July in Exeter

 Saturday was the monthly meeting of the Devon Wargames Group, which is probably the nicest gathering of lunatics you will ever find.  I managed to make it there this month, although it wiped me out for Sunday and this morning, but it was well worth it.  Two games were on this time, with Chas putting on a Kenyan game using Chain of Command.

 This is the Kenyan table, British coming from the right and Communists on the left.  No idea what the scenario was as I was rather busy getting my men shot on the other table.




Here you can see some of the nasty rebellious Communist types sneakily sneaking through the bush.  Damned sneaky types!

 Ah, the gallant defenders of afternoon tea, Wimbledon and cricket have quietly arrived in their armoured vehicles.  Nothing like some Saracens to pacify the rebellious locals.

 The sneaky types advance towards the village, but seemed to be slowed down by the Browning machine guns on the Saracens.

 British infantry stopping for a quick brew while the Saracens win the hearts and minds of the locals by shooting them.  Those playing seemed to have a good time, which is the aim of the game at the end of the day.  Nice game Chas.








 The other game was a Rorke's Drift scenario set up by Nathan "Stumpy" Goodyear.  There were two three reasons for this, he bought the buildings and figures, I painted the buildings for him and it is 50 years since the "Zulu" film was released.

Four very dodgy types commanded the British garrison.  Jon "I'm used to be indecisive" Jones was both Chard and Bromhead and commanded the defenders of the storehouse.  His command style can only be described as changeable.  In 4 turns he ordered the British to fall back to the smaller compound, then countermanded that to hold the larger hospital compound and, then, changed it back to the original plan.  It's probably best not to mention the redoubt either, which was noticeable in its absence.

 Here is CinC JJ deploying some of the thin red line as my son Michael "Where's all me troops gone" looks on.





The other British commanders were Michael, Charlie and Nathan.   Michael defended the mealie bag wall behind the hospital as Sergeant Windridge and his command was let down badly by the actions of his immediate superior, Colour Sergeant Bourne!  Charlie was defending the hospital as CS Bourne and, following a markedly exaggerated report to JJ, he was given 4 of Michael's men to bolster his defence.  This came back to sting the Brits as Charlies sector was the most secure of all the British areas and Michael's wasn't.  Nathan commanded Surgeon-Major Reynolds and a small detachment of soldiers tasked with building the redoubt.  The less said about this the better, unless your a Zulu when you should mention it repeatedly. 

 Speaking of Zulu', here they are in all their glory.  Not really enough for the assault so we had to recycle them, but it looked good on the table.  The four Zulu commanders split the forces evenly and then attacked from both sides. 

 Here is the thin line under Sgt Windridge.  The building behind them is the hospital, which didn't burn down.

 Reynolds operates on some poor soul as the soldiers prepare to not build a redoubt.  The building is the store, which did burn down through a slight accident by a "Bloody Englishman" in the roof.  Nobody told him that thatch would burn, honest they didn't.

 Zulus' farsands of them.  Well, a few anyway.  This was my first wave, which was very badly treated by the damned Redcoats.

 A look at the south wall as the Zulus close in.  Despite the best efforts of the Zulu indunas the British fire was very effective and many brave warriors fell as the advanced.

 At least some reached the defences, where the sharp steel of the European bayonets was a match for that of the Zulu iklwas.

 Oops, where have all the Zulu's gone?  The rules worked very well, with the larger Zulu units being gradually worn down by attritional fire before being broken at the wall,  but usually they managed to take a couple of Redcoats with them.

 the north side, where the store was swarmed quickly, but as the British had decided to burn all the supplies the Zulu's were forced to go around it.  Damned sneaky those British!

 The 2nd (or 3rd) wave of Zulu's breaches the defences, but was driven back by some devastating fire followed by a charge of rallied redcoats.  In the background you can see Reynolds finishing off, ahem, healing the wounded.

 Too many cameras.  Here we have Charlie, Jack, Michael and JJ.  I'm not sure how many photos were taken, but there is a nice report on the DWG blog by JJ.  Hopefully we will see Jacks photos too.

 More Zulu's advance as the flanks start to collapse.  Despite being ordered to send men out of the hospital to help with the defence, Colour Sergeant Bourne decided to ignore the order and kept all his troops inside.  No VC for him methinks.  It was at this point that Bromhead went down with a nasty splinter, leaving Chard to command alone.

 The krall is supposed to be for cattle, not Zulus.  Six gallant redcoats do their best to hold of 60 Zulu warriors.  They died where they stood, but held the wall.

