Futbowel: The Christmas Truce...

"Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..." because we were down Bristol Independent Gaming playing the WWI version of Futbowel we tried out last year...

This year Andy and Stephanie played the British against Phil and Jenny who managed the Germans (though Phil wandered off to look at Dark Ages figures with Jim for On Bloody Ground!)

The first half ended goalless after the British goalie made a couple of easy saves, though one British player was sent off for a bad tackle on a German player...

The second half kicked off with the Germans grabbing a quick goal, soon followed by another... As the British got one back the Germans resorted to some dirty tackles with three of their players being sent off, but their compatriots held on for a famous 2-1 victory, avenging last year's defeat!

Futbowel: On Christmas Day...

With Christmas on the horizon last week I ref'd a game of Futbowel for Andy, Jack and Phil with a slight twist - the Orcs and Dwarves were replaced with their historical counterparts, converted from Wargames Atlantic WWI plastics...

The rules we played were pretty much 'as is' in the rulebook, though bad 'fowls' were not punished by a firing squad, but the offender made to sit it out until the next time a Joker was pulled out the card deck.

I think the lads enjoyed the game, the score was 1-1 at full time so we played extra-time were, in an uncanny preview of events in 1966, the English team scored the winner! Futbowels coming home...

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and one of my New Year's resolutions will be to update the blog a bit more often!

Gert Lush Lard II: CoCing Up the Great Game

My afternoon game at Gert Lush Lard was a Chain of Command one, but set in WWI (well the Intervention in the Russian Civil War to be exact) organised by Brian Shipp, with Frazer and myself as the brave Indian forces attempting to dislodge the Lardy Rich's pesky Reds from the Deshak railway station. Having wanted to do WWI CoC for some time this was going to be interesting...

Also interesting was using 15mm figures for Chain of Command, which worked well though I did occasionally lose the odd khaki unit on the arid patterned tabletop!

Due to an excellent Patrol phase by Frazer the Indians had a Jump Off Point half way up the table which certainly helped with our deployment for the platoon.

Whilst the Bolsheviks hunkered down on the river bank placing a Maxim HMG on top of a building.

Unfortunately for the Reds, the Indian force had some useful artillery support.

The initial push into the wood was met by withering Russian fire and the Indian rifle section took a lot of Shock...

Before breaking after amassing more Shock than survivors. Not the most auspicious of starts...

Realising victory would not be achieved by charging a dug in enemy with Maxim guns, the Indians adopted a more methodical approach firing artillery and grenades...

Targeting the Bolshevik section in the woods...

First piling Shock on and Pinning them...

Before breaking them!

The Indian platoon moved slowly forward towards the enemy positions...

Whilst the artillery and grenade launchers targeted the Red Maxim guns in an effort to suppress them...

One Maxim fell victim to the indirect fire so Comrade Rich moved up another infantry section to replace them.

The Indian Bomber section occupied the tree line...

But came under attack from a third Red section in the woods...

Taking Shock and casualties.

Undaunted, the Indians fought back piling Shock on the Russian infantry.

With the Indians moving resolutely up the table and the artillery and grenade launchers wreaking havoc on the Bolshevik defenders in the town, the Red force morale dropped to zero and they fled the field of battle...

A great game hosted by Brian, it certainly rewarded a slow and steady approach with the use of suppressive fire. Brian said that Frazer and I had put "on a fine display of how to combine the four specialist sections in a 1918 British Army platoon to storm an entrenched Bolshevik position".

World War One: German Assault Company

Not mentioned in my A Cunning Plan (or two...) for 2021! post was the World War One project that a few of us down BIG are planning for 2021 (pandemic permitting). Long time readers of the blog will know this is not my first dabble in WWI with 6mm and 20mm projects started and unfinished. Of course everyone else wants to do 28mm so I picked up a couple of boxes of Wargames Atlantic Germans which have gone AWOL somewhere on Lead Mountain so I had to buy another...

