Sunday 31 March 2013

Maurice AWI Game refight

Yesterday Gus and Nathan had another go at the AWI game for Legionary.  The armies have been tweaked a bit again to try and make it a closer game.

The Americans are attacking with 12 infantry units (9 trained, 3 conscript), 2 cavalry (1 trained and 1 conscript) and 2 artillery.  They have Great Captain, Oblique and Clerics as national characteristics.

The British have 8 infantry (3 elite and 5 trained), 1 cavalry and 3 guns.  Their characteristics are Rally to the Colours, Cadence and oblique.  We dropped lethal volleys as the last game we played saw the British smash the Americans, changing it for cadence.

 The British deployed in a double line with all the elite infantry on their right and the cavalry and all the guns on the left.
 The Americans deployed the conscript infantry and both cavalry on their left, facing the elite British.  The right and centre had all the regular infantry in column to speed up the advance.
 Turn one saw the American infantry advance and swing around ready to form line facing the British.  The British infantry advanced to try to get into volley range, but came up short.
 Turn two and the American infantry turned to form line and advanced to within musket range.  The British initiated the first volley phase, but both sides were suddenly shrouded in dense smoke and the fire was fairly ineffectual. The infantry unit beside the town deployed as a garrison to secure the objective.
 Turn three saw the another volley phase, which was a bit more effective from both sides.  The concentrated fire of one of the British line units destroyed one of the American guns.  The American cavalry moved around the right flank.  Another volley phase saw more disruptions, then the British passed to gain more cards.
 Turn four and the remaining American gun was destroyed.  The US cavalry reformed on the flank of the British line, forming mass ready to charge.  As volley after volley thundered out along the line, the British light infantry tried to advance out of the cavalry charge arc, while the Grenadiers wheeled to try and face the charge.

Turn five and the volley phase saw a British elite unit rout, leaving a gap between the right flank and the remainder of the army.  The regular US cavalry charged into the rear of the light infantry, while the conscripts faced off against the Grenadiers.  The fight was a win for the cavalry, but not by enough to break the light infantry.  Another round of firing and one infantry unit from each side routed.  The British general made an attempt to salvage things, using a co-ordinated card to move the cavalry and rally his infantry.

 Turn six and the volleys routed another British line unit, while the cavalry charged again into the back of the light infantry, routing them as well.This spelt the end for the British as they were down to a solitary army point while the Americans still had eleven of their original sixteen.
 The post mortem of the battle means the British may well get lethal volleys back again, replacing cadence.  They were smashed in a very quick game, they didn't even get through the original deck of cards.  Losses were four British infantry and two notables killed against one American infantry and two guns.  Not a good day for the forces of the king!

Thanks to Nathan and Gus for playing it, allowing me to take notes and just see how things played.  One thing that did show up is that I need more trees!



Wednesday 27 March 2013

Another Week and more gaming

It's been a good week for wargaming, but not so good for health issues.

We have finished our Twilight 2000 session for a while.  We may go back to it this year, but that depends on what other games we get into.  Last Monday we played the first in a Zombicide mini-campaign.  Four of the six survived, although two were injured.  The other two tried to hang on to get into the "red" experience zone and got munched by zombies.  Oh dear, how sad.  I survived and was in the "red" so I start the next scenario with a scatter gun.  Shiney!

Last Saturday saw a few of us gather at JJ's house to fight the Rolica scenario he has designed.  I took the French against the combined aggression of Nathan, Gus, Steve and Mike.  I won't go into detail as its all there on JJ's blog, but I was one move away from holding the ridge for long enough to win.  It was fun and I recommend it if you want a challenging game.  The French can't hold, but can "win".  Thanks to JJ for having us all over and to the others for a good game.

On Saturday Gus and I are off to Nathan's gaming emporium again, this time for a 15mm AWI game.  It is a trial run of the planned scenario for the Legionary show game that Gus and I are putting on.  It will be nice to get a third person's view of the game. Luckily I have managed to finish off the last two units, as well as two final Notables and a "cleric" base for the Americans.  Just need to base them now and that is it all done.   At least until I get the Hessian/Hanoverian contingent............and the French..........and Loyalist Americans...............

Health wise I have had a pretty mixed time.  Last week I was feeling better and thinking that maybe the stomach ache was caused by a gluten intolerance.  This week has not been so good and I am feeling pretty crap again.  Ah well, nothing is ever easy, so I'll just keep on with the tablets and no-wheat diet and see what happens.  Painting speed has taken a hit, but I have now painted 800 15mm figures, mostly Napoleonics and AWI, but with a few WW2 mixed in.  I'm happy enough with that, it's less than I would have liked but more than I expected.