 Windridge's men did their best but, lacking support and falling fast, they were pushed back from the barricade.  If only they had a few more men, but where were they?  Maybe somebody should check the hospital for any malingerers!  Now if only they had a redoubt to fall back too, that would have been nice!






  The wall between the store and hospital was finally in action.  It took the Zulu's a long time to get there as Charlies fire dice were damned good, whittling down several waves of attackers before they could get to charge.  the action ended as the Zulu's fell back to lick their wounds.  The British had held out again, but with horrendous losses of well over 50%.  Thanks to Nathan for putting the game on and everybody else for playing it so well.  A thoroughly enjoyable game.  Now get painting so we can do Isandlwana!

Talking of painting, here is the latest offering.  A nice 4ground mdf wagon.  It took longer than I had planned as I had to try to make it look like wood planks.

Anyway, I am off now to prepare tonight Bag the Hun game.  Have fun and I'll catch you later.

Damn.

Last weekend I got quite a bit of painting done, which is usually a good thing.  Sadly the downside is I have had to reduce one of my anti-nausea tablets due to the potential side effects.  I was on 2 Domperidone after each meal, which did help reduce the generally bad way I felt after eating.  I am now on 1 tablet after each meal as the potential side effect is worse than feeling sick or throwing up.  It's quite a serious side effect too, Sudden Cardiac Death!  I mean seriously, how is that a good side effect for anything at all, ever?

Still,I got some more aircraft done with 9 Ju87 Stukas joining the ever increasing Luftwaffe armada. 

More Luftwaffe nasties

 I now have 16 Bf109s, 4 Bf110s, 24 He111s, 9 Ju88s and 9 Ju87s painted for the Germans, all faced by a lonely and outnumbered 12 Hurricanes.  I still have more to paint (14 Bf109s, 24 Bf110s, 21 Do17s, 12 Ju87s, 12 Hurricanes and 12 Spitfires), but at least there are enough done now for a decent game.  I need some Defiants though, just because, plus some French types to do the Battle of France, maybe some Polish ones too............its never ending.

Rorke's Drift Defences

I also got the defences for Nathan's Rorke's Drift set done, 4 sections of wall and 8 assorted defence bits all done and ready for him to base up.  They are all about 6" long and rather nice, although the details on some of the boxes were missing due to air holes.

Barricaded wagon, rather nice.

Finally there is the nicest piece of the set, the barricaded wagon.  This really is a nice piece and was a pleasure to paint up.


Now, while this is a reasonable amount of painting considering how crap I feel, there is a considerable downside to it.  I was supposed to be going to Casa de JJ yesterday to play the Battle of Oporto on his beautiful scenery with his rather nice figures, but I had a couple of bad nights.  They were followed by a bad day which resulted in me not being well enough to go.  Not b****y impressed!  So, sorry JJ, I would rather have been there than here mate.  I hope the game went well.

Anyway, catch you all later.

Bag the Hun (or Dakka Dakka Dakka!)

Monday night was Dogfight night, as we started a mini-campaign using the Too Fat Lardies Bag the Hun rules and Finest Hour supplement.  Four of the lads have taken the roles of British pilots while I ran the whole thing and Nathan assisted with the dastardly Hun fliers.  Squadron Leader Robert "Zobski" Zaple leads the squadron, A Flight and Red section.  Flight Lieutenant Andrew "Bunny" Noel is Blue one and leads B Flight.  Flying Officers Colin "Ollie Ollie" Edgecombe (Yellow One) and Paul "Pingu" Pengilly (Green One) make up the rest of the section leaders.  Day one saw A Flight (Red and Yellow sections) scrambled to intercept 10+ bandits approaching their airfield, while B Flight(Blue and Green) were on patrol.  Game one was A Flights battle, with the 6 Hurricanes climbing up to take on 6 Heinkel He111s and 4 Messerschmidt BF109s.

A head on intercept was the result of the set up and Red section was soon attacking the Heinkels from the front, while Yellow section swung in behind them to get better shots.  An accurate burst from SL Zaple caused the German flight leader to veer out of formation, straight into the guns of Pilot Officer Vivian, a sprog on his first combat flight.  A slightly extended burst later and the Heinkel exploded spectacularly(Roll a 10 on a "very critical" hit and that's what happens).  This caused Zaple and one of the Heinkels to go out of control, but Vivian flew on admirably and was soon evading the retribution of the 109s.