We haven't decided on the ruleset we are going to use, Chain of Command WWI, Through Mud & Blood, Blood & Valor and The Great War have all been suggested, but for getting some figures sorted and painted up I'm using the army lists from The Great War despite it using a 3:1 figure scale with nine men representing a platoon (in other games it will just be rebadged a section).

The Wargames Atlantic plastic WWI Germans are lovely and have a host of options and head variants in the box including gas mask heads and fifty individual stick grenades to embellish your figures! Whilst the plastics only cover basic infantry, fortunately the Great War Miniatures metals are compatible so I have ordered some support elements such as HMG, Light Mortar from North Star via BIG.

Painting was very straight forward, undercoated grey, then helmets, webbing, flesh and weapons block painted before being coated with Army Painter Strong Tone dip, before being matt varnished.

Still not having found the two original boxes I bought last year I picked up a fourth(!) box at the weekend to make up a second Assault Company and when the originals turn up I have a plan to turn then into WW2 Chinese! :D

The Great War: Opening Shots

Apologies for the lack of updates but I've been busy with real world work - and playing lots of games! So let's take you back to last December...

With George out on the lash because it was near Christmas I decided to take up Nathan's offer to BIG gamers to try out the Monolith Conan boardgame, which as I'd backed it on Kickstarter and then not got around to doing anything with it (a sadly common problem), seemed a good idea. 

Arriving at BIG I found Nathan and Steve waiting for me with the game set up - almost! It appeared Nathan's copy was missing a key component, so only living ten minutes away I offered to grab my copy as I knew 'exactly' where it was - except that was one of the supplements, the main game I've put somewhere 'safe'.

A few texts between Bleaseworld and BIG, we decided to give PSC's The Great War game a spin as I could find that(!) and had already punched out the tiles and snipped the figures off the sprues! Good to be organised eh? :D

Now those of you familiar with Richard Borg's Command & Colors/Memoir '44 game system will find this all very similar as it shares their common heritage (which was good as Nathan and Steve had a heads up on what the rules were about).

Command Cards allow you to order your troops to do stuff, whilst the useful Combat Cards add some fun variety such as Trench Raids.

We decided to play the first introductory scenario in the rulebook, Opening Action 1, which was just a destroy as many of your enemy as you can.

Both sides had a mix of standard rifle units, a couple of MG's, a mortar and a bomber unit.

The initial Command Cards allowed the British to advance on their right flank, so Steve launched an attack across No-Mans Land, successfully entering the German trench line, though we did suffer some casualties.

With the German left flank captured, the British came under an artillery barrage, but suffered minimal casualties.

The Command Cards then fell in such a way that most of the action was on the British Left, with Nate launching an attack on the British lines but being defeated under a fusillade of British rifle and machine gun fire.

As I was concentrating on the game I didn't take as many pictures as normal, but with the use of some  useful Combat Cards, like the Mata Hari spy one that allowed us to takes cards out of Nate's deck, the end result was a resounding British victory. Hurrah!

I must say this is a great game, simple enough rules but with the Combat Cards enough variety and colour for the conflict. If you are looking for an introductory level wargame you can get out and put away in a box, PSC's The Great War has a lot going for it and is highly recommended.

A (brief) Partizan Snapshot!

Went to Partizan on Sunday to help on the Hysterical Games stand so I didn't really get a chance to have a proper look around and take photos but a few things caught my eye...

Martian Practice (VSF Sharp Practice):

World War One:

Suez 1956:

UK Games Expo: The Great War

I went to the UK Games Expo at the NEC today. I wasn't planning to, I was only going to meet someone but when that got bumped back a few hours I found myself wandering around a large hotel rammed full of gamers.

I say gamers, not wargamers as it was, by and large, a totally different audience from what you get at Salute or Colours. There were a few wargames companies in attendance, but by and large it was a show devoted to board and card games, the scope of which was quite daunting.

