Looking forward to.....

Next year is the 40th Anniversary of me starting gaming. I was 11 and although I'd come across Featherstone and Grant in local library it wasn't until I came across a copy of White Dwarf 53 in the newsagent where I did a paper round that the wheels were really put in motion.  

With the money from my paper round I bought figures from Black Donald's in Waverley Place in Aberdeen. When my Birthday came round in July it was the owner who suggested I got Warhammer I had plenty of figures to play by then. 

A trip to York for the Summer holidays meant that I stumbled across the Little Soldier in Gillygate. There I got 15mm Napoleonic Brits and French and copy of the Newbury Napoleonic rules. Whilst I liked Fantasy and Tolkien my interest in History was racing to catch up. For a while it would have to take a back seat as my mates were only interested in fantasy games and RPG's but I never looked back. 

I want to mark the anniversary and use it as a theme for my games this coming year. 

I'm going to build two small fantasy armies based on Tolkien's Middle Earth in the First Age and  Glaurung the Dragon. This ticks the fantasy box.

 I will put on a game of The Ziggurut of Doom from the first Warhammer box. Originally this featured Dwarves vs Goblins. But I will use Conquistadors and Aztecs. This ties in my fantasy gaming beginning to my desire for historical games.

I will be finishing and publishing my next Scenario Book - Feud. This has been expanded to cover Corrichie, Tillyangus, Craibstane and The Burning of Corgarff but also the intrigues of the Earls of Huntly and Errol with the Spanish, the Bridge of Dee Affair and the Battle of Glenlivet. This covers my love of history. I'm at the editing stage for the text and need to test the "what if" Bridge of Dee game between the Earls and James IV and the Glenlivet scenario. 

The other project for 2024 reflects where I am now. It will be a refight of the Battle of the Windmill during the Patriots Rebellion in Upper Canada in 1838. 

Four projects for 2024. 

As I write this we are in Lossiemouth hopefully for a bit of peace and quiet and a change of scene. Our favourite place. But there will be a game, I hope, and certainly something else to share before the year ends.

Franco Prussian War

To Forres last Sunday for a chat with Graham H about a future project and a Franco - Prussian game. More about the former another time, but our Franco Prussian collection is getting large and whilst we wait for the Perry's to build up the range I now have 3 Divisions of French infantry whilst Graham's got about 2 Divisions of Prussians. We both need cavalry and artillery more infantry.

That didn't stop us having a game though, to test my home made rules which are a pastiche of bits of Osprey's blue book activation and other mechanisms. A few tweaks are required, and we worked out a way to represent off table artillery which helps give the battlefield the right sort of depth and the Prussians the ability to plaster the French, and negate the power of the Chassepot...although they still need to take the ground. 

Piccies below from what was a rather nice day.

Bakumatsu - From Samurai to Soldier

This lovely book arrived yesterday. I saw it mentioned on Mark Copplestones instagram and couldn't resist. It's best described as a very chunky Osprey with lots and lots of period illustrations backed up by very nice modern artists impressions and photographs of locations, buildings and original items of equipment and reproductions.

The period in question, from the 1860's to the 1870's, was one of massive change in Japan. Tradition, Culture and everyday life were being met by Western ideas and goods. For the Samurai it was to be their final and fatal flourish where traditionalists with armour and sword faced down modern rifles and artillery. 

Or at least that's the simple summary - there's a lot more to it than that. 

Coupled with the Last Samurai Rebellion Supplement for The Men Who Would be Kings and perhaps Ronin there is a wealth of gaming to be explored. 

Figures are available from Bac Ninh miniatures specifically for the period for and by converting Warlords plastic samurai or not if your taste is more traditional. Likewise Perry miniatures have plenty figures useable and some of the Steel Fist Samurai commanders would be particularly good for leaders. 

This ticks both my 19thC and samurai boxes and also dovetails nicely with my interest in Japan at the start of the 20th century and the Russo-Japanese war, when Japan completed its transition from introverted isolationist state to regional and belligerent power.

