Wednesday, March 25, 2015

6MM BLUCHER: FRENCH VS AUSTRIANS

I was at the Falkirk and District Wargames Club on Monday for a 6mm game of Blucher.  Dave Paterson provided the OBs, troops and terrain.
My Austrian forces move into the attack some French still concealed

My right flank attack begins to falter
We played the game with armies of 200 points as we have discovered that we cannot get a result in 3 hours using 300 point armies.   Dave has put in a lot of thought and effort into rebasing his French and Austrians on sabots for use with Blucher.   He has also put plastic strips on the sabots (see photo) so that the casualties/rounds expended can be recorded on the units. 

Sabot base showing plastic card system to record hits
I commanded the Austrians and I was the attacker in the game.  My corps strength attacks on both flanks initially looked promising but eventually my frontline forces were so worn down by the French fire that both my attacks faltered.

View from the Austrian right flank
Dave is away ordering more sabots so that he can rebase all of his Napoleonic armies.  I plan to try a 28mm game of Blucher in April.

Friday, March 20, 2015

28mm WAR OF THE ROSES: KINGMAKER HUGE GAME

I was away at the weekend at Kirriemuir in Angus for a 28mm War of the Roses event.  Over the 2 days 14 gamers attended.  The concept which was based on the classic game Kingmaker was developed by Steve Rimmer who also supplied the figures and the bulk of the terrain.  The figures were all beautifully painted by James Roach.

Forces engaging around Chester - in distance the northern table
The terrain was made up of 4 18ft by 6ft tables representing all of England plus smaller tables to represent Calais, Dublin and sections of the North Sea.

York and area - in the distance the Isle of Man
I played the Lancastrian Beaufort Admiral of England and started with 2 subordinate commanders and my other 3 subordinates were all activated during the game.  I managed to eliminate 2 of the Yorkist heirs and after 2 days of play I won the game largely by surviving, not losing many troops and holding onto the 2 towns that I captured.  At one point Beaufort was in a dangerous situation near London facing numerous Yorkists but luckily he and his command were called away to Pevensey Castle leaving De Vere to face them alone.

The long running slaughter of Swansea
It was a truly enjoyable weekend and the rules developed by Steve Rimmer worked well and were easily picked up by all the players.   My thanks to Steve who acted as the hard working umpire and provided the inspiration, organisation and resources for the very enjoyable game.

Struggle between the forces of Durham and Berwick
All my photos with brief descriptions are on Flickr at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157651001295128/

Northern naval forces

James has written a report on his blo below which has good views of the overall setup
http://www.olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/an-away-game.html