Yellow section in position

Yellow section was also firing, but couldn't manage more than light damage to the Heinkels (Colin's shooting was poor and Nathan's defence rolls were very lucky).  Rifle calibre machineguns need a lucky shot to take down a bomber.  They did manage to break the formation up, but were soon forced to break off by the attentions of the 109s.  Despite the best efforts of all concerned, no more aircraft were shot down.  Several were damaged, including 2 Hurricanes which crashed on return to RAF Croyden, but the flight had done enough to disrupt the bombers.  One kill, three probables and all RAF pilots returned safe, although that was more due to the robustness of the Hurricane than anything else, made it a successful day for A flight.  Now we just need to see how B flight get on with their mission in a couple of weeks.

It was a fun way to pass a Monday evening, but I was struggling by the end of the night and then didn't get much sleep as I felt so crap.  Then I had to be up early to take No2 son to fail his driving theory test yet again. 

More Heinkels!

Ho hum, never mind, keep smiling and all that jazz.  I have managed to get 15 more Heinkel He111s painted, which now gives me 24 available.   I am now back onto the Rorke's Drift scenery and 15mm Napoleonics, oh the joy of it all.  ;-)

Keep rolling those dice.

And now for something completely different!

Last weekend was spent down in sunny Cornwall, annoying my mother and visiting the Classic Air Force museum at St Mawgan.  Its not the best advertised attraction but is well worth a visit if your in the area.  The staff are very helpful and pleasant, which is always a bonus.

VC10 Tanker Aircraft

 There are a selection of aircraft kept there, mostly post World War 2.  First thing that grabs your attention is a VC-10K3 tanker aircraft.  Massive doesn't really cover it, that is my 6' stepfather walking beside the wheels.  You can get a guided tour of the aircraft as well, which is a true plane of the 60's with thousands of dials in the cockpit. 



Other aircraft on display include a Venom, a Hunter, a BAC 1-11, Meteor, Harrier, Rapide, Chipmunk etc.  All in all a lovely collection and well worth the entrance price.

Venom

 

Hunter T8

My Favourite the DH Rapide

Mum and Harrier GR3

 In a small room in the display hanger is a ridiculous model aircraft collection, the vast majority of which came from one man's widow.  There are over 300 models on display and, apparently, another 400 still in storage.  Here are a few pictures of what is a staggering collection.  Puts my figure collection to shame really.

I also managed a bit of painting, finishing another unit of 18mm Napoleonic British and some 28mm Winter War Russians.  Normal service will now be resumed.

40th Foot

Baker Coy WW Russians

Rorke's Drift Buildings

I finally managed to finish painting something.  Unfortunately is wasn't for me, but you can't have everything can you?  So, here they are, 4grounds Rorke's Drift buildings painted up for Nathan and delivered to him yesterday.

The buildings themselves were from Gus' collection, bought by Nathan and then I was talked into painting them for him.   The details on them are nice, with push out sections for loopholes and to allow passage from room to room, but so many bricks!  Biggest problem was getting the roof sections to fit properly after doing the teddybear fur thatch.  All in all I am happy with them, they took enough coats of paint to cover the mdf, which seems to have the absorbancy of a sponge.

Front detail

Storehouse front

Lots and lots of little rooms

Left side

Steps up to the first floor

Roof section removed

Hospital front

Hospital rear

 

 

 

Whole roof removed

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roof removed and mezzanine floor left

Now all I have left to paint is a load of mealie bag defences, some boxes and 6 assorted carts.  I have put them on hold for a little while though as I am painting some 15mm Napoleonic British, because I have somehow not painted enough of the redcoated little buggers! 

Have fun folks and keep rolling those damn dice.

Operation Market Larden II, a day of lardie games in Evesham.

The second Market Larden games day has now been and gone and much fun was had by all.  Thanks to the Wyvern Wargamers for hosting us all again and thanks to all those who put on games for us to play.  There were some lovely looking games on again this year, with a range of options to cater for almost every taste.  I have added a few pictures from each of the games, more of the Benouville game put on by Ade that I played against Geoff of the demon dice.

Rich points out the finer details of the table

 First up was 28mm Chain of Command "Le Port" put on by Too Fat Lardies Rich Clarke.  British Paras against Germans, it looked and sounded like fun.  The scenery was excellent, even if it is in the wrong scale.  ;-)  There were rumours of an overly aggressive play by the Paras, who charged down the table and pinned the Germans into a quarter in the morning session, but Nathan "Charge, charge and Charge again" Goodyear(aka Stumpy) said this was just rumour mongering from the Germans.

