Saturday 21st June saw Will and I drive over to St Helens for the Phalanx show. Beacon Gaming Club were involved in two games this year. El Presidente Si Graham laid out a participation game using modified Lion Rampant rules with the Lance and Longbow Society (David and Steve). The battle of Arsuf in the third crusade (1191 CE). Richard the Lionheart was skirting the sea in the foreground, suddenly finding himself ambushed by Saladin and his Muslim host. Richard was trying to prevent his knights charging off into the wild blue, so the crusaders had to roll to see if Richard changes his no charge order, succeeding on a 6 turn 1, 5+ turn 2, etc. We played it through twice and both ended with crusader victories.
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Monday, 30 June 2025
Phalanx 2025 and Gentlemen Pensioners AWI Breed's Hill
Thursday, 5 June 2025
28mm Dark Ages additions
In an effort to clear out some backlog in the lead mountain, I dug out some of my Foundry sales purchases, Romano-British spears standing and command. First up, a unit of 12 spears, led by a suitably Arthurian commander and labarum holder. These were given white shields and apothecary white cloaks.
So, plans are to continue with the Vikings and make a start on some Victrix Late Romans to add to my Romano-Brits. Then there are some RN sailors for Darkest Africa plus crew for various gun boats and paddle steamers and I've dusted off some Natal Mounted Police figures to get on with. I've decided variety is the spice of life and the way to stop getting bogged down with projects.
As ever, thanks for looking.
Friday, 23 May 2025
Nam '68 game
Will and I have been trialling Nam '68 for the last few months. I finally managed to remember to take some photos. The terrain is all Will's, as are the American forces, while the VC are mine.
We rolled up a hot scenario, pitting two squads of US infantry, supported by two M60 teams, against a 4 card from 8 drawn on the random VC table. My first roll got me two booby traps and two options to draw two more cards each (2 aces). Frustratingly, they yielded 2 tunnel entrances and three snipers with bolt action rifles. The scenario was search and destroy and the terrain was a major river ( pale grey strip in photo above). Lots of streams feeding into the river with marsh and a couple of fisherman's huts on stilts.
Note the star shaped search point in the picture below.
Sadly for the VC, the American suppressive fire prevented the snipers from doing other than retreat into denser cover, but an accurate M79 blooper round killed one of the snipers with Will playing a gory death chit. This took my morale way above the 9 I started with so the 2 remaining snipers bugged out. With the kill ratio equal, despite the VC breaking, the rules view this as a US defeat. Very interesting game with less than 30 US troops and 3 VC on the table. The Americans really did seem to feel oppressed by the unwillingness to move out of cover and once the tunnels were placed, the US player still didn't know what might appear. We were disappointed with the layout of the rules, but the more games we play the slicker the games become.
Thanks for looking.
Saturday, 17 May 2025
Late Roman vs Sassanid Persion
Thursday evening, Si and I played a game of To the Strongest, pitting my Late Romans against his Sassanid Persians. My Late Romans have a western flavour, so probably represent one of the western pretenders operating in the east. Roman right flank command, nearest the camera, consisted of a unit of slingers, Hun mounted bowmen, Sarmatian cataphracts and Frankish warbands, supported by cataphracts and clibinarii under the overall commander. The centre comprised five units of legionaries supported by two units of lanciarii and three units of bowmen. The left flank comprised two units of light horse archers and two veteran javelin armed cavalry. With the three camps, my troops came to 202 points. The Sassanids had flanks dominated by heavy cavalry and cataphracts, while the centre comprised units of long bowmen and deep spear armed infantry, with an escorted elephant unit.
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
28mm Late Roman cavalry - completing some units
Foundry had a Christmas sale so I added a pack of Late Roman cavalry to round out my shock cavalry. Here a pair of Foundry Late Romans.
Thursday, 6 March 2025
28mm FIW British Commanders
This pair of British mounted officers from Eagle Miniatures will be added to my French Indian Wars army. My first foray into the period, do took quite a bit of Internet digging to get the right look.
I suspect I might need to add some coloured detail as they seem to be modelled with lace, but not turnbacks, and I can't find any suitable images online.
Thanks for looking.
Saturday, 18 January 2025
28mm Muskets and Tomahawks
Will and I played a game of Nam 68 today, but sadly didn't manage to take any photos. These are from a game of Muskets and Tomahawks from before Christmas, which is what we planned to play today, but Si and Matt weren't well so had to cancel.
My Brits, Si's French and mostly Si's game mat and terrain - the fort is very nice.
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The rules played out nicely and didn't require lots of figures, 12 for regulars, 6 for irregular Europeans and Native warbands. Lots of nip and tuck with shifts in advantage. It was no fun watching my loyalist Indian warband slaughtered in hand to hand, but refreshing for a British firing line laying fire on the Frenchies - very effective.
Thanks for looking.