Dispatches from the front XXV - A changing of the guard.

Club night and another outing for the Eagle of Empires and the Seocnd Schleswing War, a hard fought battle despite an initial Prussian surge they were unable to hold on to the objectives and were beaten back by the more numerous Danes.

The club was busy having undergone an expansion and brand change bringing together board and wargamers. Covid took its toll on our membership with several gamers not returning so hopefully the new venture will increase our membership, some good PR and a mention in the local press gave us several new faces. You can find all about us here. https://sites.google.com/view/wyvern-tabletop/

A short trip to the Royal Docks at Portsmouth - HMS Victory is undergoing a £20M make over, replacing every external plank and mast...... not much to see on the outside but the ships interior is still as grand as ever..... It is a damn sight more claustrophobic than when I was 12.

Meanwhile the latest addition to the fleet - HMS Prince of Wales - Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carrier. Quite a sight even if she is in for repair at the moment and given the events of the past week.

Having finished the Indian troops next up the Vichy French...... and the first batch of Senegalese Tirailleurs.

Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #2 - The Second Battle for Usan

Back on Japanese soil and a draw of the second round of cards, gives the Japanese an extra fleet, perhaps the direct approach was not the best idea.

The fleets swung left the first under Admiral Urga making an unopposed landing at Pusan, whilst Admiral Nashiba sailed up the Western coast of the peninsula.

Another successful landing at Cinampo, things are looking up for the Japanese.

Having established a bridgehead at Pusan the Japanese tried again to seize Usan this time across the landward side but were once again confronted by a delaying force of Russians, Korea was meant to contain only a token Russian presence.

Wyvern club night and a roll of the dice using Platoon forward and the Japanese are ordered to take to the table and seize the Russian stores to win the encounter and capture the town of Usan on the map.

Russian Points 110 vs Japanese Points 120* 

*With the addition of Two Machine Guns drawn from the Japanese reinforcement pool.

The Japanese would be attacking left to right with the Russians deployed across the centre of the table, the Russian stores were held in the white walled compound,  but the Russian player was unaware of the importance of this location and only had orders to hold the line.

The Russian commander had thrown up earth works in the centre of the table a string of barb wire to slow the Japanese advance, many of the troops were conscripts but they only had to hold the line.

On the right flank and anchoring the position was a unit of militia taking up positions in the garden of a merchants house.

Whilst the field defences were a surprise to the Japanese commander, equally unnerving was the Japanese opening bombardment with off table artillery falling amongst the defenders.

The Japanese advance using combined tactics of firing and moving, constantly keeping the Russians on the back foot

With few good quality commanders to marshal their line the Russian formations began to fracture and fall back and whilst they were slowing the Japanese advance the conscripts were being driven from their defence positions. Meanwhile Japanese elements had bypassed the wire and were making there way through the crop fields on the left.

The Russian force morale was steadily falling as troops and officers were forced back, breaking point came when the isolated militia were set upon by Korean irregulars who in a bloody encounter drove the inexperienced Russians from the garden.

No Russian Offensive Actions this turn the Japanese command is made up of the following point values.

General Oku 180 Points @ Usan

General Kuroki 240 Points @ Cinampo

Admrial Uryu 22 Fleet Points 

Admiral Nabu 24 Fleet Points

On to Turn 3......

Dispatches from the front XXIII - Support your local club.

The lighter nights and better weather for varnishing means that much of the last few months painting can finally be finished and added to their comrades in their trays.

It been a good couple of weeks gaming with a number of great club games. Clubs have suffered over the past two years with falling membership and a number of gamers turning to solo gaming, but you can't beat getting out of the house and rolling some dice.

If you are in and around the Worcestershire area you can check them out here, the kettle is always on.

Wyvern Wargamers - (3) Wyvern Wargamers | Facebook

Wyre Forest Gamers - Wyre Forest Gamers (wfgamers.org.uk)

On with the games.....