Project Alma - the Battle

 Yesterday I had some friends over for a game. In the warm sun (and blustery breeze) we played the Alma game I've been painting up figures and getting scenery for. 

The breeze played havoc initially with the gazebo we played under and a few times blew in and knocked down trees on the table but it died down and we spent a very enjoyable afternoon playing the scenario, based on Neil Thomas's from his 19th Century Wargames book but using the mechanisms from Rebels and Patriots to play the game. While we played our wives chatted in the other corner of the garden and we got together for a nice Turkish inspired meal cooked by my wife. It was a cracking day.

 But back to the game, John and Eric took the British and  Bill and Graham the Russians. Things did not go well for the Brits to start with, kicking off an artillery duel against the more numerous Russians meant the Royal artillery were soon in disarray - one gun knocked out and two forced to retreat. The Russians then began to open up on the infantry and John and Eric's dice throwing for activations was so bad that I had to intervene as umpire and inform them that Lord Raglan had moved his position so that they could get an additional CinC bonus and actually move things forward ! 

Starting Postitions

The high water mark

This did the trick and after dinner in particular the Brits were able to get moving and cause some real damage to the Russians.  Bill and Graham hadn't got things all their own way. A couple of blunders meant they accidentally fired in their own men, and once they got in range of the British on their left they were losing men quite quickly. Graham's guns in particular holding back the British around the village and the right of their line. 

Eric had by now managed to get his dice properly warmed up and was able to send his men up the slopes, but they were too few to cause enough damage to the Russians who began to advance towards him. Their large units soaked up 16 points of damage compared with 12 for each British. John was still stuck on the British right and although another Russian unit made its back to its box, it was clear that the British had no chance of taking the day and we wrapped up the game. 

Id painted up two old Tradition 30mm Crimean figures by Charles Stadden...one for Best General and one for unluckiest. Due to his activation rolls in the first half of the game Eric took the Unluckiest home, while Bill gained the Best General award. 

A great days gaming, good company, a few beverages and fine food with friends. 

Now....what do I need for Balaclava?.... 

Project Alma - Reading Material

 Some reading material arrived today. 

The French book in particular looks interesting. 

(Ronin is not connected to this project at all but I have a lot of Warlord Samurai, ashigaru, shoei etc., and it looks a neat set of skirmish rules). 

Project Alma - a fine day for a varnish

 Dry and warm days have, until this week, been a rarity in this part of the world. Or when they've been here I've been elsewhere. So with the sun out it was a fine chance to get my Crimean stuff vanished in one go. 

1 tin of Windsor and Newton at the ready and off I went. 

Russians first. 

Each unit has a base of skirmishers and lurking behind are 5 guns, 2 cossack batteries and 3 line. 

British next.

The Guards Brigade, Highland Brigade and part of Pennefathers Brigade, with the 95th skirmish order. Hussars and Lancers and Artillery to the rear.

Seeing (almost) everything laid out like this makes me want to do more...light dragoons, heavy brigade and Russian cavalry, and maybe French, Turks and the Sardinians......uhoh! 

Napoleonics - French v Russians

 I had the chance to head up to see Graham H this weekend and have a game of 28mm Napoleonics. Graham has been building French and Russian forces for 1812 and we fancied something bigger than the skirmish games we've been playing recently. I found a scenario based on Pirna 1813 in which the Russians under Wurttemberg were trying to get over the Elbe whilst Vandamme was trying to cut off their route. 

This was a good sized scenario as it mean we could both use figures for both sides, making sure that my French (painted 17years ago and still looking fresh, bar a bent flagpole and broken bayonet!) and the Russians I inherited from a late friend's collection were both able to get on the table as too were Graham's figures.

For rules we used a set I made up based on Neil Thomas's Napoleonic Wargames with ranges and movement tweaked a little to fit my unit frontages. They seemed to work well enough - although they're probably too simple for many tastes they allow a decent sized game (a corps plus a side in this case) to skip along with all the usual formations. We played over the afternoon, getting 10 turns and a lot of chatter and lunch in and I will be back at some point to finish the game.

