Monday 5 February 2024

Saxon sv Vikings battle AAR - Impetus Rules

Last Monday Maurice hosted an Impetus game for us, more importantly he also laid on some neat dinner!

Dave took command of the Vikings and I led the Saxons! It was quite a large battle and Maurice's figures and terrain were excellent.

It was a grinding action. The Saxons in the village which was the Vikings main object held out long enough for their right flank to defeat the Vikings facing them and bear down on the rear of the Vikings right!

Some pictures...

The Saxon right advances! 11 Units faced 5 Viking ones, but the latter were of better quality and included 2 units of vaunted Berserkers

The Viking Berserkers charged but were repelled and then overrun by the Saxons...hmmm...

The terrifying Vikings warriors then followed up the Berserkers and attacked and they too were repulsed!

On their other flank the majority of the Viking Army advanced on the village...

The defenders were out numbered but the Saxons in the village were the best the Army had to offer up!

Saxons counter charged the main Viking force!

Meanwhile the Viking left was overwhelmed, not a good day for the Norsemen!

The Vikings were held by the village defenders!
Here we found the fact units get locked in combat until one side or the other is defeated made it hard to deploy fresh second line units into the fray to beat worn defenders!

Another view of the fight for the village...

Close up of some of Maurice's excellent figures!

It was a close battle. We like the Impetus rule set, the combat takes getting your head around but once that is done it gives us a good fight that can be completed in an evening!

Sunday 10 December 2023

Second Franco-Mexican War - Song of Drums & Kepis AAR

In October we played a Song of Drums and Kepis game using the Convoy Scenario, we set the game in the period on the Second French Intervention in Mexico circa 1862.

Al and Maurice commanded the French and were in charge of the convoy, Dave and George led the locals.

The Mexicans line up before the Action Captain Martinez and Sharpshooter Paulo up front!

The 'Armies'

The French
1 x Officer Lt Dreyfus 
1 x Sergeant Sgt Depp
7 x Elite Legionnaires
1 x Supply Cart and Civilian Driver 'Bob'

The Mexicans
1 x Officer - Captain Martinez
1 x Crack Shot - Paulo
10 x Regular Infantry

The AAR

Turns one and two, the French got off to a good start the convoy moving along with a couple of successful activations and with no Mexicans appearing on the horizon, it was looking like a walk in the park thought Lieutenant Dreyfus.

Turn three a group of Mexicans appeared in the woods to the right of the road, Lieutenant  Dreyfus allocated 4 Legionnaires to deal with them! Simultaneously Mexican Captain Martinez had sprung his trap he ordered his men to take carefully aimed shots at the French opposite them, every shot missed!

Turn four while Bob led the convey the escorts to the right of the road charged the Mexicans facing them! Martinez seeing the French advancing barked orders to his men to reload and fire as a group, they failed to heed his command thanks to a poor activation roll, he started to shake in his boots! Due to this poor command performance the second group of Mexicans including a crack shot known only as Paulo failed to move into action!

Turn five and Captain Martinez was hit by a bullet rendering hors de combat and his men were overrun by the rampaging Legionnaires! The second group of Mexicans failed their first activation again causing a turnover ending the hapless Mexican involvement in the turn!

Turn six and Bob, Sgt Depp and the convoy exited the table whilst one Mexican out of a group of five managed to activate, too little too late!

A decisive French victory! Well done Al and Maurice.

Some Pictures (I didn't take many was watching how the action played out!)

The French Legionnaires escorting vital supplies enter the fray...
 
All seems ominously quiet!

A volley of shots rings out breaking deadly silence at the order of Captain Martinez!

Three Frenchman hit the dirt but the fire inflicts no lasting damage!

Lieutenant 'X' orders his left to charge the Mexicans in the woods while Bob continues to lead the precious cargo further along the road...

Under pressure the Mexicans try a Group Action to prepare a second volley to meet the oncoming Frenchies...they roll disastrously...no actions, plus this being the first try to activate this phase/turn that means that no other Mexicans get a chance to activate! Oh dear!