The first outing for Silver Bayonet at the Wyvern Club a 3 way hunt for a missing artefact turns into a zombie fest, note to self blades are better than bullets when it comes to taking down the undead. 

For a full report you can find it on Paul's excellent blog. Painting Chaos to The Silver Bayonet | movealongnownothingtoseehere

Over at the Wyre Forest Club a chance to dust off the Hittites and New Kingdom Egyptians and an adaption for Infamy, Infamy. It was good to play new players who came up with some improvements on the rules for Chariots in the Bronze Age.

This was the original lock down project, it turns out that there are still a handful of units left in the draw of shame, these need clearing down.

Wave 4 of the Baron's War from Footsore Miniatures is coming up fast and the latest imagine is not helping lessen the urge to back it.... Roll on May.

If this is not the motivation to clear the paint queue I don't know what is...

Until next time.....

Hammerhead 2022 - The Fetterman Massacre 1866.

After two years, wonderful to get back on the show circuit and a visit to Hammerhead at the Newark show ground yesterday. Hammerhead is a great show, every game is participation game which makes for a really friendly atmosphere, it was great to catch up with loads of old friends and find out how many new projects they have been working on over the lockdown period.

For our part the Wyvern's took the 6mm Pony Wars on our travels with a refight of the Fetterman Massacre 1866. Players played the part of Fetterman's command fighting for their lives to escape Red Cloud's trap?

Captain Fetterman believed with 80 men he could ride through the Sioux nation, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse had other ideas. 

Once again the Wood Train coming out of Fort Phil Kearny was under attack by the Sioux, Fetterman led the relief party.

Spotting a group of native horsemen he ignored orders not to pursue the Indians over the ridge and was ambushed by over 2000 warriors.

Could players escape the trap and get back over the ridge before the Indians over ran his tiny command or hold out long enough for his own relief to arrive?

Fort Phil Kearny and Captain Eyck relief force mustering to response to the sound of battle.

Unfortunately I was far to busy to take any photo's of the game in play but needless to say it was not a good day for Fetterman who went down in history for all of the wrong reasons.

What a great days gaming, plenty of interest in how Sharp Practice can be converted into 6mm and how the adaptions work for gaming the native Americans.

The prep for Hammerhead gave me the push to finish the last of the terrain pieces, excellent castings from Leven Miniatures. The fort is a wonderful piece of kit, I left the buildings to allow me to move them around within the command.

The bell tents allow me to expand the fort compound or set up base camp for the cavalry on campaign and at £3.00 a pack great value for money.

The last couple of pieces useful for loads of scenario's. A log cabin or traders post and a church bringing religion to the prairie lands.

Until next time.....

Dispatches from the front XXII - Projects old and new.

A rather eclectic mix of games and projects.

First up club night and over at the Wyvern's a 4 player Stargrave outing, using anything we can get our hands on, just simply turn up and play.

One of the chaps dug out the Core Space playing board, despite it only being 2x2 it did make a fun encounter with lots of laser blasts and Aliens popping out of the walls and floors. Warlords Algoryn took the bragging rights on the night.

Meanwhile the Visitors from the 4th planet from the Sirian Star make hard work of picking off the local inhabitants.

After months of nagging I finally relented and let my young nephew play with the grown up toys. King Arthur has to travel the table visiting various way points picking up recruits and defeating any nasty's along the way. We picked Songs of Blades and Heroes as a great introduction to proper gaming. 

My young padawan  picked up the rules really quickly, even if  he did play fast and loose with the measuring stick :-) After slaying numerous enemies.... Arthur was victorious.

I fear I have created a monster.

A fun encounter besides it gave me the excuse to finish off a couple of odds and ends such as the Warbases Gibbet and the mighty Excalibur stuck firmly in a stone. 

Having given the Sudan a well overdue outing I saw a post of on Tales From GHQ: The Battle of Tettenhall Green with an excellent game of The Very British Civil War. It's been a long while since Worcester was a flame... so maybe time for another outing.