There were some good miniatures games on show and I will dig through the photos I took on my Blackberry in the poor hotel lighting(!) tomorrow, but I will post these of PSC's The Great War boxed game, my Kickstarter copy I picked up at the show...

Forgotten Soldiers of Empire

I eventually sat down and watched the two episodes of BBC2's The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire, shown last August as part of the centenary programmes around the start of WWI. Written and narrated by historian David Olusoga, it examined the role of colonial and ethnic troops and ancillaries in the Great War.

I must say the two programmes were a fascinating snapshot of history and I was captivated by the whole thing. In many respects the subject could have been fleshed out into a longer six part series as some subjects were just briefly touched upon, but the two hours we got was well worth watching.

Of course some of the programme made for uncomfortable viewing, the inherent racism of the colonial powers and the ironic contradictions of all the imperial nations deserved the spotlight they got, but Olusoga did not forget the individual bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers he talked about.

There is far too much to write about in a short space, but I was fascinated by the employment of the Indian Corps on the Western Front in 1914/15, the attempts by the Germans to create an Islamist Jihad in the British and French Empires and Von Lettow's East African campaign, the latter not for the common place praise for Von Lettow's generalship, but more the cost of almost a million African lives resulting from the starvation that followed where his army marched. As Olusoga pointed out, this sideshow to the war really was pointless as the Allied troops Von Lettow is often credited with having tied down were largely ones from British colonies who, it had already been decided, would not fight in the trenches of the Western Front.

If you get a chance to see the programmes do so. Unfortunately I could not find that they have been released on DVD, but Olusoga's book The World's War has been released and I have already ordered a copy.

The Great War Coloured In...

Browsing the internet today, this photo caught my eye...

It is one of a selection of "colourised" photos in an article on War History Online. Whilst I don't think it is necessary for photos to be in colour to be interesting, there is clearly something about this extremely well "coloured" black and white photo. The article details the work the likes of Doug Banks and Royston Leonard are doing, and I must confess I found it fascinating.

There is also a Facebook page, WW1 Colourised Photos that feature many more, not always as good, but often of interesting subjects, not just the Western Front. If you have any interest in WW1 it is well worth checking out.

Command & Colours : The Great War

A number of you have, over the years, raved about Memoir '44 and the Command & Colours system. I'm not great lover of boardgames, but given the ravings of the Command & Colours fans and the fact that Plastic Soldier Company are rapidly becoming my favourite games company (I need to pre-order Battlegroup Blitzkrieg), I have decided to support PSC's Kickstarter for The Great War.

It looks pretty cool with a load of 15mm WWI plastics, and hopefully if the funds are reached some cool expansions including tanks.

On the painting front I did manage to make some fair progress on my first Confederate Regiment, I seem to be getting some of my painting mojo back!

Hellfighters Graphic Content!

After posting on Tuesday about the US 369th Regiment in WWI I found out that Max Brooks (or World War Z fame) has released a graphic novel about the unit this week. An order for The Harlem Hellfighters has been made and I will report back when it arrives.

No doubt largely due to Brooks fame, Sony have optioned the movie rights and so fingers crossed the film gets made.

Over The Top with the Harlem Hellfighters

I didn't get a chance to read the Antares Beta rules today as I got distracted looking at some of the WWI books on my Kindle. This of course led to me digging out Warhammer Historical's The Great War, when I got home, along with the supplement Over The Top, that was only available for a short while before GW killed off Warhammer Historical.

The supplement contains rules and lists for the US forces on the Western Front, which intrigue me as something a little different, and, if I recall correctly, Lead Mountain has a box of HaT WWI US infantry in it somewhere...

Over The Top does contain a sidebar on the US 369th Regiment, a black regiment that fought under French command due to racial prejudices in the US military at the time. I recall them featuring in the Charley's War comic strip, suffering in the storyline by having French officers who did not speak English.

I'm not sure if that is factual and the "Harlem Hellfighters" would certainly make an interesting looking unit with French Adrian helmets, which they wore for the most part with their US uniforms...