A Return To The Eastern Front

Dave popped over to OHQ for a game today, we had decided to do a World War II game, we had not done one since January. As it was Dave's birthday today I decided that we would use his favourite WWII set, Rapid Fire.
I decided on a nice straight forward(ish) game on a 4'x4' table, the objective for the Dave's Russian force was to clear the village of Germans in eight turns.

The Church Takes The Full Brunt Of The Initial Russian Katyushka Strike Also Taking Out The German Observer Team

The Russians Advance On The German Left 

The Russians Enter The Cornfields, Which Were To Prove Heavy Going

The German Pak50 Takes Out The Russian SU76

The Russians Struggle Through The Corni

Taking Advantage Of The Second Katyushka Strike The Russians Storm The German Right Flank Position

Which Is Overrun

The Russians Finally emerge From The Corn To Late To Secure A full Victory, The Boss Will Not Be Pleased.

By turn eight the Russians had overrun the German right flank trench line and had eventually emerged from the cornfields the T34's had also made a belated entry. With the Germans still having control of two positions in the town though a draw was declared.

Next weeks game will be over at GHQ where Huttus Baldinus having raised fresh troops will renew his campaign to overthrow the tyrant  Pompous Maximus.

TTFN 

Ballista, Warrior Of Rome

I have painted up the Ballista figure based on the character in Harry Sidebottom' s Warrior of Rome series, this was a freebie if you bought Simon's To The Strongest rules or Harry's new novel on Sunday at Partizan, this is now available with a minimum spend in Simon's shop, click on the Big Red Bat Cave link on the right for more details.

The dead Goth is from the Foundry, Casting Room Miniatures dark age German range. The shield transfer from LBMS, it is from the Footsore Late Roman/ Arthurian sheet, it just needed a slight trim to fit the shield provided

TTFN

My Partizan 2016 Part The Second

My next must see at the show was the Derby lads Storming of Athlone 1691 game, I had been following the progress of Mark's Athlone build on the web, as is usual the case it looked even more stunning in the flesh, I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking,

Next on the list was David Imrie's First Carlist War game using Sharp Practice 2, David's superbly painted figures were complimented by the splendid buildings and blockhouse he had commissioned.

Moving on, we come to Graham Cummings 1744 game using in the main his own Cran Tara Miniatures range, I mentioned these in my Carronade post, delightfully elegant figures, Graham had been up till 1 AM finishing figures off for the game, been there, done that, a man after my own heart.

Another on my to see list was the Grimsby Marlburian game, this is what one imagines a Marlburian to be, whilst it was inspiring I think that it as knocked my notions of returning to the period on the head. half a dozen battalions a side just will not cut it.

I also wanted to see James Morris's Fort Vaux game, what a wonderful and innovative concept, I did not take any pics I could not see any shots that would really do it justice, it is IMHO something that just has to be seen to be really appreciated, well deserving of the award it received.

Well just a handful of the splendid games put on, I tip my hat to all the folks that put on games for our delight, it just leaves me to add a picture of my meagre haul, roll on August when we can do it all again, except queueing I hope Dave ;-)

TTFN

My Partizan 2016 Part The First

Well its a YES from me, bloody brilliant. Dave, Kevin and myself turned up at 10.30ish, after a slight diversion, to busy talking to see the show ground sign, though I must admit it does not exactly stand out.
Now usually at this time we breeze in to Kelham, but behold there was a queue! and I hate queueing, in this case I make an exception because any fears that numbers may drop with the change of venue was certainly allayed, I hope that this is confirmed by the attendance numbers. Having said that we were in within 10 minutes or so, I am sure that Richard and Laurence will address this for next time. Some folk have said that the venue lacked atmosphere I don't agree, I thought the place buzzed and did not drop off at lunchtime and a big plus for me being in one lace I think I got to speak to most people where at Kelham I invariably missed folk. Anyway finish with the rambling and onto the pictures etc.
My first port of call was Simon Millar's (clicky) and Phil Hendry's (clicky) Battle of Circesium game, I had failed to say hello to Simon at the previous shows, I have mentioned in previous posts that Simon and Phil had both been instrumental in me kick starting the 3rd century Roman project. Introduction over Simon invited me to join in with a game, at first I said I would just watch a while, on reflection you do not really get a grasp of a rule set by just watching and its not everyday you get a chance to play with Phil's splendidly painted Romans and Sassanids so when Simon asked if I was sure I did not want to play, I joined in. I took command of the Sassanid force "protecting" the town, after an initial good start things went downhill, losing all my elephants contributed to an emphatic Roman win. A splendid game, enjoyed it so much I bought the rules, which I had been procrastinating over since Simon published them.

The Legion Rolls Forward

Roman Camelry Bring Up The Rear

The Other Sassanid Command Do Battle

My Elephants Charge Down The Roman Archers

You Can't All Hide Behind That Statue

The Fight In The Town Continues

The Other Force, Mine In The Background

  After the defeat I popped over to pick up the latest Harry Sidebottom (click) novel, before moving on to the next port of call.........................
To Be Continued

Roman Equites

The latest addition to the third century Roman collection, the Romans are A and A Miniatures, the unfortunate Goth is a slightly modified Gripping Beast early Saxon, shield transfers LBMS and a base from Warbases.

I have started a unit of auxillia, this will give me eight units, enough for a game. I will then concentrate on doing another four units of Goths this will give them eight units too. Up next will be a general for each side before I start adding additional units.

Off for a War of 1812 game at GHQ now.

TTFN

Carronade 2016 Part The Second

Winner of the best demo game was this splendid ECW game, Dave, Brian, Jack and Ian put on a superb spread here well deserving of the title. I will let the pictures speak for themselves...........

Other games that particularly caught my eye

The Glasgow Warhogs, Omaha Beach Game, this really captured the chaos I thought

SESWC's WWII Italian Front game, odd I thought for Colin to do something very mainstream, no it did of course have a twist, they are not Americans you can see but the Brazilian Expeditionary Force.

I am not a naval buff but this Russo-Japanese War naval game by The Border Reivers looked just the ticket

You have to love a Hellenistic pike block, Dumfries Wargames Club depiction of Chaeronea using To The Strongest Rules

Lastly the guys from Kirriemuir who never disappoint put on the Gaugamela, choosing only to do the Persian left wing and demonstrating that part of the battle in six phases over the day.
Well that's it for another year, apologies to those who's games I have not photographed, all were worthy of a shot or two but one has only so much time, hopefully pics will appear elsewhere of the other sterling efforts.
Many thanks to the guys who organise the show, I hope I can make the trip for Carronade 2017.

TTFN