Playing the French I brought my corps on to find Graham's rushing deployed in an arc just forward of a small village on the road to the Elbe. My deployment zone was tight and my scouting lancers took some hits before I was able to retire them behind my infantry. However I managed to get my artillery into play and my divisional and corps batteries were soon pounding the advancing Russians.

Grahams right flank was open, that nearest the bridge, so he threw his cavalry forward (we both need Russian light cavalry, so stand ins were used!) and I was forced into square to see them off. By now my guns had torn through two Russian units on their left and Graham pulled his men back to the road and out of range. It was my turn to advance.

I limbered up my guns and pushed my left flank, closest to the river, forward. Now it was the Russian artillery's turn to cause damage. My morale tests were good while Graham's shots on target were mercifully few until I got into close range with one battalion. This gave me time to open up my divisions and get the brigades moving on my right along the river to try to force the Russian flank away from the bridge. 

The Russian reserves were now on the table - 3 battalions of Grenadier Guards, marching straight for the bridge. It was going to be a foot race to see who got their first and that will have to wait til we play next. 

Sikh War......coz I forgot the Figures!

 At Oldmeldrum Wargames Club we have lots of good terrain for games, which we keep at the club in the British Legion. However we don't have space to keep our figures which meant I had to humph mine down from my loft last night. It wasn't til I was laying out the figures for the next game in mini campaign that I realised I'd left a box at home.....the one with the mutineers in it 😫

Still I had the Sikhs instead so we improvised and the British found themselves facing down 2 units of Sikh regulars, a unit of Akali warriors and an artillery piece instead of the mutineers. What was going to make a bigger difference to this game, and the following one was that the Sikh players rolled decent stats for their officers, giving them a free re roll once per game and a free action for one of their units. All the British could muster was an inexperienced cavalry officer and a pleasant infantry commander for their BNC, BHA, HEIC Europeans and 2 units of BNI. 

Ross and Alastair commanded the British and started off in fine fettle moving across the table in fine form. The former taking the infantry down the right while the latter took the horse and gun down the left towards the Sikh held village, just over a river at the end of the table.  On they came in fine order, marching and trotting steadily, closing down the  distance to their objective...until the Sikh artillery, which had moved up to the rivers edge unlimbered and opened up on the Bengal native cavalry.  The first round of John's artillery crashed into them causing some fearful casualties and it went downhill from there. 

The 3 infantry moved up to the river and found the crossing contested by the 2 units of Sikhs commanded by Dave who had moved his men out of the village to oppose the British. The British took heavy fire as they approached, the pinning them  in place and it was the Sikhs who, making use of their free activation got the better of the firefight and crossed the river with bayonets fixed. They were supported by the Sikh artillery which has finished off the cavalry and were deprived of their own gun whose crew had been cut down by the rampaging Akali's. It was all over in an hour. John and Daves Sikhs had inflicted a heavy defeat on Ross and Alistair's British.

We still had time for another game from the campaign. So the table was swiftly rearranged and this time Alastair and Ross took command of a column of men marching across the table, British on the left under Ross and BNI and BNC on the right under Alistair, sandwiched between the two was their baggage and wounded. Their objective was to get off the table from the opposite end. Facing the, was an equal force of Sikhs. John had Akalis and Cavalry facing Alastair while Dave commanded his two Sikh regulars and an artillery piece against Ross's pleasantly led men. 

The second game was a close contest on the right. Alastairs men were able to see off the Sikhs and indeed were able to begin to sweep the cavalry round onto the opposite flank. General Smiley, aka Ross, wasn't having a good evening. Sikh musketry, bayonets and artillery had whittled away his force on the left and driven the remnant back on the baggage. Confusion reigned. Alastair's men moved through the train to try and stem the attack but it was to no avail and they too were hit hard. Dave seemed to have pleased the dice gods since last weeks poor showing. The Sikhs had won the day again, setting up the last game of the campaign.....a desperate last stand. But that will have to wait.

