Saturday 20 June 2015

A Vary British Civil War (1)

Yes slightly early in posting this as I was due to post tomorrow, but instead you can have it tonight. Ever since I played the Too Fat Lardies rules "Chain of Command" I have been  thinking of a force and setting to "do" I was originally going to "Do"  The Pacific theatre in ww2. But now due to Matt getting me to paint some VBCW figures in 28mm from Musketeer miniatures I am thinking of swaping to a Very British Chain of Command. Needles to say this will create some difficulties as there are no "Official" army lists, but a search has yielded a discussion on a Yahoo forum about it. All I intend to do for most of my troops is to paint an arm band on them. So expect to see the first squad within a week.

These figures are for matts "Anglican League" as mentioned above they are "Musketeer Miniatures" now sold by Footsore miniatures. All in lovely 28mm and all dressed in civilian clothes. Given the propensity of men of this era to wear suits even to work in a factory I have painted them up in mostly blues and browns to make it look like suits are being worn. Shirts and overcoats and tank top woolly jumpers are also in evidence. They mostly do have helmets and military webbing to go with the strongly military weapons. As well as SMLE rifles and Webley revolvers there is also a Lewis Gun and a submachine gun. I addition there is a guy with an improvised explosive device (Molotov Cocktail).

This unit carries the flag and Banner of Chatham and Matt did mention something about them being dock workers from the Naval base. The Officer, probably a clerk has a row of medals on his chest from the 1914-18 war. And perhaps the shop steward has a flat cap and SMG to go with his mac

Well that's it for today. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and as I look around a boot fair bright and early tomorrow morning I will be looking for some suitable transport for my first squad!

Cheers Guys all the best from Sunny Kent

Clint out!

Friday 19 June 2015

Rusty Regiment, part 4

Not such a huge amount to show this day, I am continuing to repaint my necrons and I should have some VBCW stuff finished in a couple more days as well. But today 3 bases of Necron Scarabs. These count as fast attack weapons for the Necrons and the three bases come in at 60 points so given that each base has 3 wounds and 4 attacks are actually good value for points. |Add to that that they do not have guns so most players don't bother too much about shooting them until they get close means that they do tend to get overlooked as most players would rather deal with things that are causing them harm at that instant.


So not terribly exciting for the moment but additions to the rusty regiment none the less.

Thanks for looking today and with luck some more on Sunday, But by more I do not mean more of these, just more painted figures.

Catch you later Clint

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Broadside Game 2015

Yes I got the year right this time! Stop sniggering I can't help it!

Ok so for the Broadside Game this year Tim Hosted the game using all his figures and scenery and his knowledge of the rules. The Rules we were using were "Muskets and Tomahawks" and the setting was the French Indian Wars, somewhere in Canada. Matt played the British, Tim acted as Ref and I played the French. All the figures were "Redoubt" and painted by Tim. And I must say did look good.

There were a couple of side missions, My Indians had to loot the village for example and Matts Civilians had to escape! Both Matt and myself set up our regulars in the open areas  opposite each other with our irregular troops in the woods and for the most part across the river.

The doors for the show opened at 10am so that is when we started simply chatting and going over rules and forces before that time. No point in stressing about it. I must say we could have all played faster, but that would have meant no time away from the table for a look around or shop and a lot less time chatting to the people there, but as both those activities are important to a show I am sure you'll forgive us all.
 After a very short time the Irregulars were in a position to start firing. The card activated turn sequence was with me and I got the first few units to fir. While not devastating it did give first blood to me as my Indians with muskets and frontiersmen chance to get their eyes in. I do send a small unit of Indians towards the village and they take 3 activations to cross the river. But they have no muskets and only hand to hand weapons.
 Two casualties from the British Rangers who were not in cover thanks to some lucky dice and Matt learnt that cover is your friend as his return fire was not as effective as that and I took no casualties. But the skirmish in the woods was underway and it would continue all day long in real life or about 30 minutes in the figures life.
 Out on the open areas, again my French big units fired first. If you have never played Muskets and Tomahawks with big units and several people during the day said they had not, you will note that they can take a lot of casualties before they need to worry about morale very much. Likewise when they do shoot they can and do make a bloody mess. On Average between 7-9 casualties inflicted each time they fire.
 
