Even Less Quiet

On the Western Front, following on from the previous game the British have continued their advance. Their objective is to take and nullify the German observation bunker on Church Hill.

 

For this game I used modified WW2 rules from Neil Thomas's 'Introduction to Wargaming' some of my own ideas and bits from Mark Pipers adaptations for Rapid Fire.

The British mass for the assault, they would not know the extent of the damage to the German wire until they got to it. They had support of a Whippet tank, off table artillery and in table mortar and heavy machine guns.

The Germans had taken cover from the British bombardment in their dugouts and the crypt of the church.

The German off table artillery support had been nullified by British counter battery fire do had to rely on their trench mortar and heavy machine guns for support.

Their ammunition must have been of variable quality as they did not cause much of a problem to the British infantry advance, they did however stop the Whippet in its tracks.

Bolstered by their artillery, mortar and heavy machine gun fire the British advance continued undaunted.

Aided by a gap in wire created by the bombardment in the centre and a gap by the Whippet on the left.

The German return fire was sporadic the British fire support keeping them pinned down consistently.

The German spotters were subsequently rendered hors de combat and the mortar had to rely on runners to direct their fire further nullifying their effect in the advancing British.

The granatenwerfer provided some extra support but not enough to stem the British advance. Two German companies were eliminated, despite the casualties the British had three times as many men to mop up the remaining German company. The battalion commander ordered a withdrawal, 

the British advance continues.

The rules worked pretty well we thought, the game unfolded pretty much the same as the previous game using Bolt Action. I will probably stick with Bolt Action for future games until the release of Dave Stone's 'Zero Hour' later this year.

Until next time.......

TTFN & KBO

WMMS 2024 Part 3

Following on from part two,

WMMS 2024 Part 2

The final photos follow, staying in the America's is this huge AWI game.

Next there were two rather nifty Western Desert games.

Finally a fine looking Japanese skirmish using Ospreys Ronin rules.

I will finish off with my meagre haul

Poplars from The Last Valley

A trench section from Ironclad Miniatures

Vallejo Air paint from  Parabellum

Vallejo Model and Game Colour plus a blue from the new Express line from Pendraken.

We return to the Western Front 1918 tomorrow here at OHQ.

TTFN & KBO

WMMS 2024 Part 2

Following on from part one,

WMMS 2024

Two rather fine and dandy ACW games, first one presenting the battle of Frederick 1862

I didn't see any name labels for this other fine example below

The chaps from Shrewsbury never disappoint with their superb games, a rather splendid medieval bash this year.

More photos to come but I don't want to break Blogger as I seem to have done with my initial post.

TTFN & KBO

WMMS 2024 Part 1

Earlier today I accompanied Dave and his grandson William to the show. Dave has put up an admirable report up in his blog, Tales From GHQ

 which I can't really add to, pop over for read and more views of the splendid games on display.

Meanwhile here are photos of some of the games which caught my eye, failed to note down which club or group put them on for which I apologise.

Wellington in India, a game full of colour and panache.

Another colourful game, Italian Wars I think.

Blogger couldn't seem to cope with the amount of photos in my original post, to be continued........

Terrain and Troops

My Great War project revival continues, firstly I have finished off more figures I had partially started in the form of some Great War Miniatures British trench raiders and I think a Partizan free figure to commerate the 100th anniversary of ending of the war if I recall correctly.

Next up a 90° trench corner I picked up off Ironclad Miniatures at Hammerhead earlier in the month.

Finally some shattered tree stumps purchased a while ago from Coriatani.

The Great War mode will continue on Tuesday when Dave pops over for our fortnightly game here at OHQ.

Until then..........

TTFN & KBO

Fade To Grey

As I had not played Lion Rampant since 2021 and Dave since 2017! I decided to play a refresher game before we embarked on a linked game campaign in our post Roman Brittania setting.

We played the straightforward Bloodbath scenario from the rules and we only did one thing wrong rules wise, mea culpa. Here are some photos of the game a straight forward dark age slog no finesse or grand tactics in sight.

Prior to the month end I completed a battalion of Swiss for the Peninsular project, Front Rank figures.

That makes three battalions completed for the project so far.

Inspired by Dave Stone's description of his forth coming WWI rules, Zero Hour on Saturday I dug out some figures I started probably 18 months ago to complete. First up a sniper for the British, a Warlord WWII figure but who would know 🙂

Next a Renegade figure from a batch I bought at one of the Penkridge tabletop sales, didn't really need more German figures but at 50p a pop how could one refuse? I had converted one to be a musician inspired by a Peter Dennis illustration in the Cambrai Osprey book.

We will remain in the dark Ages for a 1066 game over at GHQ next week.

TTFN & KBO