The Legionnaires reach the Mexicans at the tree line and decimate them!

A sole Mexican stands firm defeating three attacks!

Bob and his Escort safely cross the required ground...

After Game Stuff

A convincing victory to the French Foreign Legionnaires!

Until recently and since day one we have been playing Song of Drums and Shakos wrongly (all my fault), we had full turns and allowed all miniatures a chance to activate and then move onto the next turn BUT apparently every ‘turnover’ resets all the miniatures to ‘ready to activate’ status. Wow has this changed the feel of the games played, from one of my favourite sets of rules it’s tumbled to ‘Ah Song of Drums again…’ status! Now unless you play with forces with balanced Quality (read Activation) Numbers it turns into a one sided affair just like this game was. Then if you have two elite sides it is virtually IGOUGO with only a double one causing a turnover and lastly if you have two sides of poor quality troops playing it’s painful with turnover followed by turnover resetting all miniatures often resulting in IGOUGO by miniature. Now effectively Units have two Levels of Activation; a test using their Quality Number and the Turnover excluding a chance for dice rolls 😳!

As an aside we played Fistful of Lead recently and I am thinking of using that for skirmish games now, a couple more trial games to follow!

Thursday 7 December 2023

Dead Man's Hand AAR "There's Gold In that Thar Town!" or "Trouble Out West"...

In September we played a game of Dead Mans Hand, there were three gangs heading into the Town, they could gain or lose Victory Points by killing others Gang’s Characters or Townsfolk and there was also loot to be 'recovered'! Okay so basically there was Gold "In that thar Town!" but who would get it?

The Ex Confederate Cavalry (George)

The Outlaws (Dave)

Or the Ranchers (Pete)

The Town...

The AAR

Well the action ran quick and hot!

The Outlaws and Ranchers were soon at each other and casualties started to mount as a fast and furious firefight erupted!

Taking advantage of the other two gangs preoccupation with each other the Ex Rebel Cavalrymen skulked through the town seeking fortune! They ran into a couple of armed locals whom they quickly dispatched!

With the Outlaws and Ranchers now spent forces the Ex Rebs took control of the Town’s Main Street where they were in a position to ransack the Town un opposed!

A win to the Ex Reb Cavalrymen, well done George!

Some Pictures

The Ranchers (five figures in the foreground) enter town and find the Wells Fargo building full of Outlaws, the shooting’ begins!

The Ex Confederate Cavalrymen carefully entered the Town keeping clear of said shootin’…

The Ranchers and Outlaws get up close but still find it hard to hit anything 😲!

Finally with so much lead in the air the first bullets find targets…

Meanwhile the Cavalrymen gun down a Townsperson out front of the Haberdashery! They then continue to make their way down Main Street…

The Ex Confederates view of the Town’s Main Street, Ranchers and Outlaws can be seen in the distance! The farm folk were in the process of putting the bad guys to flight, we were down to just the badly battered Ranchers and the fresh Cavalrymen (play onimous sounding music 😉).

An overview of the Town, all the buildings except the ones in the top right with the small corral are scratch built…

The final act, a Cavalryman known as Slim Jim takes aim at a Rancher from the Banks roof and fires, his aim is true and another Rancher eats dirt and the rest decide to leave the Town pronto!

Afterwards Stuff

Using the players points accumulation at the end of the game the Ranchers and Outlaws both had higher totals than the Ex Rebs but given they could the recover anything they wanted from the Bank etc they were the winners on the night!

Monday 27 November 2023

TSOG Revisit the Sudan Circa 188something!

Last Monday we were caught short for a game so I quickly pulled out TMWWBK rules and a bucket full of Sudan figures!

We selected Scenario C called 'To the Last Bullet' and went with 25 points vs 19, the British would be on the defensive.

