo. As night fell and the Royal Marines rallied back the Black Watch took more of the Wadi while some of their French allies headed for the rear hastened by the jeers of derision from my troops.

The boys take the wadi 'supported' by the French.

Another good game and plenty of excitement, it was noted that the dice gods were being particularly favourable to me last night, something which I enjoyed as I threw my troops in with abandon against the enemy. Although the battle was declared for the Allies there was still a way to go to get the Egyptians to relinquish the village and oasis, we would have had to regroup for this but I think we would have managed in the end.

Elsewhere we had a Bloodbowl game, a boardgame and a Chain of Command 1941 Eastern Front game. I kept my eye on the latter and it seemed that it took nearly three hours to move one German squad from a bit of rough ground, everything else was basically in the same places they had been at the start.

Tomorrow I have a War and Conquest game and next week we take to the skies over the Western Front. I caught this on Facebook  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=croWDsDhgPo I have never seen this guy before, Lindybeige is his name, and although I may not agree with his ideas they were excellently put forward and gave me a new way to look at an old problem. I grabbed a cuppa later in the night and watched more of his videos, very entertaining and some are thought provoking, give him a try if you have ten or twenty minutes spare.

Tricorne

I was invited to Kevin's this afternoon to play his latest boardgame, Tricorne which is a Command and Colours game covering the American War of Independence. Now I have read several books on this affair and it has never gripped me, much like Napoleonics, and I do wonder if I am missing something which is why I wander back now and again having forgot my disappointment the last time, only to be disappointed again.

Anyway I am assured by the blurb that it is a typical C&C game, a wargame with blocks instead of soldiers but it isn't, despite everything you will find in a wargame rule set i.e. morale, leaders, firing, movement, melee etc., but it is a fast, exciting game. The main reason it isn't a wargame, although there are games with soldiers quite like it, is that you can only do what your hand of cards allows you to do. You cannot look at the board and decide to attack with your left as that is your strongest force unless you get the cards which allow you to move/attack with your left flank, no matter how good you plan your troops will simply not move in the end unless you get those specific cards, sure you can shuffle forward but your attack will not be coordinated.  Much of what I have just said is also a result of my own prejudices against command card games, well almost all of them, there is one, I digress.

Right, how did the game go, well we fought the simplest scenario in the booklet, Bemis Heights, a small British force had been told to go and reconnoitre an American position, the Americans got wind of it and met the British with a regular force along with a large militia brigade. At first glance it looked like the British would be overwhelmed, despite this as usual I decided to attack and went forward with my left and some Grenadiers, big mistake, within a few moves I had lost the Grenadiers, I wanted to move my right flank but did not draw the right cards and anyway there was too much going on on my left so I had to use what orders I had there. Eventually the lines stabilised and I decided not to go forward and simply hold my ground.

Kevin had managed to get a victory chit by this time and it still looked like it was all over for me, but as the Yanks tried to advance I managed to shoot them up and cause them to retire time after time (good cards), pretty soon I had four chits to the enemy one. I got a good card and decided to throw an assault in and get one more, hoping this would eventually gain me the six to win. Another disaster and some good play and cards by Kevin stopped me dead, it was the Yanks who benefited and he gained another two chits.

We called a halt, neither of us had managed to get our victory conditions, I had a pretty thin line while the Continentals had lost most of their regular units and were now left with the bulk of their militia to force the day, a big ask. We started slow but by the end we were flying through the turns and another 45 minutes or so might have seen the end proper.

I have no doubt we missed some stuff, especially the value of leaders but apart from my doubts above on whether the C&C system is a real wargame, it is a good game and I look forward to another clash.

