Back To Work

Or..............."not proper work" according to my wife, either way it means the paints are back out. So in between popping paint on the commission "work" I have been able to paint the trench piece I modified together with another couple of sections. You may note that I beefed up the sandbag protection at the front since the WIP photo posted earlier.

The Rear

The Front

In Situ With Other Sections

Already now to attempt to stem the German advance in the New Year.

May I take the opportunity to wish all my followers and casual readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year

Christmas In The Trenches

Well I did not think I would be posting again this year with all my painting equipment put away for Christmas and what have you. However I did not need  paint to do this

An Ironclad Miniatures trench section with overhead cover added, corrugated craft card with Miliput sandbags to hold it in place, underneath I added a dugout entrance with a gas curtain. This together with a couple more pieces are now primed ready to paint for our next Great War bash in the New Year.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and wishing you a very Happy New Year.

TTFN

Chain Of Command, Great War Style

We started 2015 with a Great War game, so it was only fitting that we should end the year with one. This time we would be using our much delayed second outing with Chain of Command, you can get the Great War modifications from here or here. The game would be a sort of follow on from our previous encounter Dawn Attack 1918, this action takes place behind the British front line. A platoon of Germans is probing on the flank, news of the breakthrough has reached British HQ who have sent patrols out to access the situation, we chose the patrol scenario to reflect this. This was a relatively quiet zone before the German offensive so the terrain is wooded and hedged, with a farm building only exhibiting damage from the fighting in 1914. There would be no artillery or vehicles involved in the action, reflective of the action and also to keep things simple while we got acquainted with the rules again.
The initial period of the game saw both sides playing cat and mouse amongst the hedgerows, both sides being cagey and unwilling to commit until they had sussed out the opposition, the British got things going by sending a couple of men to scout down the road, this led them behind the Germans who had entered the wood. The Germans had little choice but to fire on them, killing one of them, hearing the firing the British sent a section towards the wood, the sequence of dice however saw the Germans get to the edge of the wood before them catching them in the open with some withering fire. They were in a perilous position to high tail it away out of line of sight would need three movement dice but this would take their shock to double the men remaining breaking them so it was either charge or fire, they took a chance on firing hoping that they would get to activate again before the Germans it was not to be and they broke in the German phase. The Lewis gun section on their right were now able to fire on the Germans in the wood, eventually causing them to break in turn. Back on the other flank the Germans tried to break the impasse and charged the British ensconced behind the hedge, but they were soundly beaten back by good old British pluck.
Now if you read the last report you may remember the myopic British sniper, well it appears he has a brother, 3+ to hit, not difficult is it? well yes apparently, first four shots, four bloody ones. While all this was going on the British rifle section had got into the farm building, this was to be a two edged sword, yes they had hard cover but they could only get to fire four men each turn, with hindsight I should have sent the Lewis gun section there instead of having it covering the road. back outside the farm the section that had hurled the German assault back under terrific fire from the German infantry and granatenwerfer finally broke, their place was taken by the now free Lewis section, but they must have been low on ammo for despite the number of shots they hit very little, this combined with the little amount of fire from the farm did little to the Germans in the hedgerow, whilst their casualties began to grow until finally they broke, with this and NCO losses the British morale meant that they now only had two command dice. With the German firepower now also being twice that of the British it was only a matter of time before the British morale collapsed, which it finally did after three hours of play with a break for lunch.
All in all a rather splendid game, we did miss one or two things and had to check things in the rules along the way but they were equally applied to both sides so no advantage was gained by either side.
We plan to start 2016 with another Great War game using Chain of Command on the 11th Jan all being well, the first game of 2016 will be at GHQ, a French Revolutionary War game using Black Powder, until the New Year here are a few pictures of the game.

The Germans Infiltrate The Wood

They Also Line The Hedgerow

The German Assault Is Repulsed

A British Section Breaks

The Repulsed Troops Take Refuse

Another Section Breaks

End Game, The Von Byklenstein Offensive Continues

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël

Fröhliche Weihnachten

Buon Natale

Feliz Navidad

счастливого Рождества

      

A Pot Pourri

I thought that I would pop some pictures up of the latest figures I have done for my various projects, first up some communications for my British and German Great War forces.

Next the completed battalion of Navarre Guides for the First Carlist War.

And finally for the 3rd century Roman project I have left the latest Roman legionary unit to one side to start a unit of cavalry for the Gothic forces.

The last game of 2015 at OHQ will, all being well take place on Monday, a Great War game using Chain of Command. Look out for a report on this next week.

TTFN 

Where Did It Go Again?