The British
1 x Fierce Highland Unit
4 x Egyptian Units

The Mahdi
1 x Camelry Unit
1 x Poor Artillery Unit
6 x Tribal Infantry Units

Okay briefly the game went like this, the Mahdi swept forward and swamped the Egyptians then hurled themselves at the Highlanders defending the fortified village and after taking enormous casualties overwhelmed the 'men in skirts'!

The reason for such a short AAR is we stuffed up rather royally with the rules and 'Moving at the Double' was moving at the double instead of using the variable D6 roll, enough said Dave and I now hang our heads in shame winning in such an ungentlemanly fashion! Next time we play a set of rules we will reread them instead of going off the top of our heads. This said the British and Egyptians did very well in the circumstances!

Some pictures then we'll move on...

The Impressive Imperial Force started a prompt withdraw on turn 1!

Thanks to their super human movement abilities the Mahdi were quickly amongst the Egyptians...here a band of warriors race past Colonel Goodhope as he covered the rear of his retiring troops (mainly because of poor activation rolls!)

Overall view of the battlefield...

The Egyptians looked splendid...

Until they were engaged at close quarters by the rampaging Mahdi!

The Highlanders got to cover in the village/farm and prepared to receive their foes...

Mahdi charged the 'men in skirts' repeatedly taking heavy losses but wearing them down!

It was the Mahdi Camelry's first outing!

Colonel Goodhope was tardy getting back to the fortified farm (read more poor activation rolls!), note the casualty markers pilling up in front of the Highlanders!

A final surge...

...and the Highlanders were overcome!

At least the game looked spectacular!

PS some would say the British succumbed on the night to a dirty low handed Mahdi trickery!

Thursday 5 October 2023

Iron Cross Rules - 1944 NW Europe Game

Monday we played a scenario from the Iron Cross Rulebook, set in North West France in 1944 with the Germans on the attack and British on the back foot! The scenario was the Breakthrough one. Dave played the Germans George the British, re the special rules Dave selected the Command Point bonus of an Aggressive Force against having a Pre-Game Bombardment of the defenders.

With no infantry support (!) a Pz IV advances on the British line...

Forces

German Attackers 415pts
1 x Foot HQ
4 x Infantry Sections two with ATW
1 x HMG Section
2 x Mortar Sections
3 x Pz IV Late Models
1 x Stug III Late Model

British 401pts
1 x Foot HQ
6 x Infantry Sections two with ATW
2 x HMG Sections
1 x Mortar Section
1 x 6lber ATG with Truck
2 x Shermans with 76mm Gun

The AAR

The Germans massed near the centre and right of the battlefield from their perspective advanced rapidly taking advantage of the sparse terrain of north eastern France! The British held fire to keep their concealment in the trees and villages while concentrating their spread out force.

Turn two and the British opened fire on the attackers and also counterattacked, on their right infantry advanced on the open German flank while on their left a Sherman advanced to take on the German armour!

Quickly the Germans were in trouble even though they destroyed both the British tanks they had lost two of their own and two sections of infantry! Then to top it all off for them a British section advanced into a position with a line of sight of the Germans HQ and Mortar sections and started directing indirect fire onto them!

A last lung forward by the Germans cost them another Pz IV and foot section they were now too weak to achieve the victory condition of getting a third of their Break Point value into the British defensive zone in the allowed time. We complete 5 of the 7 allocated turns (an eighth turn was in the offing).

A good British Victory!

Some Pictures (not many unfortunately was busy umpiring!)

British anti-tank gunners await a suspected German attack!

The German force advances with their HQ and Mortar Sections in the foreground

The British launch a counter attack!?!

The main British defensive position was strong on a forested hilltop...

The lead German Pz IV brews up!

The battlefield at the games end, the British defensive line in the foreground...

After Game Stuff

A good game to get back into the rules but we forgot we had played this scenario before and it is an uphill battle for the attacker! We played the rules as written but in four weeks will play them again with our house rules.

Dave did make a serious mistake and did not take advantage of being second to set up, he placed his main attack facing the deployed British ATG instead of facing the weaker British flank! Given that it we believe this is a hard scenario to win as written.