View From The Window

Well it is grey and dry, for now, possibly in for a mild September but the cold is coming. Washington House is still forlorn with its For Sale sign looking weathered, if it ever does sell some of the locals will be nonplussed as the small drive is now used for off road parking. I have said goodbye to the Batmobile, a car I thought I would have until the end, sadly, economics caught up with her along with commonsense, we don't need two cars, simples. The wife's car is also going when we pick up our new car at the end of the month, it is a nice car, has all sorts of gadgets and can park itself, it also already has a name, 'Ghost' (it is charcoal greyish) but it's not the Batmobile. I may be less able to persuade my grandchildren I am Batman now.

I had a laugh with one of our Chinese guides about their capacity to flood the planet with fakes, she was nonplussed and I had to admit I had watched the odd pirated movie courtesy of her more criminal countrymen. I did however have one tense moment over fakes, we were watching a show in a rather grand theatre and I ordered some wine for the missus and some 'Original Pringles' for me, feeling the need to pander to my salt craving. The bowl of wafers which turned up were not Pringles, now I am not keen on Pringles but they were going to have to do, but not fakes, I called the girl over and despite her not understanding English she immediately understood what I meant. I was prepared for a diplomatic incident but instead she took the bowl away and presented me with my money, crises averted.

Do you believe all the guff about women in the forces being the equal of men, especially at the front line as say, infantry or marines, every time the forces are shown these days front and centre is a woman in uniform, TV dramas fall over themselves to show how tough these ladies are. Well here is where it all falls down, Michelle Keegan, playing the tough, yet always perfectly made up trooper in 'Our Girl' almost pulled out of playing her fearless, action hero character, because there are big spiders in Kenya where they were filming, the defence rests M'lud.

Just to back this up in a round about way, you may remember bimbo Kim Kardashian was robbed in Paris some time back, recently she was invited to a friends house in Mexico but was terrified that the country may be unsafe for her. This 'fear' has been put down to PTSD, yes, the same illness suffered by troops in battle having been to hell and back, you couldn't make it up.

Just when will the Eco-Warriors draw the line, they are not just happy to cover the country in useless windmills and bill us extra for building said junk while ensuring we will not have enough energy in ten years to keep the lights on, now they want to ban wood burners. Coal bad, Nuclear bad, gas bad, burn wood it is a natural sustainable fuel source, well it isn't, ask the third world where all their trees are going, but now wood is bad. Sadiq Khan wants to ban wood burners from areas of London, if wood is out what are we left with? If you are a young person I recommend searching around for the most habitable cave in the area now.

Did you hear the one about the blind Immigration judge who had "no idea of the law or his own powers" it is all very well to condemn the man now but he should never have reached such a position in the first place. Now I am unsure whether the fact that he is a Moslem, coloured, disabled and had already won a case for discrimination played a factor but I can guess. Stable door and horse come to mind.

I see the Conservatives have promised more billions for the NHS. I read this morning that a couple who have let their son dress as a girl for the past eight years now want 'puberty halting' drugs for him courtesy of you and me on the NHS. No doubt these are highly expensive and already up to 800 children are eating them like smarties. Putting aside the fact that you have to have drugs and then have your body altered by the knife to feed your idea of what or who you are why is it down to the NHS to provide all this. Stop this along with the boob jobs, the nose jobs, the gastric bands, the nicotine patches and all the rest and perhaps use it to keep people with real illnesses alive.

Fancy a change, come right in, free gratis.

After my visit to China I get the impression that the vast majority of Chinese are like the majority of us, I doubt they are interested in having a showdown with the Americans in the Pacific or invading Taiwan or causing a planet meltdown by hacking every server in the world. They want a job, a bit of spending money and a holiday, they enjoy meeting people from different countries, they laugh and smile. You do have to wonder if we would be better off without politicians and big government.

