Monday, March 18, 2024

WMMS - Alumwell 2024 - The Battle For Fort Nibeiwa

It good to be back on gaming circuit, it been quite a while. Alumwell is the closest show to the Wyre Forest Club and it was good to see a whole bunch of club members and old faces on the day.

So to the game..... Sponsored by Costa...

THE BATTLE FOR FORT NIBEIWA, 9 DECEMBER 1940

A portrayal of the Battle for Fort Nibeiwa part of the opening moves of Operation Compass, an attack of British & Commonwealth forces against Italian Positions in Western Egypt.  The Western Desert Force (Consisting of the 4th Infantry Division & 7th Armoured Division are tasked with an attack against Group Maletti

 

Under the cover of RAF Bombardments and Artillery. At 7.30am Matilda tanks flanked by Bren Carrier Platoons of  the 7th Rajput Regiment attacked, Italian tanks and defenders were caught off guard with many of the crew asleep, as the crew scrambled for their vehicles they were overwhelmed by the Indian Infantry and lumbering Matilda's.

 

By 10.40 the Fort was in British Hands in what one Italian described as “the nearest thing to hell he had ever seen.” Over 4000 Italians surrendered.

 

The Game.

Can the Italians slow the allied advance and destroy the Allied Armour before the Commonwealth forces capture the fort and the Italian Morale collapses?




 

A good day in the field for the Allies the Italians were routed and the Matilda's crushed all before them, the Italian armour burned where it was parked, the crew cut down as they attempted to run to their vehicles.



A rare victory for the Italians it what was a significant defeat, a Matilda crossing the trench line is hit by a HE round and the crew are forced to bailout.

Played with using the Bolt Action Core rules alongside elements of Chain of Command introducing Force Morale, variable movement and turn end.



A Gentleman's War all smiles..... after a hard day in the desert.

Now the customary picture of the loot from the day.... 
No significant purchases but some extra's for the Outremer Project, a fresh bunker for Operation Exporter and the ground works for the AWI in 10mm for the summer.


Now back to the day job.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

February Club night round up.

Plenty of projects on the go at the moment, but always time for something old and something new.

First up back to an old favourite and AVBCW, one of the joy's of this project is the ability to research your local area and try and replicate it on the table top.... what is now a largely built up area in Worcester was once a country lane and the long established council estate was under construction as a new build. 


In this scenario the BUF under pressure in the city have called for reinforcements from Evesham but find the way locked into the city. But whose side will the St Martin's militia in the new estate side with?


The BUF deploy early having triggered an ambush from the socialist defenders, who have rigged up a trench mortar to fling HE over the hedge rows.



The BUF looking to take a turn to right, more than they already are :-) 
Only for the local militia to decide they did not like the presence of the men in black in their nice new housing estate. The call out their local defence forces to block the road and man the hedge rows.



Knowing time was not on their side the BUF try to rush the main road into the city but find that communist forces have their own armoured car who pin the attackers back.... with burning vehicles and many killed and wounded. the city would not be getting any reinforcements any time soon. 


Leap forward 45 years and another what if.... a game a Team Yankee and a Russian attempt to break though NATO lines as the American recon units beat a hasty retreat on the face of wall to wall Soviet armour.


Pretty pleased with myself I had massed my Abrams all in one place and watched as the Russians chased my recon units as we drew them into range of my main guns.


Ambush !!!! - 60% of the Russian Armour is destroyed in the first round.


Now for the Air Power and on the opposite flank the A10's knock out another bunch of heavy metal.


I may have then got a little cocky and swept down off the hill to turn the Russian flank, forgetting that they to have air power.... and several of my valuable armour went up in flames.... 


I perhaps should have stayed where I was but got a little bit carried away and will most certainly be disciplined by high ups.... If I had not been blown to bits in the final round.

Team Yankee is rather unforgiving.... or is it realistic you perhaps only have to look to the Ukraine to see the life of a tanker is not very long...

Two very different games - Team Yankee was quick, not sure about the ranges and it might be better in 6mm but it was fun and you certainly get a big game done in 2-3 hours....




Thursday, March 07, 2024

WMMS Prep - The Battle for Fort Nibeiwa Dec 1940

Nothing focuses the painting activity like a show and deadline, we had a run through a few weeks ago and felt we needed a few more Matildas for the Commonwealth forces, so we all chipped in to bolster the numbers.

Rather worrying we now have a over 10 for the forthcoming battle, the Italians will really have their work cut out, if of course they can raise themselves from their beds to even get to the trenches.

I might have got a little carried away and added a Cruiser for good measure. 


