Club Night 10th February

Steve K organised a Black Powder using our 6mm troops from the Battle of Alma the club put on a while back. The scenario was based on Inkerman, with me taking the Russian Naval Brigade, new club member Lyndon, the two regular brigades adjacent to me, while Bob took the later arriving brigades. Against us Steve and Ben took the British, with a Guard and French Brigade in reserve.

It started badly for me with my unreliable units not moving, once I got them moving I made slow progress, and even blundered ordering my gun, so four turns in it had retreated back to where it started! The other Russians were not doing much better, making slow progress, although their artillery was proving surprisingly good at suppressing the enemy artillery with counter battery fire.

We finally pushed forward to the tiny units of skirmishers holding the ground ahead of us, only for them to fall back, although we eventually caught them. By now Bob had arrived and was having about the same luck we did in getting his force across the bridge on the post road and deployed ready for battle.

Then my sailors suddenly got three moves and swept up the ridge behind Lyndon's troops, attacking and destroying an artillery battery on the flank and a unit of skirmishers. Meanwhile some of the main British force had advanced and Lyndon was valiantly fighting it off on the road up the hill, however he then launched a counter attack, which was repelled with a unit destroyed and the supporting units streaming backward.

On the other flank Bob had made it up to the high ground and was gradually forcing Ben back, although Lyndon was giving spectacular support from his artillery and rifle armed battalion, the British refused to break (rolled double-6 twice for break tests at a hefty -4 modifier).

By now the evening was advanced, and with the French and Guards coming up, while the Russians were battered ad quite spread out, it did not look like they would be successful and it was declared an allied victory.

This was a good scenario by Steve, although the skirmishers seemed a bit too effective (they were a tiny unit with a stamina of 1) and we will need review the rules and check we were doing them right.

Club Night 3rd February

After a long break for one reason and another I headed up the club without a planned game to join in something that was on. Colin, Steve K and new guy, Dan, were playing a small (just 3' x 5') ACW with Fire and Fury scenario for the battle of Spring Hill from a very old Wargames Illustrated. They kindly let me join in , so I joined Steve as a Confederate.

The scenario was very interesting, with the confederates needing to get across the table and cross the turn pike for a victory, or bring it under musket fire for a minor victory. Although they had a numerical advantage it was not that simple as turns 4 and 5 where dusk, applying a -1 modifier (on a D10) to command rolls, reducing all firing to 6" and command distance to 9". From turn 6 to the end of the game in turn 9 it was dark with a massive -2 modifier on command, half movement and command and firing limited to just 2".

Steve started with the cavalry and on table infantry and I took the reserves, mostly because one brigade was commanded by a Jackson! The cavalry moved forward and dismounted screening our right, with the infantry advancing on the union regiment on the wooded hill in the centre. My first reserve unit hurried forward and the artillery unlimbered on a nearby hill to make maximum use of its range for as long as possible.

My infantry moved forward to a small wood and started a firefight with the enemy cavalry who had been driven behind the woods by my artillery and dismounted. In the centre Steve launched his first attack, but was repelled. As my forces moved up Steve launched a second, more successful attack and pushed the enemy out of the woods.

In the fading light the Confederate pushed forward, although one of my divisions seemed to be a bit lost (the negative modifier to the manoeuvre rolls makes a difference, even with fresh units, when you roll 1's!). My other division finally pushed forward, while Steve consolidated his gains in the centre. On the right flank the Union had decided to advance and had attacked and driven back our cavalry.

By the time darkness fell we were able to attack without the defenders getting supported due to the reduced fire ranges. Although the Union had moved round our flank, the darkness and the intervening rivers slowed them down from turning our flanks, while Steve had attacked and overrun the Corps artillery, while I had pushed through and taken the orchards adjacent to the road.

Steve pushed on and I launched a final attack. Although our troops were getting battered we had driven the majority of the Union back and were across the road, and with just one turn left the Union conceded that there was no chance of them driving us back and it was more likely we would wipe them out, so the Confederates took the victory.

This was a fun little game and showed that you don't need a massive table and lots of troops to do a game and I look forward to playing one of the other scenarios in the series that Colin had soon.

Club night 13th January

Steve and I decided to play a Dystopian wars game. I have not yet used my new Dreadnought, and the 1.1 version PDFs re-inspired us to play again. Steve had to knock out my big ships to win, while I had to destroy more than half of his fleet, including all the larger vessels. I started with most of my fleet on my right, with a small element on the left.

Above: Early moves

Both fleets moved forward and opened fire.My AA proved remarkably effective against the incoming rockets thanks to some jammy dice rolls that would continue for most of the game, while my return fire caused some serious damage to the FSA battleship. The fleets continued to close and I concentrated my fire on the enemies left, destroying all the support frigates and inflicting more damage on the battleship.