HMS Tartar 4th Commission 1970 15

 A week or so ago our cooks spent a lot of money, time and effort stirring a gigantic Christmas pudding, the recipe called for a gallon of rum, however that has now been banned from our modern high tech navy so it was replaced by brandy. The shore base here, HMS Jufair, held a large ceremony for the passing of the rum ration, it was a faux funeral and they buried a 'rum fanny' the large wooden tub used to mix the water and rum when dishing it out to the messes for lunch. Up until then if you did anyone a favour the payment was so much of his rum ration, usually 'sippers' or 'gulpers' which are self explanatory. I never liked the stuff and preferred the beer, the idea of banning it was to stop people getting drunk but you could get a hold of plenty of beer if you really wanted to so it was a bit of a waste of effort and the end of a unique piece of history. One strange ingredient of the pud was carrots, no, I don't know either. Anyway I wouldn't be eating it as I don't like fruit puddings like that. On the Tartar for the end of the rum ration we 'spliced the mainbrace' and everyone no matter what their age got a tot, yuch.

We received a visit from an MP while alongside and he was hounded about our useless stint on Beira Patrol and the loss of the rum ration amongst other things, he beat a hasty retreat. As we will be in Singapore at the end of the year we are expecting the arrival of a Chinese tailor, this chap will make just about anything you want and their skills are legendary. The problem however is where to put him, he will no doubt bunk with the rest of the Chinese in the laundry but where he will carry out his job has not been settled, a small room/locker under the flagdeck looks favourite for now.

Three days ago we had a families day and went to sea taking army and RAF personnel along with their loved ones and some civilians on a jolly, some 350 people took advantage of the trip around the harbour. We entertained them with mortar firings, helicopter demos and man overboard exercises, all while the band of the Royal Irish Rangers played on the rear end. A full speed run back to Bahrain ended the day, one of those soldiers aboard I met years later when working on Ninian Central Platform for Chevron UK, small world.

On the 4th October we took part in Exercise Bugle Call, an amphibious landing exercise with our Royal Marines and some Scots Guards at Sharjah. We are now on a cruise around the Gulf with the new Commander Naval Forces Gulf to show him his patch.

China

We have been back five days now but by 2000 hrs I am fighting to keep out of my bed for at least another hour before giving in to the jet lag. We have been almost continually tired since the start of the holiday as our itinerary involved travelling long distances across China in order to see the main attractions. We had booked through Wendy Wu tours, a name which always brought a smile to my face, but explained by the use of familiar English names by all involved in the tourist industry. We had decided to have a private guide rather than join a group and I think we made the right choice, all of our guides were excellent and nothing was too much trouble for them, this was also true of the crew of our cruise ship on the Yangtze.

We arrived in Shanghai late on the Saturday night and on the way to the hotel we got a flat in the middle of a bridge with the only road works I saw in our whole trip until we arrived back in the UK, not a great start thought we, sure enough the four star hotel left a lot to be desired, the room was grubby and it was a fair distance from the centre of the city. The next day we toured Shanghai, a financial centre with an ultra modern heart sitting along side the Western buildings in the Bund, relics of the pressure put upon the Chinese to trade with the outside world. We took a detour to go to the top of the Shanghai Tower, the second or third tallest building in the world depending on where you look, the lift ascends at 55m a second and your ears pop. The light show on the buildings along the Huangpo River at night is very impressive. We were let loose later that night in a shopping district on our own and had great difficulty finding a restaurant and had to resort to, yes, fish and chips, I couldn't believe it.

The next day was lost as we had to catch a flight to Wuhan and then a bullet train to Yichang, thence a bus to meet up with our cruise ship. On the bus was a particularly vocal bunch of Chinese from Shanghai, we were the only two Foreign Devils on the transport. We arrived quite late at the ship and asked to see the selection of cabins in case we wanted to upgrade, as we looked in on our original cabin amidst the banshees from Shanghai I only got out "Eve..." which was returned with "I know!" We upgraded to one of the two staterooms at the front of the ship which was lovely and had it's own large deck rather than a balcony, and it was quiet. We met the only other two Westerners at breakfast the next day and they had not slept a wink due to the noise from neighbouring cabins and could not enjoy their balcony due to underwear flapping on the adjacent handrails having been washed and hung out to dry. Noise, no, not a peep, slept like logs.

