Something small and some coffins !

Having played a few more games of FoW recently I remembered that I had purchased some 15mm Peter Pig figures to use as bailed out markers. I finally got round to basing them and painting them up. They are actually USAF downed pilots but they were the closest I could get at the show I picked them up from. I have painted them in generic colours so we can use them pretty much for any Country.

I also realised that I needed some coffins for our next IHMN scenario so rattled these off one evening. They are carved balsa wood blocks with a tiny bit of card stuck on then stained with GW brown stain.

Raid on Carlisle Castle : IHMN

Colonel Cavendish had just returned to the regimental base at Carlisle Castle from an extended trip to Africa where a small contingent of the Border Regiment had been involved in an awkward affair involving a Tomb a girl and some Ottoman Treasure (future scenario I think).

Having settled back into routine military life he wasn't expecting anything exciting to happen in fact he had sent some of the new privates on exercise as things were so quiet. Little did he know that Justice Blackborough AKA the Mask had planned a daring raid on the Castle to steal weapons and ammunition to sell on the black market.

(Scenario : Ruffians had a random set up outside the castle walls with four different ways in. The Borderers were in various locations, Officers mess, workshop and some in the woods on exercise. The objectives...'weapons' were hidden in crates on or close to the wall, both companies seeking to collect weapons and get them off the board to safety)

Alarm is raised in the Castle as the first Ruffians approach the walls

We played the scenario at twilight so Smirnov the sniper was at a disadvantage.

Borderers have one Auto-Steam Private with a flame cannon
he proved to be not very effective !

Privates on exercise are alerted by the Castle Alarm and race back

Other Botchergate Ruffians look to breach the walls

First blood to the Ruffians and the flame cannon misfires

Soldiers rush to their posts in the Castle



Soldiers fight back knocking out two Ruffians on the Castle walls

The Mask has led his gang right into the heart of the Castle but
the soldiers are putting up a stiff fight

Outside the walls Smirnov the Russian sniper stands guard

Another Ruffian goes down to the Colonels sword

Sergeant Maxwell also proves a dab hand with his Rapier

Outside again Scarlet makes off with stolen weapons (not sure
where she is hiding them?)

The Mask is cornered but he quickly despatches Sgt Maxwell and turns
to face Colonel Cavendish

The Colonel whilst brave is somewhat foolish charging in
against the Mask who is not to be trifled with in close combat !

In the end the Borderers were able to save and secure more weapons and ammo than the Ruffians but the loss of Sgt Maxwell and Colonel Cavendish (both badly wounded...not dead) was a heavy price to pay.

1066 : Lion Rampant

Through a rather circuitous route I have found another local gamer to play in the dungeon. So as an introduction I had a mind to fight my Normans against my Saxons in a 28 point Lion Rampant Battle. Rules which are easy to pick up and play and don't give too much tactical advantage to either side. This would also be a bit of a test to see if we could use the rules to fight some slightly larger battles in the future.......

Initial setup Saxons on the left

 The Normans fielded a couple of units of mounted sergeants, crossbowmen, foot sergeants and a single elite unit of Norman knights on foot. The Saxons were entirely on foot with a couple of units of bowmen.

The Norman cavalry was slightly reckless looking to exploit a weak flank

Saxons hold their nerve in the face of the charge

 Now normally I would have expected the two cavalry units to make pretty short shrift of the Saxon archers on the hill, but somehow it wasn't to be and even when they had got them into combat the cavalry bounced off ! It took several turns and a gradual loss of numbers before the hill had been claimed.

Saxon reserves pulling across the protect their left flank

 Although the hill had been taken the cavalry threat had been severely weakened so the Normans who had hoped for flank support had to push forward on mass to take the saxon infantry on toe to toe.

Norman cross bows let fly

 The Norman cross bows were able to play a part pinning and weakening some of the Saxon infantry but the results of the push in the centre of the table was inconclusive. With out the support of the Norman Mounted units the infantry became isolated, weakened and gradually pulled back.

