Club Night 26th May

Some time ago Luke and Duncan bought some 10mm Carthaginians and Romans and based them to be used for either Vis Bellica or ancient POW. Fortunately this means that they are highly suitable for using with Impetus so we played a small game. On one flank the opposing cavalry fought a bloody and decisive battle, while in the centre the Spanish veterans and their greek allies attacked the core of the Roman army, their elite legions. It was a tough, close fight, with both sides alternatively driving back their opponent, before being driven back in turn. Finally the Carthaginians managed to do just enough to break the Roman army. The Imperial cavalry and their Gallic allies had been defeated, and although the legions where still intact, alone they could not repulse their opponents and had to fall back and yield the field to the Carthaginians.

Club Night 14th May

For something a bit different Duncan and I used his Konigskreig Russians, and borrowed his Dad's British to play the roll of the Prussians to play a fictional Seven Years War scenario. WE kept it simple and deployed on opposite sides of the table with the objectives being the village in the centre of the table.

The Russian cavalry moved round both flanks of the much smaller Prussian army while the mass of infantry advanced in the centre. The Prussians immediately counted by moving their cavalry forward on the left and advancing one brigade directly at the Cossacks and opening fire at short range to drive them off and out of the battle. In the centre the elite grenadiers moved for wad into the fields by the village while the jagers occupied the outlying buildings.

The remaining Russian cavalry charged against the Prussian and rove them back in a series of melees that would move back and forth across the battlefield for the remained of the game. Meanwhile the Russian infantry deployed and began to advance on the Prussians. As the opening engagements began the difference between the quality of the opposing forces began to show as the Prussians, centred on their grenadiers, shrugged off the attacks, while the conscripts of the Russian observation corps fled under the unwavering platoon fire from their opponents.

The Russians finally launched their attack against the enemies centre and where repulsed, the Prussians then counterattacked and drove through the enemy centre as their 2nd brigade came around the Russians open left.

This was a very fun game, although we didn't have a single blunder all game! The difference in quantity looked daunting at first, but as the game progressed the difference in quality began to show.

Club Night 7th May

Luke, Duncan and I gathered at the normal Friday club meet to play a large Flames of War. with 2,500 points a side, 2 Italian companies faced 3 British, featuring hordes of Crusaders and Stuarts. The British poured forward using their sheer numbers and speed to swamp the Italian anti tank shield, although they took heavy losses, there were still more coming.
The British fell upon the Italian right, leaving the left isolated and unable to contribute to the battle. With massed machine gun fire they drove back the Italian infantry defending the right and opened up a gap to try and poor through and sweep onto the objective.
Despite support from German air-power and the commitment of the armoured reserves the Italians could not stop the British numbers.
By the time their flank march arrived the Italians had nothing eft to stop them with and where only able to grab victory by breaking the British, after they had generously let the Italian take company morale checks earlier, even though the C-in-C was still in reserve and so not on the table. A victory but certainly not decisive and the Italians will have a healthy respect for the British armour in the future.

Club Night 6th May

Luke and I finally finished our campaign. Because I took so long to get round to writing this up, I can't really remember what happened, except I lost the last two games, and the campaign! The penultimate games was very close, but the final battle was most certainly not. Luke's shooting was phenomenal (see bottom photo above), after an opening volley of tank fire 9 of the Italian tanks were burning , 1 was bailed out and the C-in-C was trying to take cover to avoid any more fire. Without their armour support, despite the heavy smoke screens the infantry pushed on but could not shift the British and so victory in the battle and the campaign fell to the British. But the Italian may be cowed, but are not out yet.

WOFF XII

After the club AGM, which I won't bore you with the details here, it was off to Portsmouth for the latest WOFF (Wargamers out for fun) Warhammer tournament. After a great night at the Wedgewood rooms, Daz and I prepared to combat hangovers and all comers, and for me to try and learn a little from Daz and finish higher than bottom!

We took a Beastmen and Slaanesh Daemon army. With the Minotaurs and the Bestigors we had the hitting and the Fiends and Seekers gave us some speed. Our real trick was our herald with Great Icon of Despair and the Masque giving us a potential of -5Ld on a unit.

Day1

Game 1, vs Steve (Wood Elf) & Big Ron (Bretonnian) 2095 to 526

Steve has a Treeman and Ron blocks of knights. We were less worried by the knights than the Treeman as we had nothing with the hitting power to deal with. As it transpired we crashed through the centre with our main blocks and rolled up the flanks with fast troops, the Icon of Despair and Masque icon working perfectly. And in the end they put pay to the Treeman, the last unit alive we charged it from two directions, won the melee, but with a modified Ld of 3 being stubborn did not help it and we run it down for a decisive victory.

Game 2, vs Kev (Slaanesh Warriors of Chaos) & Colin (Dark Elf) 1554 to 1426With a centre piece of a chaos war shrine (unfortunately the picture didn't come out) and the cauldron of blood (above), Kev and Colin's army looked beautiful, and was going to cause us problems as they are very astute and capable players. However a hard fought game where we could not get to grips successfully with their chosen, while we protected out core and won the flanks, meant we had a draw at the end, a result I was very please with.

Game 3, vs Dave P (Dark Elf) & Dave H (Tzeentch Warriors of Chaos) 1190 to 1606

The final game of the day was against the two Daves. Dave P is a very smart player and Dave H has massive tournament experience so we would have to be careful. As it turned out the army played well and everything went to plan. With one exception... The hellcannon didn't fire a shot all game but did munch through a lot of our army while we could do little to slow it down, giving a victory to the Daves, but scoring a respectable tally for ourselves.

The evening was for the young people, Chris D and I could not keep the pace so had a quiet night with QI, but it meant I was refreshed and ready to go for Sunday.

Day 2

Game 4, vs Pete (Dark Elf) & Chris M (Vampire Counts) 1287 to 1290

Our first game was always going to be tough, again our opponents our top players who really know their armies. In addition I always struggle against Chris' undead. But again we maneuvered and avoid the units we could not manage, picked our fights and made sure we won then and again managed a high scoring draw.

Game 5, vs Jay (Ogres) & Dave S (Daemon) 2198 to 304

Our final game saw us take on Jay and Dave S with Ogres and Daemons. With a large unit of Fleshhounds this was going to be a tough proposition. Fortunately things went our way and we again used our speed to roll up the flanks, broke the Ogres and the big blocks of horrors, and then made hard work of the Fleshhounds but managed to grind our way through them rather than sweep them away.

Results

Finishing 2nd was my best result at a WOFF and I both enjoyed and learnt a lot form playing with Daz. Now I just need to make sure I remember it all.