The ship may not have been lovely to look at as it was a bit top heavy but it was well up to standard inside and the crew were fabulous, each day we were taken on a morning tour with an optional tour available in the afternoon which was extra, we took advantage of two afternoon tours. We became firm favourites with our fellow travellers on giving up our seats on a cable car so that two elderly ladies could sit down, it also helped that we joined in the evening entertainment and afternoon lectures while our two companions disappeared to their cabin at the earliest opportunity, catching up on sleep perhaps. The highlight of this part along with the scenery was the Tribe of the Three Gorges, a paradise of a place and one of the most beautiful and tranquil areas I have ever visited.

On leaving the ship four days later we caught another bullet train to Chengdu the capital of Sichuan Province, we had a classic spicy meal on our first night there, I have never seen so many chilli's on a plate, thankfully you didn't have to eat them, just pick out the meat. The next day was the Panda's, something the wife had been looking forward to, I took an instant dislike to the large, pandered monsters, all they seemed to do was eat and sleep. They are looked after so well that they cannot be bothered to procreate and are shown 'Panda porn' and given Viagra in their bamboo meals, smarter than the average bear Boo Boo. It was back on the trail again after the Panda's, a flight to Xian and what I had been waiting for.

Xian was lovely, the hotel was in the inner city behind the enormous walls, I expected more of these on our travels but most had been destroyed due to war or modern construction. The highlight of this part was the Terracotta Army, this simply takes your breath away once you enter the huge building built to protect them from the elements. You immediately notice that there are more still to be uncovered, these are left for the moment as contact with the air causes the original colours to fade and they want to find a way to preserve these. I met one of the farmers who found the site while digging a well. We were bombarded by facts but the one which stood out for me was that only one of the figures unearthed so far was complete, a kneeling archer, all the rest had to be rebuilt. The four large pits on this part of the grave site are only a taste of what else lies still buried, the Emperor's tomb is being left alone for now due to the fear that it contains large amounts of mercury. A dumpling dinner finished the day.

The next day was a visit to the Muslim Quarter with its local stalls, narrow lanes and food shops, after which we again headed to the airport to transfer to Beijing. We had upgraded our hotel for the last few nights and it was very impressive, we had a contretemps due to overbooking but which turned out in our favour as we got a suite upgrade free of charge for our stay, the icing on the cake so to speak. The Forbidden City was stunning and the history imparted by our guide was fascinating, in the afternoon we toured the Summer Palace and this again was a wonder, set in beautiful gardens covering a huge area and containing its own lake, a favourite hide out of the imperial family. In the evening we were taken to an acrobat show, we were not keen and toyed with giving it a miss, as it turned out this would have been criminal, the show was breath taking in parts, the highlight was six motorbikes crammed into a large metal ball, all going at speed and crisscrossing with abandon, I was on the edge of my seat.

Our last day and a trip outside Beijing to the Great Wall girding the Juyong Pass, the scenery was again beautiful, other parts of the wall are more popular but this part has been restored and has excellent facilities. I was dismayed by the climb to the top, it was hard going, ten to fifteen steps at a time and then a rest, every time we got to a watchtower, there was another higher up, I called a halt after four of them. From our height we could look across the ridges and see the line of further fortifications and the large walled area protecting the pass below. The afternoon was spent at the Temple of heaven complex and our trip was topped off with a Peking Duck dinner.

 What was it really like you ask. Well the Chinese people were lovely and friendly although not many speak English, but you can get by with gestures if you have to, you do have to learn to push your way to the front anywhere we would normally queue, especially at the train stations and airports. The food leaves a lot to be desired as they like it served lukewarm, only in Beijing did we get piping hot food, the street food looks delicious and I was sorely tempted but only once did I test some little fried fish. After the horror stories about toilets I found I had no problems, most along the tourist route are far cleaner than our public toilets and although there are a lot of squats there are also seats in some cubicles and always in the disabled toilet. There were only one or two times I found them in a bad state but these were not on the tourist route. There was not as much spitting as I feared, this was confined mainly to the older generation and there were not a lot of these on the tourist trails. The country is a powerhouse, the cities are generally like high rise farms always with more buildings being built, I did not feel crowded however, no more than I would do in London or Glasgow.