I read some of the reports that the Indian 7th Rajput Regiment followed on the initial assault in trucks, so a good excuse to add some transports to the allied forces, I did think about adding more markings but figured more generic trucks could be used for any side if required.



All 3D prints from the guys at 3D Printing Valley | eBay Stores
Well worth a visit great detail and most of the vehicles come printed in a single piece.

Now back to the Crusades......

Saturday, March 02, 2024

Battle of Lemberg - Part 3 - 5 years in the making......

Well that may have been a little optimistic.... The last post was back in 2019 - Dust, Tears & Dice: Battle around Janow, Lemberg, Galicia 1914 - Mud & Blood (dusttears.blogspot.com)

One might have thought that 4 years was bad but this time it was 5....... we really must get better at this.

Another outing in the fight for Lemberg with the Russian's and Austrians seeking to break through each others lines, with the victor securing the most jump off points on the table.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Footsore Arab Spearmen - Outremer States.

The Crusaders need someone to ride down.... after a couple of evening sessions the Arab Spearmen finally clear the paint table.

The garish colours once based and given a Army Paint Flesh wash blend rather well together, lovely castings as always from the guys over at Footsore so much character in their sculpts.



Still a little on the cold side for a matt varnish but that will help take the shine off the shields and help protect the decals - so much easier than trying to hand paint the shields with Islamic script.



Whilst it's take a little more time far better to get all the spearmen completed on in one group, with two groups of 8 and 4 swordsmen it gives me plenty of options on the table.




I have mixed the colours across the spearmen so they should come across as non-uniformed vs the more orderly Christian forces, although the pilgrims will be in a dull mix of browns and greens..



Really pleased how these have turned out itching to get them on the table top but will certainly need some better armoured support to stand up to the Knights Templar.

Nice to get a mention in the Footsore News letter this morning.
High praise in need given the quality of the painting on the Baron's War Facebook group no pressure to the get the rest of the Kickstarter complete then.

The Outremer Fortified Hospital is up for auction on e-bay - not yet available on the Footsore site.
As much as I would love to get it made and painted the projects are backing up - Still in the box the Kickstarter came in.
Original price £200.00 but all reasonable offers considered.






Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Baron's War Outremer - Knights Templar - Foot

Crickey a month has passed since the first Crusaders cleared the paint table. Now time for the foot knights to enter the fray.


Lovely castings from Footsore Miniatures a mix of their knights and Templars


They still need a varnish and a standard adding along with a few bits of scrub, but largely finished. The transfers for the shields saves a load of time, I could not achieve this free hand.


Next up Muslim Cavalry as the forces start to take shape.

Friday, February 16, 2024

Rebels and Patriots - First outing.

Whilst the AWI 10mm project starts to take shape, an opportunity to give Rebels and Patriots a run out using the Spanish and Haitian forces.

I modified the native list for Haitian escaped slaves making them large units and aggressive but removing there firing ability, the total points were 29 vs 24.

The Haitian regulars were complimented by a couple of regular line units and skirmishers, whilst the Spanish were held the defences of the plantation with a veteran regular unit, a light cannon and a number of militia units.

The Haitian sweep through the fields and advance on the militia who were guarding the fence line of the plantation they were disordered from the fire from the skirmishers, the militia attempted to rally off the marker but failed their orders and charged the advancing Haitians before being soundly beaten and send packing.


Not the best start for the Spanish, but their skirmish units were starting to inflict a number of casualties on the advancing regulars who were hindered by the fence line and slave living quarters and could not bring enough of their fire power to bear.


The light cannon and the mass ranks of defenders disrupted the advancing Haitians who spent a number of turns Rallying their troops for fear of the disruption driving them from the table.


The Regulars drove back the skirmish units but unfortunately brought them into range of the defenders who send them running.


Lacking to sufficient units to clear the defences the Haitian were forced to withdraw.

A good outcome in about 2 hours, not bad at all for the first outing the rules were quick to learn and had some nice touches I like the jeopardy of rolling double 1 or 6 - we had there fair share of those.

We had a couple of discussions around the range of skirmishers vs formed ranks, who out range regulars. We quickly learnt the importance of cleaning up the disruption markers, on one occasion the slave unit charged a skirmish unit but being disordered the loss dice was a real issue.

The formed close formations seems to be a good choice if you can get in a position to make it count, for the Haitian's though don't do it in front of an artillery unit it can be a painful experience.

A quicker game than Sharp Practice so perfect for evening games and will be a good fit for the 10mm project especially where the game might call for 2 or 3 companies per side with a couple of commanders each.