Devon Wargames and painting some French people

 Now that the grandchildren are out with my wife I can sit down and do a wargames update.  Last Saturday was the first meeting of 2015 for the Devon Wargames Group.  A large turnout enjoyed a mixed bag of games.  Jon has already done a nice write up of his AWI game, the other offerings were a Bush Wars Chain of Command by Steve and Chas or Star Wars X-Wing by Steve and Phil(I think). 

 First up is a pic of the X-Wing game, which included over 20 ships and seemed to be enjoyed by the people who played it.  I already have some ships for this, so it's no temptation luckily.  I can't say the same about the forthcoming Star Wars:Armada though.  I think this may be my first deviation from my plans for 2015.



Next we have a couple of pictures from Jon's very pretty AWI Maurice game, as detailed on the DWG blog.  As usual Jon put on a cracking game and the scenario was interesting.  Again, I already have figures for this, although it has made me get some of my unpainted Hessians out and start prepping them.

 The final picture is from the Bush Wars CoC game.  A very quick game with small forces, this was played twice before I left at 1pm and then twice more after I left.  I am not sure if the Zipra/Zanla types ever "won", but they did kill all the farmers at least once before running away from the devastating firepower of the RLI troops. 

 Now this month I have, so far, mostly been painting French.  Two sizes for two periods, so it's been interesting.  First up has been two 24 figure units of 25mm French Napoleonic Line infantry.  I believe that they are Foundry figures, but I may be wrong.  These have been my first foray into "larger" Napoleonics and, time wise, they have been a complete PITA!  I cannot yet paint these fast enough to ever be able to make a living out of painting them, although unit two did get finished quite a lot quicker than unit one.  They are carrying flags of the 54th and 55th Ligne, just because I had them here left over from Gus' collection.

The other figures have been a 15mm WW2 Chain of Command platoon of 1940 French infantry.  All told its 64 figures and one 25mm gun.  I just need to do a few little tanks up, plus maybe some odd figures like FOOs and engineers.

I have also been busy painting something completely different, which you will get to see once I have based them.  Next up is some Westphalian Napoleonics and some 25mm Medieval foot.  The Westphalians will end up like the French, being sold on eBay while the Medievals are for the planned Lion Rampant retinues.

Take care and keep rolling those dice.

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!

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.

I keep forgetting my camera!

First up is an apology.  I keep forgetting to either take pictures with my phone or take my camera to take pictures.  Because I keep forgetting there are no pictures of the games I have played this week. 

Monday night was Zombie night again as we played Zombicide.  A quick set up saw the 6 survivors trying to kill as many zombies as possible.  We won if any survivor got into the "Red" section of their experience.  We had a plan, which was scuppered by finding the abomination in the first building we entered.  As none of us could kill it, we then ran around trying to find the parts for a molotov, which is the only weapon that can kill the big beastie.  Despite a slight problem with "team-work" for some people, we managed to keep the abomination away from us.  We then discovered how deadly cars are, so Nathan spent the rest of the game mowing down zombies while avoiding the abomination.  With the car hitting any zombies (except the abomination) on a 4+ when it enters the square or leaves the square, he quickly racked up the necessary kills and we all survived.  Hurrah for us!

After Monday I spent the week feeling pretty crap and painting Napoleonics.  Belgian Carabiniers and Old Guard foot artillery this week, along with a few more of my 15mm AWI.  The good news is that I have now painted 500 15mm figures this year, as well as a few 25s, some buildings and made some trees.  All in all not a bad start to the year.

Yesterday Gus and I went over to play a game of Maurice in Nathans new wargames room.  A quick throw together game saw the British attack the French in game 1.  Nathan had the French and gave Gus' British a damn good thrashing.  Gus' attack never really got moving and he has definitely upset the Maurice dice gods.  Game 2 saw Nathans French attacking the British, now under my command.  This time the French lost, but only because we ran out of cards.  Things were made easy for the British as I had 2 towns beside each other and I sat elite troops in both and sat back awaiting the attack.  The battle ended up a lot closer than the previous game.  Both sides lost 4 units, but Nathan had less points left at the end and ran out of cards first, which gave the game to the British.

Today I am painting again, hopefully.  It all depends as the outlaws in-laws are here and I may have to do family things instead.  There are way too many women in this house today as my wife has 5 sisters and they all seem to produce girls at an alarming rate.  Boys are a minority in her family tree!

Right, off I go so wish me luck.

End of a year and time to start a new one

It's nearly time to say goodbye to 2012 ans I, for one, won't miss it.  Many more lows than highs and here's hoping that 2013 is better.  2012 was marred by illnesses, accidents and problems, so 2013 needs to improve on that, which shouldn't be difficult.  One high is the rapidly approaching birth of another granddaughter, due on January 8th, so that will be a good start.

Wargames wise, 2012 wasn't all bad.  I found 2 sets of rules that I really like in Maurice and Dux Britannarium.  I bought figures for both and my first purchase of 2013 will be an order for the rest of my AWI British from Peter Pig.  I also played more than a few fun games with lots of good people.  Periods played and rulesets used were too varied to list here, but I enjoyed most of them, which was nice.

Commie tanks on the hill with their infantry in the village

Tanks and APCs skirt a religious stronghold

 The last meet of the Monday night group was an almost all day game of AK-47.  Almost all day is because one member had to leave at 4.30 to get ready to go out at 7!  I take 15-30 minutes to get ready to go out, leaving the 1+ hour time frame to my wife/daughter, but each to his own.  The game itself was a laugh, as AK47 games usually are.  You cannot expect anything to go as hoped and levy troops are usually more durable than they have any right to be.  This game was no exception, with Zob's levy holding until the last turn and my professional tanks blowing up very quickly.  Andy's dictatorship and my colonial settlers lost a tight game to Colin's communists and Zob's religious loons. 

Oops, burning professional tanks is never a good plan

The attack on the village, which went on and on and on

High points were my first shot of the game (double 6), while after that my aim was off.  Andy's was even worse, with one of his units rolling double 1 every turn, which hindered his shooting for the whole game.  After the game finished Colin and Andy left and were replaced by Nathan, who brought along a new boardgame called Pandemic.  A quick game, it does make you work as a team and try to save the world.  We lost, twice, but were really close to winning the second time and the three of us enjoyed it, so that's a good thing.

I am now in the process of painting and roofing the Warbases buildings I got for Christmas from my wife.  After that I have to paint some WW2 figures for a customer, then some 15mm Napoleonics (part of a massive load I have to paint) and then I may, finally, get to paint some of my AWI figures.  That's the plan anyway.  

Well, its time to go and eat some tea so I can feel sick again later.  Last night was really bad, so bad that I ended up at the doctors again today.  Ah well, **** happens.  I hope you all have a good New Year and may the god of wargaming allow your dice to be favourable.  Take care and keep rolling those 6's.