So there you have it, a superb holiday with everything you could ask for, a real adventure, albeit a comfortable one.

Too Many Big Cats

I'm back and suffering holiday blues along with jet lag, I really do not want to serve the great British public at the moment, but needs must. I was going to give the club a miss this week as by late afternoon all I want to do is lie down in a darkened room and for people to leave me alone. But I thought it might help to keep me from doing just that so I dropped a text to Simon and off I went.

I wasn't too keen to organise anything myself so took the lazy route and joined in a Battlegroup game being run by Rob and Andy, somewhere in NW Europe in '44 I think. The scenario was historically based on an attack by a group of Panthers on a Canadian position, they had comms problems and took severe fire from some 17pdr's which spooked them and they beat a hasty retreat.

I thought once we (the Canadians) had deployed that we could have problems recreating history, sure enough the first four Panthers rumbled on to the table while our totally useless shells bounced off them. At first the German fire was rather dismal, but soon they got the range and our Sherman's were knocked out one after the other while our anti-tank guns were pinned by machine gun fire. Our infantry crouching in their foxholes looked on in dismay as the impervious monsters came ever closer. Just as the last of our first wave brewed up our second wave of tanks arrived and once again achieved nothing except to add to the burning piles of Allied steel. Our off table, hidden, 17pdr was particularly useless.

By the end of the night the Canadians had lost almost all their tanks and had nothing left with which to halt the German advance, the Hun had lost a few infantrymen and their tanks a bit of paintwork. The scenario obviously did not work, we found it almost impossible to hit and then knock out the German tanks, I found it odd that the rules made the 17pdr and the Panther's 75mm gun the same as I was under the impression that the former was as good if not better than the 88.

What else is on the wargaming horizon now that reality is once again biting, well, Kevin has bought the new Command and Colours game on the American War of Independence 'Tricorne', I have the rules to download and will be reading them over the weekend as we have a game on Monday afternoon. You can fight the entire war with this game so expect a few reports in the future. We will also be continuing with War and Conquest as Kevin completes his several armies and brings them along to test the Twelfth. I have a cavalry unit of Carolingians to finish for my son, the horses are done and I just have to find time to do the riders, I also need a couple of Centurion figures for the Thunderbolts at some point. I have decided to do a new army over the winter and am coming down on the side of a Pyrrhic force, although I cannot see me buying any figures until late November.

Map projects are coming out of my ears at the moment, several have built up while I was away and several more have come in in the last few days, they range across the ages from 1711 to 1988.

HMS Tartar 4th Commission 1970 14

Mid way through September now and back at sea, our only visit apart from Bahrain after Karachi was Sharjah one of the United Arab Emirates and where we had an Army and RAF base. We had a very raucous run ashore at the local NAAFI bar where our resident Tartar 'pop group' played, two of the members were from the RO's mess or at least Chris Short was, the drummer if I recall. There was nothing else of interest in Sharjah and the trip was quickly over and forgotten.

Next we visited Doha in the state of Qatar, Doha was very much on the way up back in 1970, a new airport was being built along with a road programme and the ruler was considered 'progressive', or as much as such a ruler can be. This visit was much quieter than Sharjah, there was no alcohol to be had at all, so with only sporting activities to be had we RO's had a pretty boring visit. The place is very much different now of course and I visited it some years back when my son lived there, who would have thought.