Paras charge into the dastardly huns!

A closer look at the church.

Lovely scenery, with its own pool complex

Next up was a beautiful game of Through the Mud and the Blood by Sidney Roundwood.  The scenery and figures were all eyecatching and I almost wished I had put down to play it just because it looked so pretty.  Pingu played Gaston, the 'ero of Paris.  They held the town but lost the wood apparently, but who cares when it looks so good?

The nasty Huns advance in numbers

French defenders ready themselves

A river, a village, what more is needed?

Third table was "Saving Mrs Ryan", a Sharp Practice game by S. Walker set in the Indian Mutiny.  Yet another lovely looking game with lots of colonial infantry figures facing lots of rebellious native types.  No idea if Mrs Ryan was saved, but I hope she was.

Gallant redcoats advance down the road.

Napoleonics in the Spanish countryside

There was another Sharp Practice game, Napoleonic Peninsular this time, by J Ibbotson.  Again it looked very good and was certainly vocal in its support.  

Marders advance

Now a foray into the more modern era with a game of I 'aint been Nuked Mum by Nick Overland.  Lots of lovely Cold War kit on the table and it seemed to go well.

The fleets advance to secure the islands

 Napoleonic naval also appeared, with Kiss Me Hardy run by Nick Skinner.  The ships were beautifully painted and rigged and the kalistra hexon islands looked good with their sandy shorelines.

The calm before the storm.

Loudest game of the day had to go to Omaha Beach I 'aint been Shot Mum by Mike Whittaker.  It seemed to be going well for the Allies as they broke through the wire, DD tank number 4 seemed to lead a charmed life as it shrugged of hits from all and sundry.

The defences are breached

Benouville in 15mm (The One True Scale)

Now we come to the games I played in personally.  In the morning session I was lucky enough to get the Benouville Chain of Command game put on by Ade Deacon.  I had the Germans of 21 Panzer Division, tasked with recapturing the buildings and driving the British Paras back.  My forces were reasonable, with a full platoon well supported by lightly armoured (wafer thin armour) halftracks.  My opponent was Geoff "Demon Dice" Bond, whose cheerful smile covered an unnatural ability to roll 9+ on 2d6 every time he fired a PIAT.

Geoff "Demon Dice" Bond and his patriotic shirt!

Germans advance on the left

The game went well initially, I pushed on with my plan to push up the left and outflank the British.  then a British section ran down the road on the right and, while it stood in the open, I just couldn't resist and attacked it with a 75mm pak halftrack and a full squad.  A couple of rounds firing saw the British wiped out, but at the cost of my junior leader.  Then the sneaky PIAT team used an ambush attack and damaged the halftrack too.  Meanwhile, as I pushed up the left flank with 2 squads and 2 halftracks, I came under sporadic but accurate sniper fire.  Bang, whizz, splat,  dead junior leader again.  It was looking good though, the British were down to 4 force morale and I was still on 6.

More appears on the left

So I advanced, and that bloody PIAT ambushed again and, despite being at extreme range and firing at an obscured target, the 2cm flak halftrack was taken out without firing a shot.  My force morale plummeted to 3 and things were looking bad.

Right flank target draws heavy fire

Then Geoff did it again, ambushing for a third time with his cursed PIAT and killing the previously damaged halftrack, taking my force morale down to 0 and winning the game for the British.  Every shot with the PIAT hit on a roll of 9 or more, every single shot.  Well played Geoff, well played.

The Germans push on through the orchards

The scenario was excellent, really difficult for both sides, but achievable.  Look for it in a future TFL special, I can recommend it, but only if the two players do not know what their opponent has in his force.

Thanks to Ade for all his work in setting the game up, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am now looking at getting the forces needed to put the game on myself.

Right flank adavnce

Another look at the table.

In the afternoon I played Tinstar, put on by Geoff.  His presence had totally knackered my dice rolling by now and I couldn't hit a barn door.  I fired 4 shots with a shotgun, which hits 5 out of 6 times.  I hit once.  Just once.  Nathan didn't do any better as he and Pingu traded misses with their rifles.  Unsurprisingly the evil sheriff managed to get his "witness" to the courthouse, but by then 5 out of 6 bandits were dead so it didn't really matter.  I enjoyed the game though and the changes to the system have improved it.  Keep up the good work Geoff.

And that's it.  After an early start, a drive up punctuated by 50mph average speed cameras and some good games with excellent company, we travelled home.  I have spent most of today recovering, but it was well worth it.  Put me down for next year Ade.