On the other flank I managed to bring my destroyers and frigates to bear in combination and destroyed the enemy frigates opposing them. They then began to sweep towards the centre, despite some heavy losses from enemy bombers.

I was then able to move most of my fleet towards the centre and bring my heavier short range fire-power onto the cruiser occupying the centre of the FSA fleet, destroying them and then turning my fire against the airships, bringing them down. I was then able to board and capture the severely battered enemy battleship.

Although my big ships were damaged they were not out of it, and all the FSA really had left was their dreadnought on their far left. I pulled my air fortress back as it was beginning to suffer against the rockets from the dreadnought.

At this point we called it a day as the FSA fleet was defeated and my Prussians managed to claim a victory, thanks to a bit of luck and a finally better grasp of how to use my fleet effectively and maximise its strengths.

Club Night 6th January

Luke and I played our rescheduled league game after last week. Generally I struggle against Dwarves thanks to their high toughness and my sucky luck, but after the game against Colin and Luke's luck in his last league game I felt slightly confident.

When we rolled up the terrain my confidence changed as we rolled two settlements, plus a bunch of extra buildings and walls, so looked good defensive terrain. However it turned out Luke had no warmachines or missile troops so was going to have to bring the fight to me, as much as I was going to need to close with him. Also the 8th edition rule make moving through obstacles with my chariots a lot easier. My magic also looked good as I got the spells from shadows that reduced the enemies toughness.

We both set up with the bulk of our forces quite centrally. I put my Giant and the Minotaurs on my left and my Ungors on the left against the Iron-Breakers. Both sides moved forward to get to grips. I moved the giant towards the middle, while the Minotaurs moved out further to circle around, while the dwarf warriors moved to face them. On the other flank the Iron-Breakers and the Ungors began a fight, that somehow the Ungors managed to keep losing, but having more ranks were stubborn and kept passing their break tests.

In the centre a general melee had broken out which I gradually got the upper hand in, and then finally broke through, particularly helped by my magic, reducing the enemies toughness and increasing the strength and attacks of my already quite obscene general on his chariot (one turn he was throwing out 14, strength 10 attacks!). Luke continuously failed to stop my magic, despite help from various runes.

Once I broke through the middle, and the Minotaurs swept round the flank, I finally managed to rescue my Ungors and get another victory against the dwarves.

ACW Naval 30th December

For the last game of the year Luke and I planned to play our Warhammer league game, however Luke's work delayed him, so by the time he got to mine it was a bit late, so we rolled my Hammerin' Iron mat out on the floor in my flat rather than going to the club and played a ACW naval.

Luke again took the Union, while I took the confederates. I had more luck with the placement of my fort and the forces I started with getting CSS Arkansas right up against two of the Union Ironclads from the start and a fierce firefight started immediately, me forcing the Union to move by releasing a fire raft into them.

Combined with the fire from my fort, I exploded one of Polk's turtles, and then rammed another with CSS Van Dorn, before she was crippled herself. The massed fore of a surprisingly resilient Arkansas and the Fort pushed the Union fleet to navigate a narrow strip of river on the opposite bank between the bank and a line of river pilings (we use these to represent sandbanks).

As my final ships turned up, there was no sign of the last Union ironclad and the final floating ship was the third of the Union Cairo class, and was already badly damaged and facing the might of the whole Confederate flotilla, so Luke conceded a major victory to the confederates.

Club Night 28th December

As a mid week, post-Christmas game Luke, Duncan and I decided to play a flames of war desert game. Duncan has been reworking his Germans to suit early war as well as mid, but only had tanks done, so we played 3,000 points, with me using my army I have been using against Luke in the axis of attack game to provide the infantry and he provide the Axis armour. Against this Luke fielded a Crusader company. We played the desert dust up scenario from Hellfire and back.

Luke started with his artillery, infantry and machine guns on table, while I dug in my infantry around our objective. The German armour then began a head on attack on the British positions, pressing them hard, and demonstrating the difference between the quality of the tow Axis nations vehicles as Luke struggled to knock them out.

As the Germans pushed centrally and my Italians dug themselves deeper in around our objective we could see the reserves could be decisive. And here we had the luck, a few British tanks turned up but had to manoeuvre around the wadi, bringing them towards the centre of the board, in range of the anti-tank guns and German armour. By the time the rest arrived it took so long to get into position it was too late as on the other flank the Italians had won it.

The Italian reserves hurried on in the opposite corner and despite casualties pushed on towards the objective, managing to overrun the machine gun platoon. Once again the L3 tankettes proved their worth. Finally the demolisher platoon pushed on to the objective, only to have their commander gunned down, but we then discovered he was an unknown hero and I could now pass my motivation on a 2+, which I did, hanging in there to claim the objective and victory for the Axis forces.