 
Matt was eager to get the civilians away and lead them straight in front of the French firing line. We did suggest he was employing them as a human shield to protect his regular units. Tim said any casualties inflicted would have to be on the Civilians before the Regular British units could take a single hit. Did that stop me firing at the unarmed civilians? The short answer is NO! I was not aware of Matts secret mission at this stage. But one phase of firing and they were all dead and some excess hits had gotten through to the British!
 Out in the open areas the mas ranks of the firing slowly grinds units down until they start to fail morale tests. The British will fail a morale test  and withdraw 4 inches in the French turn. Then in the British turn they will advance back into the firing line and fire on the French, forcing them to withdraw. And so it continues neither side giving an inch to the other player but the mass ranks getting more sparse each turn.
 Meanwhile back in the woods. The British Indians move up and bring fire on my Frontiersmen who instantly fail a morale check and they flee back to safety and out of sight hovering 4-5 inches from my base line. Lucky shots from some of my Canadian militia force the British Irregulars back as well. 
 To make things a bit more interesting Tim brings on some reinforcements for the British,  A small bunch of civilians with a mission. And my closest troops currently hiding due to the morale can make no actions at all so have to let them get very close.
 Another British unit (Large and Regular) is also bought onto the game. But these are to make the game look better and are a long way from any action and knowing the day is coming to a close I decide not to bring my reserves on, as the only logical place would get them into the fight far too early and would unbalance the game.
 But as the show ends in 15 mins I make a mad dash with my melee Indians and get them to the outskirts of the village. In truth they had moved at every opportunity in the game but had taken their time in clearing the river and the wood edge, but they did finally make the village just as the game was set to end.
 
And as my last action my Frontiersmen recovered from the disastrous morale check of earlier and were able to assault the civilians. Which resulted in another casualty for them and my slaying of Uncas and my capturing of one of the females!
 
That was it and the time had run out. It pretty much was a draw, but Tim and Matt declared it a French victory as I had managed to capture one of the cinematic leading ladies and had the Indians in the village to loo as much as they wanted. But the cost to my regular troops was so high that in reality it really was a draw. But a fun game and the rues worked very well and gave a fun game and that means as far as I am concerned Mat, Tim and myself were all equal winners on the day.
 
Thanks for looking today more again soon. Cheers from Clint
 


Monday 15 June 2015

Games at Broadside 2015

Well as I am sure you will know Broadside show was yesterday. So here is a very very very very very quick glimpse of the games that were there.
Crawley Wargames Club

Deal wargames Club.54mm WW2 Skirmish

Batman. while not into superheroes I did like the board,
Just a shame so many unpainted figures.

Society of Ancients. Won best painted figures in the show.

"Seems" Club doing some X-wing.

Posties Rejects doing some 28mm Border Reivers skirmish.

Sheppeay Games won best game in show for this African Game.
And I would say a very well deserved win.

Southend Wargames Club.

Skirmish wargames,
American Mexican war

Herne Bay/Whitstable
A Lion Rampant game.
Gravesend Gamers Guild
Warmachine.



I'll do a report on our game later this week. But as a spoiler it was French Indian Wars Muskets and Tomahawks rules and there will be a few shots of it here.

http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/

That's it for now, I can only apologise that some of the shots came out a bit dark, but I really did not have time to go around and take multiple pictures. Only Time for a quick snap on each one.

The good news is that I have enjoyed the show and it has lifted me a little out of my wargames doldrums.

EDIT> Broadside 2015. I put the wrong date down . I admit it I made a mistake. Now corrected, thanks for pointing it out.


Sunday 14 June 2015

Swag from Broadside.

Well today I was at the Broadside show. Having returned and watched the football and a quick doze I am now refreshed and thought I might do a very quick blog post detailing the huge amount of loot/swag I managed to haul home.

Ok it's not a large selection at all, very small indeed in fact. So small that I actually bought more money back from the show than I had when entering, as I had some figures for a friend.

I only bought 3 things I could have spent more, much more as it happens, but for some curious reason was not in the mood.

I only got:

1 pack of MDF bases from Col Bills
1 pot of pain in British uniform colour.
1 pack of 2mm static grass.

As you can see this really was a minimal spend. No impulse buys, no new projects and no unnessercary expenditure at all.

As I type this I am feeling rather tight fisted and miserly.

All the best and a show report tomorrow if I can.
Cheers Clint