With the King residing in the County at Madresfield Court, Worcester has stuck to it's long held motto of "Civitas in bello et pace fidelis" - The City Faithful in War & Peace. The City maintains a moderate pro government stance with reluctant support from the regular royalist forces and local Worcester City police.

Whilst largely peaceful as the crisis in the country unfolds a number of opposition groups have sprung up, notably armed elements from the Severn Riverside, Wharf, Labours Federation (SRWLF) with an enclave in the Diglis area. This group is supported by communists out of Birmingham and armaments being shipped over the Malvern's from the Anglican's based in Hereford. 

Just need to find where I packed the figures away now.

That's an old project now for a new one - Coming soon in May.

For years I fancied turning the excellent Standard Games - Outremer/Cry Havoc game to miniatures, with the new Baron's War range it might just make it to the table.

Until next time.....

Dispatches from the front XXI - The Butterfly Awakes.

A few weeks since the end of the holiday period and a couple 'additional' purchases that did not appear from the Christmas wish list.

I am not sure if it's the time of year or the fact that I am coming to the end of the Pony Wars Project with all the metal based and undercoated if I get them complete and the buildings by April I will have completed the entire project in 12 months now that is a record for me.

I have been distracted by thoughts of several fresh projects...... Idle hands and a Paypal War chest? ;-)

It started with the unboxing and a couple of games Undaunted: North Africa a cracking game and really well balanced, you need to apply the specialists in the right roles to ensure proper tactics pay off. Unlike the Normandy version this one is based on single figures and of course it led to the inevitable conversation about converting it to miniatures, after all I was looking for an opportunity to use my desert terrain a little more and Perry Miniatures have some lovely castings.

Game 1 - The scout was quick to clear the tiles ahead opening up the board for the demolition expert to destroy the plane and lorry before the Italians could stop them although there were some hairy moments when he was pinned on the open runway trying to plant the explosives.

Game 2 - The LRDG faced the might of the Italian Armour and the Boyes Rifle simply did not have the punch to kill the damn thing. The fascists were soon stripped of their supporting Infantry but the Allies had a risky time trying to dodge the mobile pill box as they attempted to destroy the fuel dump.

I could seriously be tempted in some figures for this especially as the figure count is rather low.

I picked up a copy of Silver Bayonet designed for Napoleonic monster hunting convincing myself that I would not any further figures (who am I trying to kid) as I have French for both Haiti and Egypt both regions lend themselves to monster folk lore. Could Claude Canard make a come back?

The rules are well produced and well polished in a format similar in style to Frost/Star Grave.

Next thing you know I am thinking about Russians and pinching some of the elements of the faction for the Russo Japanese War, which allow me to utilise some of my Water Margin collection besides who doesn't everyone need a hopping Vampire?

A restock from Foundry they were advertising a range of discounts on orders over £50 unfortunately paints were excluded which was a shame as I would have topped up the order to bring up to the first threshold so for once held back on knee jerk purchases :-)

Expensive postage and duty aside, I picked up an excellent Brain Bug for Starship Troopers. The Mongoose original has being going for in excess of £75.00 so this variant on Etsy was a great proxy. 

Good communication from AlieCatCraftsnStuff who scaled it down to 25mm scale.

Meanwhile as Covid starts to retreat again, it was nice to get some club time in.

I had an outing over to the Wyre Forest Club and had an excellent game of  Blucher, thanks to Neil for putting the game on and and Daniel my French opponent. A close run thing down to the very last turn.

On the right flank my Austrian Cavalry Corp ran into French Infantry which were surprisingly tough to drive from their defensive positions.

Meanwhile the French cavalry rode down the Austrian guns before exhausting themselves on the massed ranks of Austrian Line.

A great game mechanism and allows for some great master strokes across the table.

Over at the Wyverns another Arthurian outing using Song of Blades and Heroes this time Romano Britain's looking to turn back the Saxon raiders.

Quite the battle with a number of gory deaths messing up both sides formations and massed archery felling several of the armoured Britain's.

Until next time....