Doha 1970

 A quick weekend in Bahrain and back to sea, this time with two American ships, USS Noa and USS Power, both these ships were Gearing class destroyers built during and after WWII. The Yanks had one more ship in Bahrain, I cannot remember its name but it was quite often tied up alongside us, it was some kind of patrol ship and was ancient, it reminded me of the vessel from the film 'The Sand Pebbles'. It also had an open quadruple AA gun on the front and stencilled in big letters along the shield was 'MAN KILLER', I always had the urge to add 'eventually.'

USS Noa

I had a personal encounter with our Allies while in Bahrain. Coming out of a restaurant we frequented, a more down market establishment than the Moons Plaza but nearer and cheaper, my oppos Keith Wilman and Mick D’Cruz tried to enlighten a drunk Yank that he was paying too much for his taxi back to base, the Yank took offense and a yelling match started. It was too much for me and the Yanks companion, a very large black man and we both held back resignedly. Keith ignored my advice that he let the guy pay over the odds and wanted to help him despite himself, a bit of shoving now ensued and I heard the fatal words uttered by Mick "I'm with you Keith." In the time it took me to roll my eyes, turn around and look back, both my mates were on the deck bleeding profusely from their noses, the very large black American standing over them, he came at me as I stood transfixed and in shock and I thought my time had come. He raised his arm, looked into my eyes, shrugged, dragged his drunken mate into the taxi and left. I could only pick my mates up, cart them into a taxi, pay the proper fare, and get them back onboard, one clean white shirt and two red ones.

Anyway we exercised all over the place with the two destroyers, popping back to Bahrain for the evening then out again to meet the RAF and a couple of Hawker Hunters doing fake strafing runs on us, it may be an old aircraft but they were pretty sharp when attacking us. We will be returning to Bahrain on the 18th for several weeks for a maintenance period. Pretty much a nice break for us RO's, maybe a bit of work on the flagdeck helping out the Buntings but you can't do very much maintenance on radios when all you do is use them, not fix them. I pity the poor stokers and seamen, no, I don't.

Mucking about on the flagdeck, me, Lofty, Mick (glasses to hide black eye) and Dave.

 Note: Mick became an officer and a gentleman and had a successful career, Dave a meat inspector in New Zealand, looks after posh peoples houses now and no idea where Lofty is.

Fulminata Victrix

Despite the dire warnings given out with glee by the weather people about 'Storm' Aileen I braved the rain to take the Twelfth to the club for my last game before the holiday, I was fighting Ryan's Successors with longer sharp sticks than Kevin's hoplites. They are not painted yet as he is a busy young man and not an old lag with more time than he knows what to do with, however he does have all the troops in his plastic mountain. Hence the maps as his army resembles the Unsullied at the moment.

I actually got a fairly well balanced army for 2,000 points, Early Imperial Romans have some great choices for troop types and it is a tough army. I knew Ryan had cavalry this time so did not feel guilty about bringing some cataphracts, I also took bolt shooters and massed archers in fear of his elephant. It may be boring but it is about the only valid tactic for fighting a phalanx army so I again went for the flanks, I was helped in this as Ryan threw his Elephant and Companions straight at my line. The Lanciarii dodged and my cataphracts countercharged, the Companions narrowly missed a lovely hit by a Scorpio, they saved them all, but they were no match for my cavalry and were soon dispersed.

As the cataphracts positioned for a roll up of the Successor flank the elephant on the other side started to receive a hail of fire from javelins, arrows and bolts, it screamed in pain and went amuk, luckily for both of us away from our lines, the beast therefore crashed out of the battle. My missile troops now turned their attention on the advancing phalanxes.

My cavalry now drove into the flank of one of the phalanxes, while a cohort moved up to support, the writing was on the wall and Ryan conceded. Ryan was rushed into this game and if he had turned up earlier he may have thought more about his deployment, having fought with the Thunderbolts now for several weeks I am very comfortable with them.

Elsewhere we had two boardgames and some of the lads having a run through with Bolt Action. That's it now for about three weeks wargaming wise, the last part of the year promises more action as Kevin sorts out his Republican Romans and Carthaginians while Ryan is determined to grab a paintbrush and work on tactics. As for the Twelfth, bring it on!