Norman Cross bows

 I didn't quite catch the end of the battle but the Norman foot knights got stuck in and started to level the odds, things were actually getting closer and there was a glimmer of hope, but the Norman Lord had been killed back with his cavalry and really it was only going one way. So the Saxons had it in the end when time was called.

Another good battle and hopefully a good introduction to the Dungeon.

Trouble down by the river : Muskets and Tomahawks

Somewhere in the last couple of weeks we also had another run out for Muskets and Tomahawks the set up being a small village close to a river. As I haven't been able to paint any more French the sides are pretty much the same as last time. A native indian war party armed with a mixture of muskets and bows, together with a small contingent of Canadian/French settlers. We rolled up a full scenario this week. And the Indians had to burn the village ! this allowed the cowardly British to sit back and wait.

Indians coming on again with hidden markers (the wolf)

A rattle of gunfire from the woods

With the river only passable at the crossing points the native americans are forced to make a costly frontal assault. With a small flanking party sent he other side of the river.

British rangers supported by Mohawks and a company of Red coats

Skirmishing in the woods

A furious skirmish battle started in the woods as this was gogin to be key to getting to the village. But despite the Natives best efforts the british rangers get the better of it.

Cowardly British hiding in the village !

The French / Canadians kept up a long range exchange of fire with the rangers in the village hoping to pin them down to give the natives time to push through the woods or cross the river but they were running out of time.

Flank attack across the river

Eventually the Natives across the river made a dash for it surprising the Redcoats. They tried to force a crossing under heavy volley fire, but soon the river was running red with native American blood !. Despite frantic attempts they couldn't get across the river and the british were able to call across the Mohawks to strengthen the village defences.

High point for the Native Americans almost forcing the river

Too little too late and the Mohawks strengthen the village defence.

We had time for another game so set up another scenario disappointingly the Natives this time had to kill the villagers in the village. It felt very familiar and I was worried immediately that the Natives had no chance. But .....it shows you can never tell using almost the same tactic the native swarmed across the field, through the woods wiping out any rangers in  their path. In about two turns the natives had inflicted a devastating defeat on the British killed and scalped all the villagers pretty much a wipe out with only a few cowardly redcoats left at the end.

Two fun battles which left me wondering why the natives had done so badly first time....and thinking I really need to get some time to paint up the French and additional British infantry I have. I really fancy some slightly larger French Indian War battles !

Back to Normandy : FoW

I am definitely way behind on blogging as this battle seemed ages ago. Our second battle getting back into Flames of War. The Americans made the mistake of turning up with 4th Infantry Division again with some tank support...but they were up against a pretty tough Panzer group, STUGs Pz IV's and one of those Tigers. Randomised the scenario and rolled the breakthrough, this was going to be really tough for the Americans as one of the key objectives in the scenario is in the corner where the Germans were allowed to bring on reserves.

Not for the purists as the Germans have a capture Spitfire !

With lots of American infantry the best solution seemed to be to dig them in and try and hold back the German advance. Heavy machine guns set up along the road with heavy weapons in support. Other infantry occupied the church and some of the woods.

German armour advances

With combined fire power the American shermans were able to hold the advancing German armour back...but they took a lot of casualties in the process. Which meant they had no reserve for later in the battle.

Shermans to the rescue

By the end the American tanks were pretty much dead where the stood, they had significantly dented the german advance and although I didn't get a picture American rangers had started to push any German infantry back as well. Unfortunately the key objective was un protected and German Tanks made a lighting advance from the flank. Despite a desperate attempt by the USAF they just couldn't shake them from the objective and it was game over. One nil for blitzkrieg.

By the end of the battle American armour is in a mess !

A good battle but big advantage for the Germans..

Colonel Cavendish and the Border Regiment

Although I haven't been blogging much I have been playing and working on several projects. One of these being the completion of my fourth IHMN company!.

