Wednesday 29 November 2023

Tank and Infantry Battle on St James Road, Battleground Show and other stuff

Keeping fairly busy this week and the hobby mojo remains pretty high. As some of you will know I was a child of the ‘Featherstone’ era and his Wargames book has significantly influenced me as a child and ever since. As my 15mm collection has grown I realised I had enough to recreate his Battle on the St James Road from his original book. 

For those not aware this is the opening shot of the battle report, airfix figures and a mix of homemade tanks. I spent many hours looking at these pictures as a child, nice to see WW2 described as modern.
But this is not an exact replay, firstly I have Americans rather than British and our ruleset of choice would be Bolt action. The table is slightly larger and I reduced the forces slightly to ensure the game didn’t last over 4 hours ! However, it is close enough for me and brings me great pleasure.
The Americans dug in on Copse Hill and around red farm.
The Germans arrive across the embankment, past the plantation, but one of their transports are hit immediately causing the occupants to jump out
Panzers advance straight towards red farm, with infantry disembarking at the base of the hill
Long range fire from the rear by the plantation
The Americans lost a Sherman early on to an advancing Panzer behind copse hill
As they break through the barbed wire the tanks duel at close range but ineffectually
American infantry reserves push forward to block the gap ?
Germans transports are hit and burning, but the Americans have been unable to knock out any of the panzers
Eventually the Germans break through to St James Road, two of the American Sherman’s are burning 
…and the infantry on Copse hill have been outflanked. Time for the Americans to pull out and a victory to the Herman Goering Panzer Grenadiers. A really fun battle with a different outcome to the original but that is no bad thing.

On to Battleground Show, busiest that I can remember, so much so that I didn’t get a chance to look at any other games, or visit the bring and buy (probably saved some money then)
The Whitstable Harbour setup in situ at the show. All the games of which I think there were six were very enjoyable creating a good amount of fun and entertainment, everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.
I managed just one close up shot during the day ! The feedback was incredibly positive and I spent a lot of time between games talking to people genuinely interested in the game, the setup and of course the U-boat. Thanks to all those who took the time to play or just catch up.
I did purchase a couple of things, mainly french heavy cavalry. Having collected a couple of free Scottish epic sprues. I pick up another for 50p. Then Leon ran a raffle and I won the pike and shotte epic Scottish Battlion box set, wow from no where I have a Scottish Covenanter army. I’ll paint a block up to see what they are like πŸ˜€
When I got home I packed away the game and was looking for a location to store the Kreigsmarine and found a space in the ‘mixed’ German box along side these. Keith I took the photo just for you πŸ‘
A couple of bits of painting, although most of my time has been planning up and coming battles.
Passing through town I popped into the secondhand bookshop and found these two books
Aly you will be proud of me 

That’s it for now couple of games coming up and hopefully a first run out for the peninsular collection 🀞

Thanks as always

Matt πŸ˜€



28 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure I played a version of that classic scenario during lockdown, changing it to Early War IIRC. Nice to give it a run out for sure.

    Your table looked great and nice to hear you had lots of good games as well as plenty of positive feedback; well hard not to with a lovely u-boat to see! Nice haul and well done on the raffle prize.

    The Peninsular War book is superb and just such lovely illustrations to behold and be inspired by:).

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    1. Thanks Steve, I agree the illustrations in the blandford book are excellent also lots of OB details etc..

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  2. Great to see you, game looked awesome. I'd have played but there was a queue.

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  3. Battles with Model Soldiers was my first wargame book, and too spent hours looking through it. Some great memories with that Haythornthwaite book as well, and I remember it being my primary uniform resource in 1979. Your show game looked terrific, as I knew it would. A lovely bit of luck on winning the Covenanters set, your Scottish army is meant to be.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence from no where with very little effort I do seem to have amassed a Scottish army so I don’t have much choice πŸ€”

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  4. Matt, you are staying very busy, indeed! Your Featherstone tribute looks fab as did your show showpiece. You played through the scenario a half-dozen times at the show? You must have been exhausted. Winning prizes, finding cheap classic painting guides, everything is looking up for you!

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    1. Thanks Jon certainly when we got home I was pretty tired πŸ‘

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  5. Nice Bolt Action game!! I like the fact that your post has mutiple periods mentioned, games, books etc. It accords with all the interests going on in my head all at the same time!

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    1. Thanks John my brain is always jumping from one period to another and I’m sure we are not alone in that πŸ‘

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  6. Glad your game was enjoyable and popular at the Show! Your replay of a Featherstone era game was interesting too. Nice to see the Covenanters beefing up, it was obviously meant to be. Nice new acquisitions too!

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  7. Some lovely Featherstone nostalgia there Matt. Good to hear that the show was a success, more anecdotal evidence that the show scene remains strong post Covid. Great result on the raffle, that might be the push to make this project grow legs and develop.

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    1. Thanks Norm, the show certainly felt busy with lots of punters, quite a lot of young people so yes a good sign, lots of busy display games, so all good πŸ‘

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  8. A superb homage to the vintage scenario and I can only repeat how splendid your participation game table looks. Congratulations on winning the Epic set and the book finds.

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  9. You certainly gave some great looking game opportunities to the attendees. Putting a reworked classic and a detailed game including diorama quality table setting certainly earns you accolades.
    Good catch on the uniform guides. Icing on the cake.

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    1. Thanks Joe all is good in my hobby world πŸ‘

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  10. Thanks Neil….Hodden grey is apparently the scheme , but I’m hoping to create a little variety, the good thing with having amassed a few sprues means I can pull together some cavalry as well πŸ‘

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  11. A cracking couple of games Matt…
    You are not alone in spending too much time looking at and reading through the Featherstone scenarios as a youth…
    Of course I am proud of you 😁… An excellent pair of books.

    All the best. Aly

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  12. The WWII game looked great, as did the Whitstable game. Great find in the charity shop. I bet there's not a lot of gamers without the Blanford book in their collection.

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    1. Thanks Ray, I certainly have a few of the Blandford’s as they are a quick and easy reference.

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  13. Great looking game with an old school flavor, Matt. Nice loot you picked up too.

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    1. Thanks Dean….bring on the heavy cavalry πŸ‘

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  14. Wow that HAS been a full-on week, Matt! Both games look great and that was some pretty good luck with the raffle too! Thanks for including the pic of the Motorradschutzen - I should have mine on a blog soon too - they have been finished for a week or two, but too many other things happening that I needed to post about!

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  15. There is a Covenanter unit called The Ministers Regiment that wore second hand clerical garb donated by suitably severe Presbyterian clergymen and wore all black clothing - something a bit different for you Matt! (see here, although it seems this may just be a bit of a myth :( https://www.keepyourpowderdry.co.uk/2019/05/the-ministers-regiment.html)

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  16. Great to read that the game was well received at the show. Looks great and I know (from experience) that your show games are quick and fun to play.

    Hope you don't mind Matt, I've shared this post's address with Leon Pengilley so he can add it to the Pendraken Miniature's Forum thread, where he's collected a link list of blog posts with people who went to this year's show. Here's the link:

    https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,22773.msg359438.html?PHPSESSID=tl8gtksltbj6qarnaj8h17qgui#new

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