Well keep on rolling those dice and I'll catch you later.

PS.  The out...ahem, in-laws are done again from tomorrow until Monday, so little or nothing will get done over the weekend.  That's one reason why Nathans offer of putting on a game on Saturday was so eagerly taken up.

Saturday 23 March 2013

15mm Napoleonics

I don't put up many pictures of the Napoleonic figures I have been painting as I don't base them so they are never really finished when I send them off.  The two chaps I paint them for base them and have kindly sent me some pictures, so you can finally see some of the many figures I have painted.

So here they are
French Heavy Cavalry

French Heavy Cavalry again


British and Dutch-Belgian Infantry

French Infantry and artillery


British and D-B Infantry again
French columns advance

Closer look at the French


































Some Tigers I also painted






That is a small portion of the figures I have painted for them, but its nice to see them finished off.

Off to finish the 5th Belgian Dragoons now.  Have fun folks.

Monday 18 March 2013

Trees, AWI and Rugby

Hello again.  This week I have mostly been messing about with trees.  As I have made about 80 trees using the Woodlands Scenics armatures and bushes I decided it was time to base them up.  I bought some of the tree templates from 4ground, with either two or three 60mm removable bases.  After a bit of playing around I have finally made these.
Closer look with base removed
 I now have 11 templates (6x2 and 5x3) with about 40 trees on them.  I think they work pretty well and should do for both 15mm and 25mm games.  They are quite flexible, especially as the trees can be removed to allow units to move through them.
I have ordered some extra 60mm bases to make up as rough ground, which will double the use of the templates.  I still have about 40 trees to base, but these will be individually based on 40mm bases.
British column in woods

I reckon that will be enough trees for any gaming I do, as I only have space for a 6'x4' table.
British Infantry, Artillery and Commanders

British Grenadiers and Lights


I have also finished some more of the AWI figures for Legionary.  The British have gained two units of regular infantry, a unit of combined Grenadiers, a combined unit of Light Infantry, three guns, one general and two "notables". 

 The Americans have also gained two units of infantry and two "notables", plus a rebased general.

All I have left to do now is a unit of cavalry for each side plus some disorder markers.


 While feeling crap has slowed down production this week, I have managed to finish off a platoon of the plastic Flames of War Germans from the Open Fire box.  I am impressed with these, they look excellent and are a good match for the more expensive metal figures.


 And finally a big cheer for the Welsh rugby team who managed to exceed my expectations by a lot on Saturday.  I thought they would win, but not by 27 points.  Totally bossed the scrums and controlled the game well.  Can anyone spot the Welshman in this picture?
Which one is Welsh?

Off now to try and find my painting mojo.  Its here somewhere.  Have fun and keep rolling those dice.




Monday 11 March 2013

More painting and random thoughts

Well the week has gone by again, so here I am with another random ramble through the so-called thoughts I have had. 

Painting wise I had a pretty good week, with nearly 130 figures painted.  45 were for the forthcoming AWI game while the remainder were all Napoleonics for Andy and Keith in Cornwall.  Campaign Game Miniatures have provided almost everything I have painted, with a mix of French Guard Lancers and Dutch-Belgian cavalry getting finished.  Next up are some 15mm German Pak 40's with crew, then its back to the Napoleonics with 2 more units of Dutch-Belgian cavalry to do.  I have started a new process for painting this year, which has involved keeping a log of what I paint each month, keeping a running total of how much I have painted so far and mixing up what I paint so I don't get bored with doing one thing.  So far this year I have painted Napoleonic Prussian landwehr, Dutch-Belgian infantry,  horse artillery, light and heavy cavalry, French Old Guard infantry, foot artillery and lancers.  Mixed in between units of these I have also painted WW2 Germans, British and American infantry and some American Paras, plus AWI British and American infantry, artillery, cavalry and indians.  So that seems to be working and I am hopefully going to paint more this year than I ever have before.

