Andys Gaming Blog

Well it been a while busy with many manyprojects - and simpy forgot to update this blog of mine.  Anyhow heres briefly what I have been up to.

1. Selling my house - on market for 2 weeks and sold at very clsoe toasking price so very pelased with that - now just need to find a house in York (I live in Swindon at present) before July - easier said than done!
2. On th wargames front I have been working on a range of figures - more on thatwhen things progress a bit more but it will be an ancients range suitable for playing WAB at 28mm scale.
3. Been doing a bit of Napoleonics using some club rules we are developing - nothing beats having a Division or two of 28mm Napoleoniocs on the gaming table - awesome sight to behold…
4. Been playing in a mini FOW campaign - Bagaration - last week we starte dteh offensive and I was lucky enough to win - give it anotehr turn and I think teh tide would have turned against me… darned minefields were a right pain…tonioght I took a tank heavy army - 12 T34 (10 * 85 and 2 76mm) 8* T70, 58SU85 and a T34/76 HQ, together with some limited air support.  Again I was fighting a german pioneer company in a fighting withdrawl scenario - T34s did would they normal do when ambushed by 2*Tigers - but hey they lasted until turn 6 (some stunning Motiviation/Moral tests may I add) - the other T34s managed to assault and drive of one Inf company but teh were suported by the T70s to secure the central objective - with some dire infantry saves and mad dashes from the two flank objective units of the germans - I managed to secure the objective at the starrt of turn 6 - a close game where russian armour prevailed … so 2 out of 2 victories for mother russia
5.  For tonbights game I manged to paintup 13 T34s in about 3 hours! and they dont look that bad! Just afew slogans toadd and redo the gun barrel and I will be sorted
6. Selling a few Wargames things on ebay (amongst otehr stuff) in preperation for impending move to York - hard to make decision on what goes and what stays - currently toying with selling a rather large 15mm GdB based French Napoleonic army - decisions decisions…
7. Toying with the idea of joing OG club in USA and getting figures shipped to friends there ready for collection next time I go over - with todays exchange rate this is certainly a very attractive proposition!

Thast about all now - next week is final push for operation Bagration - and I have yet to field a IS2! (maybe cos I dont have any :))

Andy

Well, played my first game of Field of Glory tonight, Medieval Welsh vs Swiss… even though it was very much a practise game we managed to get to a result (Swiss win). We played very slowly over 3 hours with much to and fro-ing in the rule book to find all the rules (oh for a decent Quick Reference sheet!)… What I can say is that every time we came up with a problem once found (and there was never a case we could not find an answer!) - it was clearly explained and in simple understandable English.

Overall first impression is - missile fire not that effective (no make that very ineffective in our game) - Good quality heavy foot are worth the points…. putting your general in the front line can indeed help but make sure you do so with a decent BG…

Will I play again - you bet - even ordered all 5 army list books now.

I think this is going to be a good rule set once I get to understand the flow and design a decent Quick Reference sheet.

Also - tonight I was forcibly encouraged to continue down the slippery slope to a new WHFB army for the SAD Campaign, having already received two army blisters of Lizard men from Derek - I received a box full of lizards and a Slaan from Paul - so I would very much like to thanks both of them as even with the freebies I know its gonna cost me £200 - damn it….

Regards
Andy

Well, its the end of January and what been happening….

I have made a few purchases including a unit of Mounted Early Saxons and a unit of Slingers - this is to go an bulk out my small saxon force hopefully should be around 1000ap now - aim is to get this to 1500ap by end of year…

Also purchased new board game - Ticket to Ride Europe - awesome game - hoping the kids will like it.

Started another business venture off - progressing very well - hope to see the fruits of teh investment in a couple of weeks - will add more if all goes to plan

Been buying lots of books to help on research for new business project - what gets me is at times its cheaper to buy from america and paying shipping than buy here in the UK! (Highly recommend Abebooks.com)

Looking at a new army for SAD Wargamers Annual WHFB campaign - taken ogres for 3 years and done rather well, this year thinking of taking Lizard men - seem cheap enough on ebay and Warren also has a load to sell so need to read army book and make decision.

Weekends are gonna get busy of next 6 weeks with rugby 6Nations starting this saturday - cant wait - here praying that new welsh coach has made right decisions - happy to know that Martyn Williams has returned to the field - one hell of a player!

Still got a unit of Saxons to paint up, and all my FoW to base (not to mention latest purchase of tanks!) .

I feel the god are conspiring against me this year though for shows: Unable to attend 3 shows/events that I normally do due to 2 birthday and one wedding anniversary clash!

Real work is also boring - hoping that will improve soon!

enough ramblings for one night - bye.

Andy

Well, santa left me some rather nice Battlefront Soviet armour, namely

• 3*KV1e
• 3*SU85
• 1*T34/57 (i ask for three but the elves could not have produced enough!)
• 2*ZIS-3

Unfortunately the request for more Musketeer Miniature Saxons was not heard, I will just have to buy them myself!

