Naval Wargames Society weekend at the Fleet Air Arm Museum (Road Trip)

I have been an intermittent member of the Naval Wargames Society for a while now.  I don't actually do that much naval wargaming but find the history fascinating and definitely would like to do more.  The annual weekend that the Society hosts has long been on my to do list but the previous venue in Gosport was just too far from Falkirk.  The new venue at the Fleet Air Arm Museum is actually still a pretty long trip but I decided to give it a go this year.


Unfortunately I had to be back at work on the following Monday morning so I was only ever going to do the Saturday.  However there was also a Saga Iron Man 2 tournament on Sunday near Matlock so I decided to go for a road trip.  Originally the plan was to drive down on Friday, stay locally, drive up to Derbyshire on the Saturday night and then home after the tournament.  My wife is very supportive of my hobby but was a bit concerned at the amount of driving involved so we changed plans.  She also came down, as did our dog, and we drove down a day early to have a day together in Somerset on Friday then plan as before.


The extremely hot weather was difficult particularly on the drive down.  We needed regular stops to give the dog some air and roadworks made it an 11 hour trip.  Two drivers was definitely a bonus. On Friday we spent most of the time at the beach keeping Beau (our Patterdale/Labrador cross) as cool as possible.  Our hotel, the Ilchester Arms, was very good, extremely dog friendly, and less than 10 minutes away from the Museum.


I was initially a little disappointed at the event as numbers were quite low, probably as a result of the change from an established venue.  However the games were excellent.  First up was, rather surprisingly to me, a Wings of War game.  David Manley has added in rules for motor launches using the same mechanics as the air rules.  Myself and Phil (I hope that name check is correct) each had a Sopwith Baby seaplane and a motor launch and were tasked with capturing or destroying an immobile surfaced U Boat.  German air cover was provided by David and Simon each with a 2 seater seaplane - can't remember the type.


It was actually quite a hard task as in Wings of War 2 seaters can be pretty deadly as they effectively shoot all round  and they were also more robust than our aircraft.  Things were not helped when Phil drew a Boom Card (instant explosion) and lost his Baby early on.  To even things up a Camel was drafted in to bolster the British forces.


Much manouvering and drawing of damage cards ensued but eventually all the British forces were destroyed for the cost of one of the Germans.  Phil's motor launch was nearly able to get in range to make a torpedo attack on the U boat but he just could not quite make it.

My Motor Launch being attacked by a dastardly German floatplane

A bonus was entry into the museum which is well done with many FAA aircraft on display and some excellent models of aircraft carriers.  Worth a visit - we went round rather quickly in an hour but 2 hours would have been enough for a more leisurely stroll round.

A real life Sopwith Baby armed with anti Zeppelin rockets

The afternoon game was a recreation of the Naval attack on Zeebrugge in WW1.  The aim was to get blockships to the lock gates and render them inoperable thus depriving the German Navy of a U boat base.  I was responsible for Monitor fire, air raids and a submarine filled full of explosives used to ram an access route which were all part of the general bombardment/diversion whilst the main attack went in.  I had to leave before the end but I understand one ship managed to fight it's way all the way through to the lock gates and allow us to claim victory for the RN.

HMS Vindictive at the mole

I enjoyed the day but it was a long way to travel so it may require a longer break to allow me to do this again. Still a road trip is always fun and it can't get this hot every summer can it?




(report on second part of the road trip to follow soon)

Another good day at the National Museum of Flight

The first Sunday in May is normally when the National Museum of Flight hosts their Wartime Experience event.  The main focus tends to be outside on WW1 and WW2 re-enactors but there are always also other attractions inside the hangers which for the last six years has included wargames.

The Falkirk club has been an ever present and we have been able to run 2 games each time.  The WW1 Wings of War game has always proved popular with the public.  We strip the rules back a bit to make them fast play and let the public play the game s with a little bit of help from club members.  Kids just love shooting down their parents! 

Our other game was the new Too Fat Lardies ruleset What a Tanker.  I had 3 games of this involving a mixture of club members and the public.  Personally I think this may work better in a wargames show where most of the participants have a little knowledge of such mechanisms.  Not that it is complicated and it does play fairly quickly but it is not so simple Wings of War which is just move , measure range and draw cards for damage. However I will certainly be investing in a set of the What a Tanker rules probably at the Carronade show in Falkirk on Saturday 12th May.