Figures from Foundry, camels from Empress. Wrong British used....compounding my earlier error I took my 1st Afghan War was stuff out of the box! A couple of topsy turvy games, but good ones😂

Another Mutiny Game

 I had the chance to play another Indian Mutiny game on Tuesday night at Oldmeldrum Wargames club. The Osprey blue books make for good off the cuff games and as my stuff was still sitting out of storage it was easy to put on a game. 

This time the defenders were the Mutineers and it looked like the British, were poised to roll them over from the very beginning. 

However Dave was able to get his men into cover and turn to face his attackers and it was then that both sides realised they had the same weapons and were facing soldiers as well trained as each other. Sending in the HEIC Europeans, whilst the Loyal Sepoys worked round the flank, Ross faced off a charge from some Badmashes and took casualties which whittled down his men.

Dave then launched his cavalry hoping to break the British line. Two charges were needed, but the aim was achieved and one of the European units was sent scurrying to the rear. However the cavalry were now themselves vulnerable and were charged by a unit of Loyal Horse and Ross was able to restore the situation. 

Ross's Sepoys seemed reluctant to advance against their former colleagues failing several activation dice and, now in musket range, the Europeans were suffering badly as their shots were unable to tell against the   Rebels. Taking another volley they were down to the last man. 

Whilst waiting for the loyal sepoys to come up, Ross had put his CO in with his cavalry and now sent them in against the Mutineers. It didn't go well and they were forced back, but worse still the officer was down and his force was now without a senior officer. 

By now both the Mutineers and the British had lost two units, the latter all of it's European men. The Mutineers were in good cover and I'm good order though slightly weaker than the Loyal Sepoys facing them as such they could probably hold their own and so with the darkness of the end of the game falling we decided to call it there and allow them to slip away into the night....

We really enjoyed this game, a more complex battle than initial deployments and points suggested it would be. TMWWBK has a way of not letting you get your own way and out games have always been fun. 

We don't have individual unit commanders as we tend to play with two or three aside and so allow for one officer with traits per player. To compensate we allow 7 to activate units. Another house rule is that a pinned unit can retire without having to make a rally check, if it has a clear path. This allows units to get back out of range and recover without always being whittled down on the spot. Of course if the unit is within range it can still be shot or attacked so it's no guarantee of safety! We also brought in the blunders table from Rebels and Patriots....because we miss it and with less characters on the table it's good to have those random factors without the hassle of remembering who has the best moustache or is the generals nephew! 

Project Alma - Crimean War Rebasing 2

 I don't like basing stuff....meh! 

But it needs to be done and I want to all to match when it is done. So this is a slog (for me at least).

Russians textured, just need flocked. I'm short of some guns for my Cossacks so will get that sorted and since the British have staff the Russians should get some too.

By happy coincidence each unit of Russians has a stand of skirmishers which makes it look like they are at least trying to deploy them!

The British need their bases textured and I have flags to fit to the Highlanders and Guards. That's todays job.

The Brits have riflemen as their skirmishers. Both sets are really well animated and even if they play no part in a game are nice to have even as scenery! 

Indian Mutiny Game - TMWWBK

An Indian Mutiny today with John and Eric from Banchory. Nothing fancy about the scenario - a British column trying to break through mutineer lines to reach Delhi. 

The British had 2 units of HEIC Inf and a unit of Loyal Sikhs, supported by a gun faced down 4 units of Sepoys supported by their own artillery piece. This being an early period game, all the units were armed with muskets rather than the new Minie rifles. John led the mutineers while Eric took the company forces....it was going to be a long game with both sides ebbing back and forth. Both were reinforced by a unit of cavalry and further infantry...but neither side were really able to win the day. In the end, despite taking the hill before the town, Eric was forced back to his start line while John was unable to muster enough men in his remaining units to be able to press home an attack without destroying his forces. 

We decided to end the game "as dusk fell" - the British retiring to await further men and the Sepoys falling back on Delhi during the night, thinking their job done.

Figs are from Foundry mostly with a few Empress miniatures in there too. I've glued thin cardboard slips under the former's bases are enough to bring them up to the same height as the taller Paul Hicks sculpts but otherwise they mix really well. The Sikhs and British foot have Empress command. The skirmish bases are from Warbases.