Well we fast approach the end of 2015, have I been productive? Well I do not really know, I should really keep track of what I do complete, I could trawl back through the blog and check, but no I will list list here where I have got to
First Carlist War 
Six 20 figure infantry battalions a side plus a skirmish unit of 6 figures per side
One cavalry regiment of 8 figures per side
Three command figures for each side
The Carlists have a field gun whilst their Isabelino adversaries have a horse artillery gun and a rocket
Up next is another 8 figure cavalry unit for each side, target for completion by the end of February, this will leave two more Isabellino battalions and a cavalry unit to do plus one more Carlist battalion and a mountain gun for each side.
The Great War 
All the infantry are done, but I still have the odd officer and LMG team which may get done during the course of 2016.
Support weapon wise I have a field gun for the Germans and a 3" Stokes mortar for the British, I have just finished a Minenwerfer for the Germans and I have signallers for both sides in progress at the moment which I plan to complete by the end of January.
I also have half a dozen British cavalry to do at some point.
That covers the late war, for the early war project with Dave I am working on the battalion command to finish the third one, we decided to add another battalion so I also have that and another gun to do in the new year.

Arthurian ( for want of a better word ) 

Now you may recall I started these back in 2012 for use with Dux Britanniarum on the basis that as you only needed 40 - 50 figures a side I could get them done during the year, yes you guessed, still at it. Although I only need to paint another 18 figures now, so 2016 is a possible to complete. Although I did buy extra figures to double up the size of the units for Lion Rampant, we did in fact use what figures I had done to play a Lion Rampant game earlier in the year. I plan to keep plugging away at this.

Wars Of The Roses 

A bit of a saga this one, but I have decided to keep the figures and eventually paint enough for Lion Rampant games, this is still on the back burner at present though.

Third Century Rome

My retirement project which I have started on the basis that it is doubtful I will ever fully retire, again I will pop paint on these over the year. To date I have three Roman foot units and two cavalry units for the Goths I have two infantry units and I have started a cavalry unit.

Spanish Civil War 

Again a project on the back burner, although I have enough painted for the odd game. I have yet to find a set of rules to relight my enthusiasm, although Chain Of Command seems to be the set that may do it, for this though I need to paint more figures to make my different "factions" up to strength. Perhaps the threat by Empress Miniatures to release new figures may also do the trick.

World War Two

Probably my first love and a period that can never be really completed the odd one or two vehicles can change a game. I have bought several more vehicles, aircraft  and figures since the purchase of the excellent Battlegroup rules. I always have something for this period on the stocks and 2016 will be no exception.

So I could actually complete a project next year, but wait what's that fluttering I hear?

All being well back to gaming  next week, a further foray into Rhanzlistan I believe.

TTFN

PS. 

Forgot to mention all the terrain bits I have to do also, can I have 2015 back please.

British Auxillary Legion Rifle Battalion

Did not quite get them finished for the game, here they are all four bases, next up will be the Carlist Navarre Guides

Taking our daughter, who is having a rough time at the moment away for a break for a few days, so there will be a gap before the next post.

TTFN

Keeping Up The Pressure, Spain 1836

Fresh from his previous victory Don Byklos Carlos is hot on the heels of his great adversary Don Fillipe Hijoderobin, Don Fillipe as left a holding force behind whilst he gathers together the recent recruits to Carlist cause. Positioned behind walls and with the artillery dug in on the adjacent high ground  the Don hopes it will give him time to bring forward further troops to try and achieve some parity in numbers, the new troops except for the training cadre will be untried in combat. False intelligence as led the Christinos to believe that the Carlist left flank is protected by cavalry this he hopes will help protect that flank from any enemy cavalry threat, the right is well protected by olive groves and walls.
This time we would be using Black Powder rules again, the Carlists could dice using the usual command roll the first turn after lunch, so that there was no set turn for possible arrival. Below are some photo's that I hope will best describe the action in captions, hopefully that way Blogger will not lose my text when publishing this time.

Carlist Artillery

Carlist Infantry Line The Wall, Their Commander Diego Olivera In The Background, Staff Rating 8

Carlist Skirmishers In Amongst The Olive Trees

First Isabelino Brigade, Commanded By Del Pendeluna, Staff Rating 7

Second Isabelino Brigade, Commanded By General Bykleigh, Staff Rating 8

Carlist "Phantom" Cavalry 

Pendeluna's  Blunders To The Left

Royal Marine Rocket Troop, Remarkably Accurate Scoring Three Direct Hits In The Course Of The Action

After Soaking Up Tremendous Fire And Dishing Very Little Out The Navarra Battalion Finally Break

The Newly Arrived Guipuzcoa Battalion Come Under Heavy Fire From The Aragon Infantry Battalion And Isabelino Skirmishers But Stalwartly Refuse To Break 

Is The Tide Turning? The Espana Battalion Break! 