The weather was fantastic which actually worked against us a little as some potential attendees may have preferred a day at the beach and those that came were more inclined to spend time in outside than in the hangers.  However with ourselves, South East Wargames Club and Gothenberg Gamers the wargames hobby had a really good representation and attracted a lot of interest


We had one young lad who was really taken with Wings of War and who came along with his parents to the next club night to have a look around.  This has instigated a debate about our club policy towards minors which seems to be a bit of a minefield.

Games 46

 Rules played 19 New 8
Places played 7 New 0 

Culloden Wargames and Modelling Fair – The Battle of Falkirk Muir

Doug and John and myself made the trip up to Culloden last weekend.  We actually went up on the Friday and stayed in Inverness.  A meal and a couple of drinks helped the evening pass very pleasantly and (after a good breakfast at the local Morrisons) we got to the visitor centre at 9am in time to set up.  We put on the Battle of Falkirk Muir, 17th January 1746, which was appropriate to both the setting and our club (Falkirk and District)

Doug provided all of the figures and had done the prep work to make the recreation look professional to the public with a write up on the battle, providing unit and place names in an appropriate font, and some of the terrain.  John also provided terrain including the cloths which worked well draped over some of the club’s terrain squares.  Between them they had worked out some tweaks to the Maurice rules to better reflect the nature of the warfare (highland charges and the like) and the conditions under which it the battle was fought.  I also had made a few suggestions, all intended to make the refight work both as a faithful recreation of the battle and as a decent game to play as well.

Following the decision to retreat back to Scotland from Derby the previous month the Jacobites were besieging Stirling Castle.  A relief force of government troops under general Hawley advanced from Edinburgh via Linlithgow to raise the siege.  Having expected to face battle on the 15th near Bannockburn the Jacobites decided to force the issue and advanced towards the English camp.  Hawley did not take earlier reports of the Jacobites movements seriously and it was mid-afternoon before he started to mobilise his forces.  His artillery, which was made up of pieces from Edinburgh Castle on improvised carriages, got stuck in the mud and played no part in the battle.  Numbers were about 8000 on the Jacobite side (rather more than at Culloden) and 7000 on the government side.

Both sides considered the occupation of the high ground on the Moor to be key.  Hawley ordered forward his Dragoons in the belief that the opposing Highlanders would not stand against cavalry.  This proved to be a mistake as they kept advancing towards the cavalry who were forced to charge or be hit at the halt.  A devastating volley pretty much stopped them in their tracks and the Highlanders then charged home and quickly broke them.

Battle was joined at 4pm on a dismal Scottish January afternoon with a rainstorm (which turned to sleet) battering in the faces of the government troops.  Seeing the Dragoons flee the foot regiments behind ran without a fight and soon most of the government centre turned and fled as well.    However the right wing, which had some protection from a ravine to its front, stood its ground and fired several very effective volleys into the Highlanders.  A number of the routing troops, including some of the Dragoons, rallied and a good portion of the government army made a measured retreat from the battlefield.  Such was the confusion in the sleet and darkness that the Jacobites only realised they had won the following day and no attempt was made to follow up the victory allowing the government forces to regroup at Edinburgh under the newly arrived Duke of Cumberland.

The above tells the story of the actual battle but could also serve pretty much as a description of the wargame.  I took the government side and John the Jacobites.  We started with the fight between the Dragoons and the Highlanders to keep the historical context – no sane wargamer would have voluntarily committed his forces in that way.   It was set up so that better than average dice from John could have broken the cavalry which, under Maurice, would have led to their instant removal.   However instead they withdrew in some disorder followed up by their foes.  This meant that in order not to lose the Dragoons, which would have had a detrimental effect on army morale, I had concentrate in the early part of the battle on withdrawing them to the rear rather than reorganising my infantry to meet the new threat.

The Jacobite right kept storming forward and my centre also gave way but not without putting up a stiff fight.  My right wing then got into the battle (2 of its units being rated trained whilst the rest were conscripts on the day to reflect their actual performance) and started to redress the balance.

The army morale system allocates each side a morale value at the start of the game.  Mine was 12 to John’s 10.  Each time a unit is lost this is reduced by 1, 2 or 3 depending on a die roll.  Suffice it to say that John’s army could have broken on a bad roll when either of his last two units broke and we were both on 1 on army morale when my army was finally defeated.

Overall a very close run thing which succeeded in being both a close representation of the actual battle and an excellent game to play.  We had a fait bit of interest from members of the public who were complimentary about our efforts.

