A lucky find (the wargaming goddess smiles on me)

My wife does a bit of voluntary work for a local charity sorting donations etc and she rang me and said that a (quote) 'toy soldier book' had come in and did I want it !? . She sent me a photo and I immediately replied 'YES' ! . I have the reprint paperbacked copy but have always wanted a original hardbacked edition . I remember borrowing a copy from the library in my early wargaming days but was put off by the large 60+ units and so favoured Featherstone's 20 figure units and rules.

The charity have a chap that evaluates books and other potential valuable items and he looked up current prices which was in the £50-£60 price on eBay , however for cash and seeing she was a volunteer he said £30 !  - a bargain ! - he thought it would be unlikely to sell in their shop (being a bit obscure) . It is a first edition (I don't think there was a second?) and cost 55/- shillings back in 1969 , rather expensive the following year my first take home pay was £5 ! , so I'm rather chuffed at the moment !  

 

Well that didn't go as I expected !?

 

Well I've just been playing the N.W. Frontier game I set up and it didn't quite work out as I thought it might ! . Firstly the Afghan unit which was under fire from the Mountain gun suffered heavy casualties as well of loosing its leader and broke and fled refusing to be rallied !

I had been using a deck of event cards for TSATF and the Afghans drew this card that meant the right hand unit retreated off the table, which rather snookered the Afghan war effort ! 

All that was left to do was the British to order a general advance and with no reinforcement in sight the Afghans called it a day and quit the field ! . A rather odd game but enjoyable none the less and reminds me of the reason I still like these old rules.

A return to an old favorite !

 

I was sorting through my rule sets and came across my copy of 'The Sword and the Flame' and thought - "it's ages since I played a game using these rules !", and it had to be the North West Frontier - classic Colonial gaming !.

General 'Creepy' Crawley oversee the siting of his Mountain Gun himself . His force of the Blackwatch and Indian Colonial troops must push through and across the board as fast as possible 

However the Afghan Chieftain Bungit Din (see Carry on up the Khyber) has other ideas !

He has had his Tribesmen construct Sangers - the terrain piece was constructed many years ago from cat litter and have stood the test of time ! 

To the skirl of the pipes the Blackwatch advances .

Captain Smyth orders the Punjab Infantry into skirmish order and to advance . The piles of pennies are the units ammunition reserves .

The Burpa Tribesmen ( again see the above comedy film) rush to defend their homeland . These figures where painted over 30 years ago and their high gloss finish has protected them from the ravages of time. Hopefully there will be further report .......

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Franco-Prussian Artillery .

 

Due to the rather wet weather I've got my remaining Artillery painted up , here is the final French gun and crew , again Irregular Miniatures.

There is the Prussian one , I always assumed the Prussians only had cast iron/steel guns but came across pictures of bronze/brass barrels (?) . I have two more French and Prussian infantry units to collect and a unit of Cavalry per side and this will finish off my project . An order has gone of to Irregular for my next painting fix !

French Algerian Tirailleurs ..

 

Been a bit slow on the painting front this last week or so , but I've finally got the Algerian Tirailleurs done.

The figures are of course Irregular 28mm , except the Vivandiere which is an old 'Willie' figure . All my French regiment have one .

A cracking figure - which must be over 50 years old but still available from 'Tradition' who now trade from Sweden and do a surprisingly efficient mail order service.. I have only a couple of guns and crews to paint and so must think of another order to Irregular Miniatures. 

 

Playing the game ( Part 2 )

 

As you remember from my last post Red armies Gatling gun has been captured by those rascals of Blue army , the Naval Brigade charge to recapture it ! Huzza ! 

They take heavy casualties charging in but drive back the enemy and recapture the gun ! Huzza !!

Unfortunately thing deteriorate rapidly, the Blue army Colonial rally and pour a murderous fire into the victorious Sailors who fail their morale test and flee and even the entreatments of the General fails to rally them - Oh dear ! a sad day for old England .

On the right flank things are not going well either, the Red army Colonials (who are counted as 'brittle' ) fail their moral test and flee as well ! . With this is where I decided to draw a veil over the sad proceedings .

Any similarities with Henry Newbolt's "Vitai Lampada" is purely coincidental , here we see Henry feverishly flicking through the rule book to find a way to win the battle . A good game and it was nice to get the 54mm figures back onto the table again .

 

 

Playing the game ( part 1 )

 

The table from the Blue army perspective with their forces converging on the crossroads.

Red army are rather slow to deploy but manage to get a unit onto the wooded hill on their left.

This forces the Blue army to deploy it's Colonial troops to cope with the threat.

The Red army Naval Brigade deploy and bring up their Gatling gun .

At a crucial moment the Gatling gun jams (rolled more 1s than 6s) -

- and is overrun and captured ! , this quite a blow for Red army who had put a lot of faith in this new technology (the Gatling gun being a converted toy pencil sharpener probably helped with the malfunction!?) - too be continued .............