Massive Updates

Over the past couple of weeks I have posted a lot of updates. Most of these where half finished posts I have got round to completing, or uploading the accompanying photos. Now I am up to date again I will try to keep up to date. Hope you are all still enjoying the blog, please share your comments.

Game night with Luke, 24th July

Luke and I managed to fit in our first mid-week game for quite a while and went back to the good old Flames of War. We decided to ply mid war, and by coincidence both try out something different. I took a Compangnia Carri with some allied Panzers and Luke took an Infantry company with I tank support.We played a no retreat mission.

I decided to mass most of my forces down one flank in a single-minded drive for one objective (above), while Luke spread his force more evenly, with slightly more against my main attack, but the other side had a town to complicate matters (below)

As I launched my main attack I quickly encountered problems. We play that we roll a general terrain type up from the 2nd ed. rule book and then roll for type when contacted using the tables from Hellfire and Back. This meant I knew that there were wrecks in front of me, but it was only as I moved forward I discovered most of them were actually minefield which channelled my force even further. To make matters worse my first assault by armoured cars was driven back by defencive fire.

On the other flank I had discovered the 2pdrs in ambush and attempt to assault them but was repelled, so my armour swept to support the other flank. Here I had managed to assault again, but was again repelled except for the last platoon I could attack with, that managed to drive the Brits out of their defences.

There now started a couple of bitter turns of fighting as Luke desperately tried to hold on and prevent my victory while waiting for reserves. It was now a race for me to drive him off properly before the I-tanks arrived and stared rolling me up as I had very little that could cope with them. Fortunately I as just able to drive him off, they had arrived, but had not got near enough to be a threat. The burning wrecks surrounded the objective (below), but the Italians had captured it and won very a hard fought battle.

Club Night 20th July

I met up with Matt and Mike to try out the new 40k 6th edition. Like many gamers I get frustrated by the constant changes, but I understand the need for it as a business. They key thing however is that the rules must be a genuine improvement, and not change for changes sake. From what I had read they had taken a few elements from fantasy battle, which should be good, and tweaked the vehicles rules so hopefully we will get more bodies on the ground again.

I took a force of Eldar, with some allied Tau, to try out the allies rule and to get some more varied troops to experiment with. However my first problem was that I was facing Necrons and Orks. Now in all fairness they had told me that and I remembered as soon as they said, but I had forgotten when I picked the army and was expecting Grey Knights and some kind of Imperial allies. Never mind. Lets see how the rules work and how my mismatched army fairs.

I deployed the Tau on the flanks, fire warriors on one and sniper drones on the other, while the Falcon, dire avengers and war walkers held the centre. I then planned to advance on the flanks with Jet bikes and warp spiders on one and Jain Zar and her banshees on the other. Against this I had a mass of large war machines on one flank with some ork boyz, a mass of Necron warriors in the centre and more Orks on the other flank.

On my left flank my fire warriors deployed but were quickly overrun by the Ork mob, while the fire from their support saw off the Warp Spiders and forced the Jet bikes back and eventually destroyed them.

On the other flank the sniper drones pinned down the Orks enabling the banshees to charge them and avoid their snap fire and wipe them out.

In the centre I poured fire into the advancing hordes but seemed to be having very little affect. When the mega-armoured Nobz smashed through in their truck I knew I was in trouble as they smashed through my centre, which was also be attacked from the flank where the Tau had been overrun. However not everything went their way, although the Scarabs had taken weakened the Falcon allowing it to be taken down, they were destroyed by the Banshees sweeping in from their victorious flank. They were then all mowed down by the Necrontyr, except for Jain who single-handedly attacked, broke and wiped them out.This however was the end of the game and I had been soundly beaten, A combination of spreading too thin, some poor dice rolling and really the wrong tools for the job. Having said that, the Banshees were my best unit by far and would probably have been the last unit I would have picked if I had remembered who my opponents were!

The rules seemed good. I think I need to get my own set, although hopefully for less than the £45RRP and have a good read of them and then play some more games.

Club Night July 6th

Before the Tannenburg terrain gets revamped and modified for next years game (you'll just have to wait and see what it is) I though it was worth using it in its current form one last time, so found my armies and decided to try them with Hail Caesar as something different. Luke and I lined up with the Teutons while Steve and David took a mixed force of Polish and Lithuanians. We set up with the Brother knight and their Sergeants on the left with the militia peasants in the woods on their far flank while mixed knight and sergeant units made up the centre and right with our own foot sergeants on the far right. The Poles set up with Lithuanians on their right flank, poles on the left and their infantry in the centre with a large reserve under the king with their best troops behind them.

Above: Teuton starting positions, below: Polish-Lithuanian starting positions

The Teutons advanced forward slowly, but the Poles were even slower meaning their reserve was stuck behind their main line. The open shooting belonged to the Poles as they fired at some Confrere knights and panicked them into routing immediately. One major combat unit gone already!

It was not looking good, the enemy cavalry was beginning to move round our flank and the Brother Knights were procrastinating! However we then saw the difference between knights and the medium cavalry of the Lithuanians as they were swept away and their infantry began to look exposed as the militia in the wood began to get enthused and rushed through the woods to harry the surviving Lithuanians who had taken shelter there.

On the other flank the massed foot crossbow, with some additional Genoses mercenaries was forcing the Polish cavalry off wide and they were keeping their distance. This prompted us to try our luck against the enemy infantry and despite casualties drove them back. The enemy reserve then counterattacked and destroyed or drove off a large quantity of the battered attackers. However this opened up a gap for the Brother Knights to charge through and we saw how this veteran and well equipped warriors performed as they swept through the enemy knight. Even the sergeants seemed to be more than a match for anything they faced.

Although some of the Polish left had moved past the infantry they were in turn being flanked and with the Teutonic Brothers having swept most of the reserve away it was declared a Teutonic victory.

Club Night June 29th

Bob ran a good sized Fire and Fury which was a nice change of pace to play a multi player game with some fast rules. I took one confederate division, tasked with seizing a town behind a river, while their was some cavalry screening my flank and watching the road through the woods for the enemy army expected to arrive there. The rest of the rebel army was still in camp.

While my fellow soldiers had their breakfasts I pushed forward across the ford while screening both the road and rail bridge. Although initial progress was slow I was eventually able to close without too many casualties on David's Union defenders and start driving them back through the town. As I got on line and then started pushing across the road bridge the defenders became hemmed in and were starting to struggle.

Meanwhile the Union main army had arrived behind me and the rest of the Rebel army was marching out to meet them. Trying to ignore this threat I continued to attack, now reinforced by another division and the result became beyond doubt as the Yanks were driven back to trying to hold the road into town with two battered regiments. I was even able to turn some of my forces back and come on line with the rest of the Southern army to repel the main Union force. With light failing (and the evening getting late) it was declared a Confederate victory.