Well, a narrow victory for the Trojans!  The Chariots once again proved their worth, the first chariot squadron seeing off the Avar allies which were tooled up to the hilt!  The second squadron had a much harder time as they were engaged from turn three frontally with a very hard viking unit WS4 and T4! the combat lasted 3 turns finally the chariots overcame them.

Derek exposed my short left flank by seeing off the LI there (the chariots were way past this point chasing down the Avars!) - his peasants charged in but were held, due to some lousyt panic checks the unit fighting the peasats fled, but as the peasants they were fighting had lost teh combat they could not pursue… leaving me to charge in the flank which saw the peasants off and lo and behold his Generals unit would have been caught in the flank but they failed their panic test and fled!

This opened the centre up with three of my units in hot pursuit of his general - but alas he rallied was then subjected to lots of Javelin fire from my chariots and Libyans (now in skirmish order) - being surrounded there was little he could  do with his generals unit - all in all - they never saw combat which was just fine by me.

His other two remaining units were kept at bay -  but time then got the better of us.. overall a victory but only just for the Trojans.

Thanks goes to Derek as always for a superbly enjoyable and friendly game.

Well, tomorrow night at the club its back to the SAD WAB Ladder… and I get to face Derek’s Rus - beserks included! In hand to hand combat I am going to get slaughtered - the Rus are somewhat hard! - My hope is that my many Light Infantry (Libyans, Javelinmen) and Skirmishers (slingers) - will enable me to harass are reduce his ranks, I am also likely to have more units than him so hopefully this combined with some superiority on the flanks with my chariots I am hoping to expose his flanks ad rely on the chariots to do the real damage while the Spear block hold the line with the generals Leadership…

My army is identical to that which succesfully beat the Macedonians:

• 1 King (Chariot - Javs)
• 3 Heros (Chariots Javs)
• 2 *5 Chariots - again all Javs
• 4 * 24 Spearmen (inc 6 bow)
• 2 * 15 Libyan Warband
• 1 * 12 Archers
• 1 * 12 Javelinmen
• 2 * 9 Slingers

I will update this entry with the result.

Well, surprises will never cease - another victory for the Trojans, bringing the 3,000ap games between me and warren to 3 each!… Again very lucky with my Warband rolls - very few units decided to surge forward uncontrollably, Warrens chariots - failed to make so many saves and with a 3 up as well, again the Javelin armed Chariots proved their worth (seem to do better with these than the Thrusting spear option)- and in one particular instance my chariots took out the unit of 3 Hittite chariots they were charging - awesome!

I lost in one turn from a piece of skillful play by Warren 2 Spear blocks - with a frontal charge from his spearmen, and flank charge from ASB and General, they then pursued into next unit and run them down as they failed their panic test, and on my next turn another unit failed and fled straight into the ASB and general thereby committing suicide! 3 solid units gone in a blink and looking good until then, but his general and ASB were now in bad position - a unit of 6 chariots and my king accompanied by a hero converged on his ASB and General. A round of Javelin fire did no damage and with no where else to go Warren charged in to my unit of chariots.

My counter charge saw a number of Javelins thrown at the Hititte general with no effective, but the ASB lost his chariot!, we then rolled for collisions - and Warren called it - and yes his generals chariots collided with one of mine leaving his general on foot as well - at this point Warren called it a day (and time was running out)…

All in all yet another great - no superb! game - with some 45 chariots on the table, but at only 6ft by 5ft we were somewhat limited in movement - hopefully next game will be at club where we can use a much larger table like 8ft by 6ft.

Tonight I played against Paul’s very successful Macedonian Pike Phalanx. A 2,000ap game that in all honesty I though I would losse once the Pike got in amongst my Trojan Spearmen…

My army consisted of:

• 1 King (Chariot - Javs)
• 3 Heros (Chariots Javs)
• 2 *5 Chariots - again all Javs
• 4 * 24 Spearmen (inc 6 bow)
• 2 * 15 Libyan Warband
• 1 * 12 Archers
• 1 * 12 Javelinmen
• 2 * 9 Slingers

Pal’s Macedonians from memory were:

• Army General Mtd
• 4 * 32 Pike blocks (8 wide!)
• about 15 Cretan Archers
• about 15 archers
• 2 lots of 6 Jav armed skirmishers
• 2 x 15 Thrusting spear/Jav armed LI peltasts

Terrain split the table in two with a large difficult piece of terrain slap bang in the middle sector 12 inches from my table edge - nice for me bad for Paul in my view.. some other terrain included woods, marsh also offered some more problems for the Pike blocks but not the LI/Skirmishers in the army…

My tactic was simple to exploit teh weaknessin his flanks which were only held by the peltasts & skirmishers with my chariots supported on the right flanks by a Libya unit and on the left by the chariot runners and slingers, the main Spear blocks and bowmen were to wait until flanks secured and slowly whittle the enemy down with bow fire - very difficult against Phalanx!

