Border Clash , the finale .

 

The Treborians start to counterattack moving their Dragoons up towards the damaged enemy infantry.

Whilst this was happening the other Rochaian infantry where wandering about the hills, I think the plan was a flank attack but a combination of poor movement dice and card draws - it didn't happen !

Finally thet realise they better change the plan and go and help their comrades down the valley.

The Alicia Dragoons charge the remnants of the Rochain infantry .

The combat was very one side and they polished of the enemy in short time !. To make things worse the ajoining Reserve infantry recieved a devistating volley and even though Major Velkro tried to rally them they retreated to the flank of their comrades.

The Treborian artillery changes it's target and opens fire on the enemy on the conical hill. Mark Twain recorded in his memoirs "I was invited by the by the Battery Commander to fire the gun ! - it was very exhilarating and I saw my shot explode into the enemy ranks !"

Then it was time to draw a chance card ! - Mark Twain records "whilst serving with the battery we smelt smoke ! and on looking round we where alarmed to see smoke pouring from the house I had hired !"- in his hurry to see all the excitement he had left his breakfast cooking - which set fire to the kitchen ! - in the insurance claim it was claimed "fire caused by enemy action" 

I then promptly drew ANOTHER chance card due to another Joker being drawn !

This however didn't stop the artillery zeroing in on the wandering Rochain infantry , things were not looking good for the Ferraro Rochain force as casualties mounted.

The game draws to a close , The Soldatii de Futuna continue to fail their morale tests and fall back towards the shelter of the woods , leaving only one unit standing in the way of the Treborian forces. Over on the left flank now the conical hill had been vacated by the enemy the British Legione start to accend it it's slopes again to recapture it.

With over half of their force casualties the Ferraro Rochain General signals a retreat . Another great game - the Ferraro Rochain were a bit unlucky when they couldn't build on their initial success and a series of good card draws gave the Treborians the upper hand and their artillery caused heavy casualties on the enemy infantry . And so we leave the scene of the conflict as the smoke from Mark Twains holiday villa drifts lazily across the stricken field .....

The Treborian British Legione - an aside .

 The origins of the British Legione (Britanska legija) , an aside after their recent tabletop behaviour 

Thursday, 21 April 2011

The British Legione

British Legione inspected by Archduke Albert

The Treborian High Command has decided to raise a Auxiliary force to help fight Ferraro Rocca . They have recruited a Legion of British ex servicemen . Unfortunately the quality of some of the recruits lack some of the more soldiery qualities , the Quartermasters department got a good deal on some ex British uniforms - sadly these are somewhat out of date (about 50 years) (no wonder they were cheap !). It remains to see how these brave chaps will fare against the enemy . The Archduke Albert was overheard to comment 'I hope they frighten the enemy - because they certainly  perturb me !' .

And now back to the battle ...........

Border Clash (part one)

The British Legione struggle uphill to crown the heights , the token denotes they have become disordered .

As the Rocherian infantry advance quickly but come under devistating artillery from the Treborian 'Quick Fire Artillery' , due to some lucky card drawing the Rocherian column suffered three turns of artillery fire and being in a march column didn't save any of the hits , but suprisingly past their morale test.

An overview of the action , the British Legion and the Soldatii de Futuna confront each other on the conical hill on the left and the advanced unit of the Rocharians are under artillery fire in the centre.

The Soldatii de Futuna race up the hill and fire into the British Legione who are catching their breath and deploying into line .

Startled by the fury of the attack the British Legione fail their morale test and fall back - they roll a double 6 and retire 12" !!! - Oh dear ! , a further instalment to come soon ........

 

 

A Border clash between Treboria and Ferraro Rocher.

 

So I've cleaned off the accumulated rubbish which has gathered on the tabletop and thought - "what shall I do next?" - there where many canditates, but I decided on my 40mm Imaginations which have not been on the table for a while .It will be a border clash between the forces of Treboria and Ferraro Rocher .

We are luck to have the first hand witness account from Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) who was spending a quiet holiday in a local cottage . He we see him looking on as the Treborian General Staff survey the battlefield. 

Mark Twain wrote " I was awoken early and looking out of my bedroom window I saw a Artillery piece unlimbering on the road below my cottage" . He wrote a short piece about this incident for 'Harpers Weekly' , but I have not been able to track this down yet.

Some of the Treborian forces patroling the Great Border Road , Reservists being lead by the famous British Legione 

The Ferraro Rocherian forces move forward to capture the important road and cut the lines of  communications for Treboria.. Nearest the camera two units of Regulars , then two units of Reserve Infantry in column .

The Ace up the Rocherian sleeve - a unit of the new ' Soldatii de Furtuna' , who are armed with the experimental 'Grenade ale mortii' , they are lead by the infamous Colonel Velkro ! . A battle report to follow .....

Fighting with an addiction .

 

There has been not much "proper" wargaming over the last couple of weeks as I have been playing a series of games using various C&C boxed board games . Now I'm not by nature a boardgamer - I once lost the entire Army of North Virginia whilst playing a Gettysburg game against my wargaming colleague 'B' , but I am a great fan of the Command & Colours system which uses blocks instead of little card chits (SO less fiddly with my chunky fingers) . The problem (?) is once you have a game set up it is so easy to just set up the next scenario and play it . There is also a very good solo system which helps the games move on quickly .Sadly the games are not very photogenic from a blogging point of view - back to figure gaming in the near future .

Pimping my Artillery .

 

There was a posting on the Wofun Facebook group about adding 3D barrels to the Wofun MDF artillery which are avaiable from www.cornwallmodelboats.co.who do various gun barrels for model ship models . Here we see the original madel and one of the new metal barrels.

I carefully removed the old barrels and glued into place the new ones . 

A comparison shot between the old and the new ones . I think they look much better , I was impressed that the barrels which seem to be made of a brass coloured metal where only about 80p each and may consider replacing more of my artillery barrels with them.

Wargaming on the Silver Screen .

 

I came across this photo on the interweb , it's of Edward Woodward who played the role of Callan in the TV series who seems to be firing a Britains cannon , the figures are 54mm (?) , I've not seen it before but I assume it's from the TV series ?