The event itself was quite small.  A nice looking 28mm Prestonpans was the pick of the other 5 games on offer.  In the afternoon John and Doug entertained a couple of young lads and ran through the battle again with them resulting in a much more emphatic Jacobite victory.  I played a game of Wings of Glory and chatted to one or two of the other people there.

We had pretty much finished by soon after 3 when the organiser offered to let us have a free viewing of the exhibition.  It is very well one.  The highlights for me are a room with screens on all four walls depicting the battle, which was very atmospheric, and a large ground level computer based reconstruction of the movement of the troops on the day with an excellent voice over.  Battlefield tours are available but although it was certainly worth seeing it was a little pricey at £10.50 a head or £25 for a family I thought.

Fortunately the weather was good on both the Friday and Saturday making the drive a pleasant one in both directions – thanks to Doug for providing the transport.

The event will probably be held again next year and we may well be back with another Jacobite Rebellion themed offering.

Photos

 

 

The Jacobite Army

 

 

The Government Foot

 

 

The Artillery gets bogged down

 

 

The Dragoons take the high ground

 

 

View from the government lines

 

 

 

The 28mm Prestonpans Game

Falkirk Big Roman Week - Real PPW again

We were invited along to another 'meet the people' event today.  The Falkirk Big Roman Week consists of a number of events, walks talks films etc.  We were at Kinneil in Bo'ness which is the site of an Antonine Wall fortlet and has a small Roman museum.  The Roman encampment also featured re-enactors in the shape of the Antonine Guard and several other contributors.  The kids enjoyed dressing up and waving plastic Roman swords and shields around.  It is also the first time I have wargamed in a tent!

The main focus of our presentation was a Basic Impetus game.  The idea was that a Roman official had been dispatched from Londinium to inspect the army's progress in building the wall and he was also bringing the soldiers back pay with him.  The local tribe had caught wind of this and were intent on intercepting his coach.  It succeeded both as a game and as a draw for a number of interested spectators. Reversing the result in both the practice games the Coach made it to the local fort to enable the Romans to claim victory, although not before suffering significant casualties.

I did not take part in the game but instead set up the gladiator game  Ludus Gladaitorius - the idea being to show that wargames has a lot of variety to offer.  Although it was quiet at first two quite young brothers had a couple of games and seemed to really enjoy it and then two teenage lads also had a go.  Certainly worth doing.

All in all a pleasant way to pass an afternoon and promote both the club and the hobby.  We may get a further invitation to a WW1 themed event next year.

Photos

 

The Fort

 

The Auxiliary Archers man the walls

 

Cavalry reinforcements

 

A re-enactor looks on

 

The Antoine Guard

 

 

The coach and supplies head for the fort, with the barbarians in the background

 

 

Not quite the right order but you get the idea!

 

A good weekend of gaming

Last weekend I managed 7 games of various types, which must be something of a record.

On the Saturday it started with a game of X wing at Claymore where Chaos of the Warp were running taster sessions.  My second game and I am seriously thinking of buying into this.

The other seven games were with Brian, my mate from down in Washington, who was staying the weekend.

We started with a couple of games of Wings of Glory, which he had purchased at the show.  The 4 planes that come with the set are a bit of a mismatch with a Kittyhawk, Yak 1, an Italian fighter and a Japanese Hien.  Brian had bought a couple of extra planes so we played two Kittyhawks against the Hein.   I took the Kittyhawks in the first game and managed to shoot my opponent down but not before I had also lost a plane, so we called that a draw.  On our second outing Brian managed to shoot my Hien down with no losses so a definite victory to him.   I like the rules but am not sure that I will buy in.

Then followed two board games.  On the Staurday night we played Fury of Dracula, with Brian taking the evil monster and myself and my wife the 4 characters trying to track him down.  The board covers Europe and the trackers rely on reports of his activities, sometimes quite specific others less so.  Brian spent quite a lot of time in Britain and Ireland which fooled us at first.  Angela bailed out at 1 am but, after drawing a lucky card, I managed to track Dracula down to Southern Spain.  Time was running out and I has not retained the right equipment to damage him, so despite winning several rounds of combat Dracula emerged victorious.  Although the game was enjoyable enough I did find that last phase a bit frustrating.

