Border Clash (part1)

I've been on holiday in N. Wales last week with nice weather and at home doing day trips in not so nice weather this week so I've not had much chance for any tabletop action or painting . Today being especially damp I decided to set up a small game using my 30mm Ancient flats and Don Featherstone's rules . I gave each unit a playing card then shuffled them and dealt 3 cards per side to determine the forces  , the game will last for 8 moves .

The Hyperborian force under Count Belissarius consisted of the 1st Thurn infantry , the 1st Gwalur infantry .

And the newly renovated Hyperborian Mounted Archers .

The Hyrkanian force commanded by General Thalis is lead onto the table by the newly re-based Fort Ghori Horse , the 3rd Imperial Guards and the 1st Imperial Archers have yet to move onto the table . Let battle commence ......

The Horror ! .

We've been on holiday to Anglesey in North Wales and the weather was brilliant and we did lots of walking , the only slight 'downer' was that I forgot to take any reading matter with me , so I  ended up perusing  the books in our hired cottage . There was the usual selection of dog eared paperbacks - you always get an Agatha Christie and a James Herriot or two - but I was surprised to see this book 'Teach Yourself  Books - Algebra' . This brought a shudder to my soul ! - I was taught Algebra at school in the late 1960's , I was in the 'A' stream and so was thought worthy to be given this dubious privilege , it was taught by no lesser personage than the Headmaster Mr Foss and it blighted my life and set in place a scheme to leave education as soon as I could . The book was originally published in 1942 (you would have thought they would have had other thing on their minds ?) and brought back painful memories , it is a tribute to the teaching skills of Mr Foss that I did remember the odd thing about the subject when dipping into the book (removing brackets ! - why?). I can say that I'm not aware of ever using Algebra in the next 50 years and have felt much better for it ! . It was obviously a work of love by the author P. Abbot who wrote very enthusiastically on the subject in the forward - but who would want to teach themselves Algebra ? . I carefully replaced the book next to the James Herriot's and left it for the next visitors to muse over. 

Wargaming humour No. 47

Do you get it ?

Been painting the odd base or two for my '45' project.

Back into the '45'

After quite a while I've started painting up some more figures for my '45' project . These bases of Highland skirmishers have been blacked up and awaiting painting for a couple of months so I thought I had better get them done . They are still a work in progress needing varnishing and the bases painting and flocking .They are a mixture of 'Strelets' and 'Red Box' figures in 20mm - 1/72nd scale . I've got most of the Jacobite army done only needing a couple of cavalry bases and the odd leader or two , the Government forces need more - another Regiment of Foote and Dragoons . Hopefully when I return from holiday I will make a start on them .

Gentlemen that lunch .

We have found that C&C gives a quick decisive game in about an hour , so 'A' dropped in for a game during his lunchtime (being his own boss helps) I had set up a scenario ready to play whilst we ate our lunches .

The scenario was Gaugamela 331 BC , Alexander the Great versus Darius lll , 'A ' played the Macedonians and myself the Persians (nearest the camera)

The battle was at times a close run thing with the Persians doing great damage to the Macedonian light troops , but in the end the pike blocks pushed through the Persian centre and claimed victory . The whole event worked very well and we plan to make these lunchtime battles a regular occurrence playing a series of battles and keeping the scores from each battle to form a campaign .

Wargaming humour No. 19

The author gets carried away with the action on the tabletop ! 

A photo shoot goes very wrong .

The weather was fine (for once) , my wife had taken the dog for a walk - so I thought 'I'll take some photos of my newly painted 40mm artillery' - al fresco ! 

The gunners of the Sublime Porte were just going through their paces when Hodge appeared .

They had been sleeping peacefully on our bed when I left the house - now however Hodge wants his picture taken ! .

Unperturbed the gunners go through their drill (please excuse various weeds in these photos - my excuse is it's been wet and I don't like gardening) 

Then Hugo appeared as well so I gave up the idea of further photographs ......

A change of pace .

'A' called for a game this week and we decided  on a game of Command & Colors Ancients . One of the problems in wargaming is finding time to actually play games and fit them into peoples busy lives ('A's not mine) and C&C fits the bill very well indeed . Here we see 'A' pondering his masterstroke . 

We decided on the Battle of Mantinea 418 BC between the Spartans and the Greek Argive city state . We have both got into C&C in a big way and have been selling off figures on eBay which we were never going to use again and spending the money on C&C boxes . This battle is from the Spartan expansion box which allows you to play battles of the Peloponnesian wars .

The battlefield , Spartans on the left Argive on the right . It was a tight run thing and I managed to win in the end through tactical genius (sic) . The one thing that appeals to us both is being able to fight the big historical battles which wargaming with figures would struggle to cope with , let alone buying and painting all those figures and the game was set up and played within an hour and a half - even with the usual wargaming chit chat . I have sold on my 28mm Ancient figures because I never used them - not having a set of rules I liked and find C&C works better for me and I get to play the BIG battles of Ancient history . 

H.G.Wells to the rescue (or a Daring Escapade)

H.G. Wells and Miss Perkins lead the attack to free the prisoners , the guards are dealt with before they can make a sound . I played this action on a small 2' x 2' board halving all the distances and using the skirmish ideas put forward by the author on the AGW Face book page .

The Walkers are freed and are hustled away whilst the Treborian soldiers (masquerading as 'Black Hand' revolutionaries) move to hold up the rest of the guards . I roll a D6 to activate the Albanians and think they must have been drunk because the game was nearly over before the got going .

Under heavy fire from the well hidden foe they fail a moral check and scuttle off down the street . In fact I was so embarrassed how easily the Treborians won I replayed it again - with more or less the same results .They were meant to get some Lancers as support (activated on the first Joker card drawn) and they never turned up either .

With no pursuit the Walkers are escorted across the border back into Treboria were H.G . reveals his true identity .

It turns out that Reg Walker is an avid collector of 'Zinnfigern' as well and has heard of H.G.'s soon to be published book on Wargaming . Being a wealthy business man he tries to get a Knighthood for H.G. but when the P.M. Boorish Johnson hears of the part played by Miss Perkins her is incensed, quote - "I will not give honours to a man that consorts with a Scarlet Woman !" (this of course is very rich coming from a man with a VERY dubious private life indeed) 

Interestingly Miss P. Perkins wrote a biography titled '40 years a Scarlet Woman' , It caused quite a stir because of it's 'kiss and tell' content with several members of the upper classes trying to sue her (by then she had moved to the U.S.A. and so nothing came of it) . Copies are very hard to come across nowadays commanding large sums of money as many copies were bought and disposed of by the 'morality movement' - to prevent their servants reading it 1