Continuing with the local theme we have Colonel Cavendish and the Border Regiment. The Colonel has just returned to the Regiment from travels abroad fighting for Queen and country. He is seen here supported by Captain Bromhead, Major Reynolds (medic) Sergeant Maxwell (all with pistols and Swords) and Colour Sergeant Bourne (shotgun). We have four fairly standard privates and the Mechanical Automated Fergusson Steam Privates of X Company. The whole are based in Carlisle Castle from where they start their many adventures.

Colonel Cavendish and the men of the Border Regiment

This group with a few tweeks is about 300 points so a reasonable starting company, I do have a few other figures to expand them when I get a chance.

The Age of Sigmar

Have got slightly behind on blogs over the last two weeks, so I am going to rattle through  a couple to catch up. Lots then has been said and printed about the new Age of Sigmar, so we gave it a go on the try everything once basis.

 

We set up two of our older armies High Elves and Beastmen (Chaos Beasts) playing a simple line them up scenario. As everybody has already pointed out a lack of a points system means the armies weren't very even but we had no idea how things would fight against other things.

 

High Elves and Beasts line up

The High Elves were very 'shooty' and soon managed to kill most of the Minotaurs, Most things have a very limited save of 6+ so initially the advantage was with the Elves.

Beast Charge across the table

The rules are easy to follow and fairly quick to pick up and much more akin to Lion Rampant than 8th addition fantasy. Some bits I liked in 8th addition it was hard to get the centigors on the table as they were very expensive for their limited effectiveness. It also felt right with them being a kind of skirmish band running through the woods.

Battlelines about to get to grips

But the rules are very simplistic which left me feeling that when the two battle lines clashed it was all a bit too predictable. This may just have been a function of the armies we had and the way the two lines came together.

High Elves outnumbered in the centre

Bestigors charge in

So I guess like a lot of people the rules just don't quite have the elegance of Lion Rampant and lack the complexity and tactical challenge of bigger fantasy rules. I do wonder if they would work better with smaller armies effectively as a skirmish rule set. So we may try and give them another go but with less figures ? It has made us think that we should write Lion Rampant rules for some of our fantasy armies.

VBCW Transport continued......

Have been thinking a lot about VBCW and Operation Sealion and some special vehicles/transport etc...having surfed the web and ebay I couldn't find what I was looking for....... a suitable scale train. The weekend saw me up in Carlisle with time to kill and I made a determined effort to see if I could find what I wanted. Guess what ......... second shop I went in had these....really not that expensive. Scale is perfect, I will probably paint them to look older but if you wanted they could be used straight from the box ! The only issue is no track....back to ebay.

Tomahawks dipped in blood

The table was still set up from last weekend so with a different visitor to the dungeon we played the same Muskets and Tomahawks scenario but swopped things around a bit. The natives were again looking to slaughter the villagers whilst the plucky British colonials were looking to scout all four table quarters. I didn't have the rule book so we didn't have extra objectives for each side.

The British lined up to defend the villagers

The Church was now in the centre

The Huron War party came on again as hidden units and proved really difficult to spot as they kept to the terrain features. The larger unit of Rangers, even though they couldn't see the enemy pushed across to protect the civilians getting into the small copse by the barn. M&T is not a good game to be out in the open.

British Infantry look to advance upto the church

Forward boys.......

Some well aimed shooting from the Rangers and the Mohawks sent the first two groups of Huron back but a larger group where still closing from within the larger woods to the right.

Civilians being a bit indecisive.. but Mohawks covering their retreat

The Huron break from cover and butcher the Rangers, despite the mohawks firing back it is ineffective. Luckily we roll a random event which saw the Natives in the woods attacked and savaged by a wolf, dangerous place North America ! it wasn't going to be enough though and the Mohawks were also soon despatched.

Skirmishing breaks out in the woods

Following this photo the Huron broke out again from the woods easily pushing the Mohawks to one side and slaughtering the first group of villagers. Things were getting critical and the Red coats had to be diverted to help out. But it was too late although the Rangers just managed to scout out the 4 quarters it was a moral victory to the Huron with all the villagers slaughtered and probably scalped.

Reload ..FIRE !

All is too late for the Red coats.