On Saturday morning we started with a 'block' boardgame - Hammer of the Scots.  This starts once Wallaces rebellion has gained some momentum but many Scots nobles have declared for Edward I.  The history has been well thought out but once again I found it a bit difficult to fully grasp the strategy required.  My plan was to reinforce Stirling, take full control of Southern Scotland and then try and push on up to the North.  However an all out assult on Stirling by the Scots at the Earliest opportunity was successful (I was unable to roll 4 or more on 9 dice which did not help) and after that it was an uphill struggle.  I risked all with Edward leading the English in a battle where he was heavily outnumbered and predictably lost.  At that point I conceded .

We concluded with 2 games of Ludus Gladiatorius.  This is a simple Gladiator game we are considering putting on at the Falkirk Big Roman week.  The rules work fine and give a quick fun game.  The 5 Gladiators themselves (prepainted 28mm) are great but the rest of the playing kit will need some work to make them kid proof(ish).  We won one game each.

A very enjoyable weekend with both Claymore and some gaming sessions at home.  Hopefully Brian will be able to come up and stay again soon.  There is talk of another board game called Hannibal...

Roman in the Gloamin'

We have another 'Real Public Participation' (I think I may trademark that term) event coming up.  Falkirk Council is running a Big Roman Week from 14th - 22nd of September and we have agreed to put on a game involving the Antonine Wall in some way yet to be decided, although probably involving Basic Impetus.  Gladiators may also be involved.

The date is the 21st September and the venue is Kinneil House in Bo'ness where there is a Roman Museum.  The line of the Antonine Wall passes through the grounds. Re-enactors and craft stalls will be there - it should be another good opportunity to meet the general public and sell the hobby to them.  This is much nearer home than our other Museum ventures so we may even get a new member or two.

The only downside is that the very next day is the 100 days of War 20th Century Wargames event.  I will make both days but I hope it doesn't put anybody off.

Real PP Wargaming at the Wartime Experience

What a busy wargaming weekend.  Saturday Carronade.  Saturday night a boardgame with Brian.  Sunday down to the National Museum of Flight to take part in their Wartime Experience event.

Following on from the successful wargames participation at the Viking exhibition in Edinburgh we, along with SESWC, were invited to take part in another Museum event.  The only problem was that we did not get much notice and it was the day after Carronade.  Not wanting to miss out we managed to field 7 members and Brian from Washington also came along to help out.

We got there in good time to enjoy a buttie from the burger van, which promised such delicacies as ostrich and springbok burgers for later in the day.

The wargamers were in the ‘Concorde’ hanger along with ‘civilian’ reenactors – we were treated to the vocal talents of the Blitz Sisters and the Flyright Dancers showcased the dances of the period and encouraged public participation.

Outside there were a number of military reenactors of varying nationalities.  Once gain the weather was not great and I was still in recovery mode so I didn’t actually see that much, but enough to want to go back and have a proper look around some of the permanent exhibits.

The Falkirk club put on a Wings of War table and a WW1 naval encounter, South East Scotland a WW2 Bolt Action game.  All were popular with the public, but Wings of War (or should that be Glory) went down particularly well primarily but not exclusively with sons and fathers.   I am sure that online retailers of the system will have seen a sudden burst of activity on Sunday night from addresses in Scotland.

I did my best to help prospective pilots but John, Doug and Brian had much more patience with the youngsters than I could muster.  You know it is often said that computer wargaming is a real threat to the miniatures hobby, but after this experience I disagree.  All the kids are used to playing a variety of different games within defined sets of rules and I was amazed how quickly they picked up the basics of WoW.   I think there is a ready made set of potential wargamers out there if only we can tap into them.  

It was busy almost all day and once again the museum staff seemed very pleased with the contribution both clubs had made to their event.  We are hoping to get further invitations to future exhibitions to continue to spread interest in the hobby and also frankly to have a fun time playing wargames in new and interesting venues.

 

This is a bit dark but you should be able to see the three games with Concorde there in the background towering over us all.

 

SESWC Falise Gap game.  The WW2 equipment on display also drew a lot of interest.

 

Wings of War being explained by Doug, John and Brian (hidden again).

 

A Camel v a Tripe.  We bought the Wings of Glory mats to help bring the game to life and they are certainly very good, although they could really do with one  showing trenches and no mans land.

 

Fame at Last!

A few weeks ago and following on from our participation in the Viking event at the museum the local rag did an article on the club.  We were slightly nervous as we have all seen reports that have painted wargamers in as odd at best, fascist warmongers at worst, but in fact they painted us in a positive light.

They have now made us their 'community group of the week' http://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/community/group-of-the-week-1-2865562
Warning - the link includes a picture of some of the members of the club posing for our photograph!