Club Night 23rd December

As it was almost Christmas and finish work early day so I headed up early with Steve K to meet Luke and play some early war desert games as it has been a while. Also the club has juts bought the desert fort and we were keen to try it out.

Our first game had me take a Compagnia Mitraglieri of two platoons, with a fort, an AT platoon, and a cannon battery with a Meharisti platoon and Autosahariana platoon in support, fighting a withdrawal against a British rifle company.

This first game did not go well. Attacking under darkness I could not see the British until they assaulted the fort and pushed me back and almost out twice, while on the other flank they took the objective without me even seeing they were there! My poor deployment had exacerbated some poor dice rolls and lead to my quick defeat, still at least it was early and there was time for more games.

The second game saw my force unchanged, while the British gave up their artillery and took a pair of Matildas. This was going to be an issue as I had a slim chance of bailing them out if they exposed a flank to my 75s, otherwise I could not hurt them. Playing a hold the line scenario I decided to use my fort to make an issue of the game by deploying it quite far forward in to no-mans land and forcing them to pass close to it to get to the objectives.

Despite the sneaky Brits again trying to creep forward under nightfall, there must have been more moonlight as I clearly saw them and demonstrated the power of massed machine guns, even in the hands of the poorly trained Libyans as my opening volley reduced one platoon to two stands which ran away and damaged the other, which subsequently tried to assault the fort but was eventually defeated too.

To the left of the fort the armour moved forward with impunity with infantry support to encounter an ambush Mitraglieri platoon which forced the infantry to stop and dig in for survival, but made no difference to the tanks which continued there relentless advance. Again and again they assaulted the infantry driving them back so they became intermixed with the anti-tank guns and the Meharist, but although I was able to deny them the objective I could not stop their attack.

However on the other flank the Autosahariana rushed forward, speeding up as dawn broke and swept into the British rear decimating their support unit and breaking the enemy before the tanks could drive off the massed infantry trying valiantly to hold the objective on the other side.

One game all and time for a final game. A total change this time as Steve and Luke took an Australian Divisional Cavalry squadron while I took a Positione Fucilerito try something different. And as we found ourselves playing an encounter battle this could be tough for me, as although me defences might make it easy to deny the enemy victory, pushing forward to take an objective for the win could prove tricky.

After a couple of false starts I think I deployed my fortifications legally with one platoon covering each side of the table and a cannon battery covering one objective on one flank and the howitzers on the other flank. And it began to go wrong immediately. The howitzers were pinned by the enemy artillery and for the rest of the game repeatedly failed to unpin and also eventually lost three guns to the fire as well. But worse was to occur on the other flank. The armoured cars had recce'd forward and then dashed in and assaulted the cannon battery. With 8 shots against lightly armed vehicles I felt confident and then missed with 7 shots, lost the assault and fell back being wiped out in the process.

I now needed to do something decisive. My 47mm gun nest covering the objective destroyed the pesky armoured cars, but my force had still taken a big hit. And armoured forces still streamed forward on that flank to try and take the objective. Fortunately my trusty L3's turned up on that flank and the Solthum armed tank proceeded to knock out a vehicle a turn until overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fire. By now I had also managed to get a mortar platoon deployed in the trenches abandoned by the cannon battery but they got pinned down and remained so for the rest of the game, but somehow managed to survive when numerous vehicle trying to get at them got stuck trying to pass over the gun-pits also vacated by the cannon battery.

On the other flank my 3 tankettes had arrived and proceeded to bombard the Australian Vickers machine guns and to my surprise caused heavy casualties. Behind them the demolisher platoon crept forward taking lighter causalities than expected from the surviving enemy machine guns. Eventually however the tanks strayed within range if the 25 pounder and met their inevitable end, but by now the engineers had got close enough to assault and wipe out the machine guns.

They were not quite close enough to the objective though and had to move forward and brave a turn of enemy fire. Everything engaged them, Bofors guns, infantry, 25 pounders, even the 2-in-C in his MkIV tried to dash across but ended up out of range. It was now time for dice to turn in my favour. Despite the mass of fire I lost my last rifle base, and even the platoon command was hit, but decided he was an unknown hero, so remained, and improved the chances of the platoon hanging in there, which they did.

All that was left was for him to pass his last man check at the start of my turn and victory was mine! I nervously rolled the dice, but the fickle gods of luck where back with me and I managed to make it 2-1 to the Italians. A great afternoon of dashing about in the blue (or in the case of my Italians, finding a big fort or trench and hiding in it!).