I will do a full write up at some point (hopefully with the help of Paul as I cannot remember all!) - but there was certainly some phenomenal dice rolling on both sides… both in terms of excellent dice rolls and extremely poor - but one combat stands out above all others and its tale must be told.

First turn Paul’s formed unit of Peltasts (thrusting spear/Jav/Buckler - 5 wide 3 deep) moved to secure his right flank to the right edge of world, to his left woods. My turn saw the chariots move up to within charge range, turn two nothing from the peltasts, but my Chariots led by a hero (of course!) charged the Peltasts - they took no casualties on the way in but they took 3 (i believe) casualties off him due to throwing their javelins on the way in - a good result so far and one less rank in combat resolution!

In combat round1 in inflicted 2 casualties on him, now his fight back, with 11 Peltasts (thrusting spear!) - 10 Hits! unreal, but I though my toughness will hold me out here, he need 5s to wound, he did no less than 7, yes 7! unbelievable - I was in dire straights here as each chariot lost counts as 2 wounds in combat resolution! - so 7 saves with a 3 up meant at least 2 would go on average - but nope - I managed to save 6! (I did say the dice rolls were something else didn’t I!)

So down to combat resolution, I got 4 with my standard, he got two for casualties and 1 for ranks! making a victory for me by 1! - but alas it was very short lived as he then rolled for oracles (only got 4!) and threw in 2 to turn the combat to his favour - reversing the win to his favour. I did make the save, and next turn I saw them off but what a combat — one both sides to remember!

Overall at the end a victory to the Trojans - but I was also very lucky as only one unit in 6 turns (Libyans on right flank) failed their compulsory warband check! This really helped as I was able to receive charges from the pike and fight with two ranks of thrusting spear - as Pike regardless always use two ranks and go first in combat this was the best I could expect…

Trojan Losses:
1 * 9 Slingers
1 * 12 Javelinmen
2 * 15 Libyans

Macedonian Losses: ( i Think)

2 * 15 Peltasts
3 * 32 Pike Blocks
1 x 15 (ish) Cretan Archers

A very good game, tomorrow (Thursday afternoon) I play Warren in our regular 3,000AP biblical bash - Trojans vs Hittites… he is leading teh scoreboard 3 to 2 victories I believe at the moment - hopefully will get some pictures of this game as its at my house! I somewhat scramble to get 3,000AP - ewvery Tojan ad Sea peoples figure I have is on the table - not the best selection of army but a general has to make do with whatever troops he has to hand

Well, it went as expected - German Victory with overwhelming losses to the Soviets… but what a great game - a 12ft by 6ft table with 5 or 6 players a side each with 1500ap - unfortunately we played reserves and mine simply did not come on until the last but one and last turn -= so that was 10 dice for reserves and only 2 5s or 6s total…

I made a big mistake by not deploying my KV1 initially, with them not arriving until the end of teh game they had little impact (i think I got one tank! kill)….

First turn saw Pauls air support take out 1one of my heavy mortars which meant no re rolls (note to self always take 8 Heavy mortars in future!) - but largely the Heavy mortars were in effective in the game - |I did manage to get lucky with one tank kill (the only one!) - which did result in a platoon failing its moral test…

My poor T70s darted about teh tableonly to be destroyed in one turn by Glenns Tanks ROF3 with 9AT is a tad difficult to combat with T70s…

Lots of pictures were taken by club members and the following link(s) will take you to them:

http://www.sadwargamers.com/?p=134

Again awesome game - main lesson learned - drop the mortars take air cover, and more tanks instead of Armoured cars! Guards is much better option than conscript but you get at least one unit less - still suffer from Hen and Chicks (this is a killer)…

On reflection I believe Soviets should have been given more pts that Germans to ensure a greater amount of armour to litter the field with

I think James counted at least 125 tanks on the table (i know we could have fielded at least double that looking at the number still in the various boxes littered around the table- may be next time

I have chosen to go with a Mixed Guard Tankovy Company. It comprises of the following units :

• 8*T70 (1942 includes HQ)
• 3*KV1e & 1*KV2
• 6*Heavy Mortars, Trucks, Observer and Komissar to keep order!
• 7*BA10M

I know - no T34/76 - as we have 5 players a side there will be T34/76 a plenty… also there are mixed reports if an KVs were present at the part of the battle we are refighting… some say none, others sa limited numbers - so I go for limited numbers!

I am hoping that the trained ability will reduce the ability of the Germans to hit me, and for the mortars it should help for me to hit, and if I survive with 6 mortars I get to re roll misses so should dramatically improve their effectiveness.

I will hopefully post all the Soviet and German lists on this my blog and also the SAD Wargamers website.

For the game we have decided no: Panthers, Tigers(this one may be allowed), SU85 or SU152s allowed…the KVs should hopefully come into their own!

The game starts Wednesday evening - I will let all know (hopefully with pictures) how it goes!