Then The British Auxiliary Legion 9th Battalion Break Too! 

Alas No The New Recruits Break! Leaving Just Two Carlist Battalions. At This Point The Carlists Are Forced To Quit The Field, Just As The Tide May Have Been Turning.

A hard fought game, notable for some shocking musketry from the Carlists on the approaching Christinos, I excelled in throwing ones and twos, more than usual! But to counter this they held on a lot longer than they should have done given the mass of accurate Christino fire poured into them, and what about those rockets more direct hits than in all its outings so far!

Don Filippe will retire to winter quarters and come out fighting in the New Year, down but certainly not out.

All being well the last game of 2015 at OHQ will be on Monday 21st December, where as 2015 gone?

TTFN

Latest Murch Movember Masterpiece

Received and painted up Bob Murch' s latest Movember figure.
Painted as Captain James Archibald Huttless, adventurer, player in the Great Game and all round good egg.

Dawn Attack 1918

With Dave due later in the morning I set up the table below and quickly devised a scenario, the Germans would be attacking the British positions in a dawn attack taking advantage of the thick morning mist, a preliminary bombardment meant that the British were expecting at least a large raid so had sent for reinforcements, these were diced for and would not start to arrive until turn three, when even then would need to be diced for to see what arrived and where. The initial defenders were two Lewis gun sections a Vickers machine gun and deployed in the village a toffee apple mortar, which I had recently finished painting, and a sniper.

The Germans would start with three stormtroop sections entering the table on the first turn, they were also able to place a sniper anywhere on table their side of the road. From turn two they could dice for arrival of the following each turn, a Maxim HMG, a granatenwerfer, three infantry sections and an A7V tank.

German Stormtroopers Probe The Weak British Flank 

Meanwhile The British Look To Their Front 

With The Mist And The Village Obscuring Their View They Fail To See The Stormtroopers On The Flank 

Dave's Germans Pinned Them With The Threat Of a Flamethrower Attack To Front Enabling The Stormtroopers To Attack The Flank Turfing Out The British Troops

The Germans Did Not Get All Their Own Way British Reinforcements Charged The Stormtroopers But Alas With A Massive 14 Dice Only Managed To Inflict Three Casualties, Tough Cookies Those Stormtroopers.

German Follow Up Troops Dash Forward

The German Sniper, A Much Better Marksman Than His British Counterpart

Abteilung Vor!!

British Toffee Apple Mortar

The German Commander Checks His Report Before Sending His Runner Back To HQ

Don't know what has happened to the text that should be here, I am not typing it all again, the Germans won the Brits lost, and Blogger is a load of shite.

STOP PRESS
Dave has come to the rescue, more pics and words  here

TTFG

Gaming Tomorrow?

Hot on the heels of last week's WI photo shoot I had planned a Great War Chain of Command game tomorrow, however Dave and myself have had a busy week and weekend so I for one have not been able to mug up on the rules. Therefore tomorrow it will just be a case of throwing down some toys and having a bash with good old Bolt Action again, stand by for a report and pics later in the week.

Part of my week involved finishing off a couple of commissions, some late 17th C British cavalry and some FIW French (pic of these below)

Officers by Front Rank others by Redoubt, recipient will add flags and base them.

TTFN

A Bit Of A Lull

Not much to blog the last couple of weeks I have been away most of the time, taking my wife on a two well earned breaks for a little R&R after a spell in hospital recently. First off we went up to Northumberland, revisiting Lindisfarne and taking in some castles we had seen but never visited before, the weather was really kind to us, last week we went down to South Wales staying in Caerphilly and visiting yet more castles and the Doctor Who exhibition in Cardiff. I did take some painting away on our first trip but it was mostly commission stuff except for a dead Goth to mark casualties for my 3rd century Roman project.
Today however I popped over to Dave's for a couple of games, a report with pics is over on Dave's Blog do pop over and take a look.. No game next week here as I have to pop over to Dave's for a WI photo shoot.

TTFN

My II Adiutrix

I have started the next legionary unit for my third century Romans, II Adiutrix this legion was  stationed at Aquincum which is modern day Budapest from 106AD until the 5th century, ideal to take on my Gothic/Germanic hordes. The legions emblems were the boar, for which I have a standard and the Pegasus that features on the LBMS shield transfers I have added.

 

Note the mix of equipment one of the attractions of this period in the history of the Roman Empire.

Again figures are from A and A Miniatures, another ten/twelve to go for another base, this will make six of the eight required.

TTFN