Revenge and Disappointment

I went to Stewart's this Sunday for some wargaming, we take it in turns and it is a drive of about 75 mins so not too strenuous on the nerves. We wargame in the conference room of his workplace in the rather posh surroundings of the Zetland estate, he should, now that he has moved be able to eventually have a table somewhere in his new home.

His Carolingians beat the Saxons the last time we played and I brought them along for revenge, it is usually an even handed battle between these two armies and he would just whinge if I turned up with the Romans (walking tanks according to him). I had taken a fairly typical Saxon army, a couple of elite units, some average and some not so average commands, a small amount of skirmishers and a small cavalry reserve. Stewart had brought two very large cavalry units, some elite foot and a bunch of average cannon fodder, he had more firepower than me as he had a unit of massed archers.

I deployed refusing my right while intending to throw my left forward and outfight and outflank him. Things went well for me and I got one of my Gedriht units up swiftly and in to combat with his right most unit, he saw the danger as some of my Duguth were getting ready to outflank the line and marched some brave peasants forward to help. I suffered a lot less from the massed archers than I anticipated. As the lines clashed my Gedriht did not destroy their opponents as I had hoped, but neither did they run as they suffered horrendous casualties, this only marginally made me feel better. I threw SIPs at them to help their morale and ensure they stood their ground. I was just about to smash into the enemy flank when the peasants turned up and put an end to that plan.

Carolingians at the top, Saxons at the bottom.

Meanwhile the Carolingian battle line had advanced and threw caution to the winds and charged with abandon, there was to be no finesse in this engagement. Shieldwall's clashed and men fell, but as the dust settled all my units had held, one managed to actually win. As the huge melee continued for a second turn and my Duguth slammed into the peasants the Carolingians lost faith, units fled for the rear while their mates thought better of continuing and also fled. Apart from the cavalry and the men struggling with my Gedriht the enemy army had ceased to be a fighting force. A spectacular and unexpected revenge for the Saxons.

We had time for a second game, so we changed the scenery and set up again. this time I refused my left and put all my good troops on my right, again the plan was for a quick attack while hoping the left would hold. The Carolingians had squeezed most of their army on my far left, I was not unduly worried at this stage.

Carolingians on the left, Saxons on the right.

I advanced quickly and my two Gedriht units plowed into the enemy, vanquishing them tout suite, now things began to fall apart, I did not manage to catch the routers. One routed off table and made its morale check which meant they were coming back, this forced me to keep one of my victorious units out of the battle to handle them instead of pushing forward. The Carolingians recovered and I found myself getting outflanked as I had not pushed my line forward enough, ever watchful of the large number of enemy streaming toward my weak left.

Last of the Saxons.

Several times I thought I had recovered only to have my hopes dashed as my troops seemed to have lost their appetite for victory, the original routers now came back and this time destroyed their tormentors. Meanwhile my left collapsed, leaving me with only two average units to stave off the entire Carolingian force, I accepted defeat.

Two good battles both with large amounts of fighting, Stewart's morale in the first was shocking, when he managed to halt the Gedriht I thought I was in trouble, but as he failed to break them my line was not tested, however his was and it failed spectacularly. The second game started very well for me but again because I could not destroy my opponents and they got away it caused problems for me, the battle was a big mess with units all over throwing themselves into combat, I tried several times to catch flanks but didn't manage to hit home. So with a result of 1-1 we could both be happy, or happyish?

The conference room at Stewart's work had some beautiful hand drawn and written prints relating to all the ships in the RN from 1400 ish to 1900, they were lovely, they had been given to the boss by a friend, I think the very man who put them together.

So that is it, I am a bit WAC'ed out for the moment, I have one small battle to put my tired boys through tomorrow night at the club then that is it until after the hols, I would like to do some ACW when I get back and when Stewart has the time for another clash.