Monday nights Twilight session went reasonably well, in that nobody has died yet.  We have been semi-conscripted into the Czech army, which is probably going to be a major pain in the arse.  We have had to send 8 of our team off to help them sort out some bandits, but it just seems to be a slave raid to me as we need to take as many as possible alive.  Ah well.  Thursday was care in the community day as I picked up my mate Panjo and we, along with Gus, went over to Nathans to play a couple of boardgames.  The reason for this was Mrs Panjo was having a pampered chef party and he would do anything to get out of the house.  We ended up playing Pandemic and Zombicide.  Both are cooperative games which require the players to work together and both games were won, which made a change.  Pandemic involved some real brain searching and we managed to find the final cure on the last play of the game.  Zombicide was played twice and both times we won.  I think we have now figured out how to manage the zombies fairly well, so long as everybody works as a team.  It made a pleasant change to have all the players agree to a plan and then stick to it.  Not once did we have anybody say "I don't have to do what you all say", which we have had before.  It was a fun evening and I hope we can fit some more in at some point.

Sadly I missed Saturdays meeting of the Devon Wargames Group as I went down to see my Mum.  She has just got out of hospital and Saturday was the only day we could go down to see her.  So we did and watched a dire game of rugby between Wales and Scotland.  Yes, Wales won but what a crap game it was.  Oh, and hard luck to Italy who had a better than fair chance of winning today against a poor effort by England. 

My online gaming is going to change too.  Mostly we have been playing World of Tanks, but the last few updates and changes made have taken a lot of the enjoyment out of it for me.  There are too many stupid bits that make no sense, like tanks in the open that fire at you and then magically disappear or tanks that manage to sneak up on you and get within 10 feet of you before you can see them. There are other things too, but life is too short to list them all here.  One good thing is I have rediscovered Team Fortress 2, which is fun and free.  So much mayhem and rapid fire will still ensue.

Tomorrow is hospital day, which has only taken 3 months to come around.  Hopefully Dr whoever will thing of something new and sort out my gut, so fingers crossed.  I am seriously f****d off with having stomach ache almost all the time and feeling or being sick whenever I eat anything.  So wish me luck.

I am off now to paint some AWI commander figures, so keep rolling those dice and remember to cheer on Wales in the 6 Nations decider next Saturday. 

Monday 4 March 2013

Twilight 2000 and AWI Maurice Game

Monday night was Twilight 2000 night last week and will be again this week and next week.  Once or twice each year we dust off an ongoing Twilight game.  This game was started back before I joined the Monday night group, and I have been there for nearly 20 years now.  There are 5 players, but each has 2 or 3 characters to run and we are trying to get back to the west from Poland.  It has taken us this long to get into Czechoslovakia so I don't think we will ever finish it, but its not a terrible way to spend the evening.  We are currently holed up for (hopefully) the winter in an abandoned monastery/commune in the Czech mountains.  We need to fill our fuel tanks up again with homebrewed methanol and try not to starve through the winter.  Our group currently has 4 vehicles, two Hummers, a 5ton truck and a captured BTR-60.   It will go well until Colin or Nathan bumps into anybody (no, really, anybody....anybody at all) and then the bullets will fly, the excrement will hit the fan and we will have to evacuate the area at high speed.

Saturday saw Gus and Nathan visit my humble abode to play a game of Maurice set in the American Rebellion Revolution.  It is a playtest of the game that Gus and I are putting on at Legionary in May, so some figures are missing(hence the empty or unfinished bases) and the scenery is still a work in progress.  The buildings are all stand-ins and the trees are unfinished too.

Initial setup (Americans at the top)
 The scenario presently has a larger American force attacking a better quality British force.  The Americans had 10 regular infantry, 4 irregular infantry, 2 cavalry and 1 cannon, while the British had 8 regular infantry, 1 cavalry and 2 cannons.  The British were set up defending a plantation house that the Rebels had to capture. 

Americans advance as the British cannons fire
As the game progressed we quickly realised that the Americans were going to struggle.  The map we are using came from Battlefinder, which is an excellent source for random battlefields.  The amount of trees and the angle of the scenery in relation to the troops caused problems for the advancing regular troops, while the British held their ground and bombarded(ineffectually).

The Americans had the skirmisher ability, giving the irregulars long range fire(18cm vs 12cm).  Unfortunately they were only hitting on 6's and the effect they had was limited.
British right flank drives back the irregulars
 They did annoy the British enough for the 3 units on the right flank advanced out and chased off the irregulars.  After a few quick volleys 2 of the American units routed and the British troops fell back to their defensive positions again.

 As the game came to a conclusion due to using up all the cards, we determined that the irregulars were useless in this scenario, the British were rock hard in their defensive positions and we needed to change things.

See, that's why you playtest a game before going to the show!  So now the Americans will have no irregulars, more regular infantry and the British may end up attacking.

I love it when a plan comes together.  I am off now to spend some time with Mrs WWID before going to play Twilight later.  Have fun and keep rolling those dice.