Wargames at the National Museum of Flight

Following on from  the successful event at the National Museum of Scotland in support of their Viking exhibition (see report here http://leadwarriordavek.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/real-public-participation-wargaming.html) the organisers of the Wartime Experience http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/museum_of_flight/whats_on/wartime_experience.aspx have decided to repeat the experiment.

This has only been confirmed in the last week so details may change but at the moment it looks as if three participation games will be put on.  The Falkirk club plan to do WW1 air with Wings of War and WW1 naval recreating part of Jutland.  SESWC are also on board, possibly with a Bolt Action game.  I will post updates on the blog as we have them.

The only real downside is the date, which is Sunday 12^th May, the day after our Carronade show in Falkirk.  This will inevitably reduce the number of club members able to take part.  However we are very much committed to building an ongoing relationship with the Scottish Museums to spread the word beyond the normal confines of the hobby so agreed to participate.  It is also great fun and we get to see the event and museum as well.

 

Real Public Participation Wargaming

The National Museum of Scotland hosted a small wargaming event in support of their current Viking exhibition on Sunday.  I was there with the Falkirk and District Wargames club (there were 9 of us there in total) doing a large scale Basic Impetus game of the Battle of Cruden Bay or ‘The Slaughter of the Danes’.   South East Scotland Wargames Club put on Viking raid using the Dux Britanniarum rules.  The Edinburgh Hub partnered with 6s2Hit to present a quick fire game of The Siege of Paris, a one to one game called Men of the Sword, and they also supported a painting area.

This was the first time I had taken part in an event outside of the more traditional wargaming mainstream and I thought it went very well indeed.  Although numbers weren’t huge, perhaps 250 – 300, most seemed genuinely interested.  The guy running the painting table where 28mm Vikings were being painted up, largely by relatively young kids, had about 80 takers and looked pretty busy for almost all of the day.  The Siege of Paris was very popular with the youngsters and only took about a quarter of an hour to play which worked well.  The Men of the Sword table had a good number of takers and the SESWC game also attracted interested spectators.

We ran our game 4 times during the day.  The battlefield was split into 3 zones effectively resulting in 3 separate battles each time.  A club member was available to play each game but was ready to give up the slot and/or assist any member of the public who wanted to have a go.  Although that happened only about a third of the time there was also lots of good engagement with people showing an interest rather than wanting to actually play.  The club had bought some plastic Gripping Beast Vikings and we gave away sprues to those that had taken part.  We also used the opportunity to promote our show, Carronade, on 11th May.

I hope we get the opportunity to do something like this again.  Usually when we talk about public participation games we mean games at wargames shows played by wargamers and their offspring.  It was very good to see an interest being shown by a much wider section of the population and we may have sparked a lifetime interest in the hobby with one or two kids, or provided an insight into what is out there to some of the adults.    The Museum was pleased with the event so we might get an invitation back or to one of their sister venues.  All in all a fun and rewarding day.

 

 Scots settlement

 

 

The full table, Scots to the right and Vikings to the left and some of our club members 

 

 

The Seige of Paris, before the Vikings disembark from their ships

 

 

The Men of the Sword gameboard

 

 

The Vikings go 'A Viking'

 



Vikings! Tomorrow!

http://feastbowl.wordpress.com/

Sunday is our trip to the National Museum of Scotland .  Lets hope the public turns up and participates - wargamers welcome too of course

I will post up an account of how it went.  The link is to the museum blog where club member John has given some more background to the battle and wargaming in general.

Falkirk Club at Viking exhibition in Edinburgh

The National Museum of Scotland is holding a Viking exhibition which runs until 20^th May.  However the most important date for your diary is Sunday 10^th March when they are hosting a ‘Viking Wargames Day’.  A number of clubs will be putting on games.

More details on the exhibition here

http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum/exhibitions/vikings.aspx

The Falkirk club is recreating The Battle of Cruden - or the "Slaughter of the Danes" from 1012.  This saw Malcolm II lead his Scots army against invading Danish Vikings led by none other than Canute, then Prince of Denmark. The result was a bloody draw but a strategic victory for the Scots.

We will be using a slightly modified version of Basic Impetus.  The game is designed to be accessible to members of the public who may have little knowledge or experience of wargaming.  They will be able to take control of a command and will get to roll some dice.

Please pass details on to anyone who you think might be interested.  We don’t often have such direct access to the non wargaming public so I do hope it will be a success and might even attract some new people into the hobby.