The Battle of Germantown 1777 - Rebels and Patriots.

Club game from a few weeks ago and the Battle of Germantown, the scenario is taken from a old edition of Wargames Illustrated. Played using Rebels and Patriots and the first outing for the Germans.

British forces under Howe face off against Washington's continentals. We had to scale the table down to 10mm which left a little bit of room to place the units on the table.

The US player attacks on multiple fronts hindered by the fog one brigade approaches Luken Mill securing 4 victory points if they can seize it. Additional bonus points are awarded for each unit destroyed or routed and -1 point to the owner of the lost unit.

On the far right the main force approaches Chew House also defended by British regulars.

The Crown forces defending Crew House awaiting the advance of the Americans. The British and Hessian main force is in Germantown will need to gather their forces to support the defenders.

The Continentals reach the outskirts of Chew House and line out preparing to assault the building if they can secure it, it will be worth 6 Pts. 

British reinforcements crest the hill and poor fire into the advancing mounted militia, driving them backwards.

Back at the mill the massed ranks of the militia succeed in driving back the original defenders, but fresh troops in the shape of 2 companies of Light Infantry start to make their presence felt. The Americans press forward.

Meanwhile in Germantown the Hessians advance towards Chew House as the attackers are making slow progressing in forcing the British out.

Finally multiple bayonet charges forces the British to withdraw, but casualties are mounting on the American side making activations more difficult.

Chew House is finally in the Hands of the US and in the same turn the Mill is seized. The victory points are balanced at 10 points each (10 for Germantown firmly in British hands.

But the Crown forces are now fully deployed in front of the Crew House and it feels only a matter of time until it is back in British Hands.

As the game draws to a close it's a victory for the British 16 points to 14. The US simply lost too many units in their assault on the main house.

A cracking afternoons gaming with some real back and forth between the two sides. You really need to prepare your attack stepping into close order and preparing a volley to break the British line, all to often the US opened up at long range which did limited damage to the Brits with the advantage of hard cover in the buildings.

We added in chits for each brigade which gave a random element to activations which made for an interesting challenger for each commander.

Next up.... Lexington and Concorde hopefully over the Christmas break....

Crusader Spearmen - Fire Forge Games.

Another unit off the production line for Outremer and Lion Rampant.

I figured this time around I will make these more of a templar feel to break up the formations for the Christian forces or should I need to separate out regulars vs veterans.

All figures from Fire Forge games.

Still got a few more units to put together over the coming weeks but these fine fellows should hit the table very soon.

RJW Campaign - 'Not' Boxers Revenge - Game 3

After game 2 the Russians really needed to take the fight to the Japanese this game. They needed to win and defeat a number of the Japanese units. The scenario borrowing again from Mark Fatso's Colonial campaign book This scenario sees a Japanese column attempting to reach the edge of the table with 6 prisoners.

The table represents a valley with two roads forking left and right the Russians could be anywhere on the table.

A challenge for both sides as the hill in the centre blocks line of sight and the Russians have to in effect split their forces or hold them all at the very rear of the table.

The Japanese pushed up the centre of the table, all the prisoners were clustered amongst the dismounted cavalry who had the limited range. They were giving nothing away. No sign of the Russians as the Japanese hit the half way mark.

On the right flank dismounted cavalry appeared and are swiftly engaged by the advancing Japanese who were starting to be rather strung out.

Valuable time was wasted scouting the right hand wood and building only to reveal no Russian defenders.

On the right the main defence was revealed Sailors lined the tree line to bolster the cavalry who were hotly engaged with the Japanese Infantry.

The Russian command having learnt from the previous encounter through multiple Infantry units forward from the rear wood looking to block the path of the Japanese advance parties.

The Japanese at the double move left hoping that the poor command scores for the Russians would slow their ability to move to the defence and block their move.

Russian infantry know they have the edge in hand to hand and advance across the centre of the table.

In a bruising round of hand to hand the Russians are defeated but not before disordering two units of Japanese including the guard unit, more time is wasted rallying them, when they should have been moving forwards. 

The Japanese guard through themselves forward the cavalry charged and drove off one unit of Infantry only to be sent to the rear down to two men, as the clock ticked on more Russian Infantry and their own Guard unit stepped into the gap, stopping the Japanese in their tracks. The Japanese battered units would not be numerous enough to defeat the fresh Russians and the dismounted cavalry and their charges from themselves in the front rank.

Game over - A great game down to the final turn.

Points from the final linked game.

Japanese Results.

1 Russian units destroyed - 1 Points.

Russian Results.

Russians fulfil their victory conditions - 3 Points

4 Japanese units reduced to half strength or less - 4 Points.

A victory to the Russian player although not quite enough to win the first phase of the campaign.

The final campaign results Russian Points - 12 Pts vs the Japanese 13 Pts.

So close.... Next up in the year the next set of 3 games and Skirmish on the Rails. :-)

November output - Back to the Crusades - Fire Forge - Spearmen

November.... Pressure is on to get the last of the Crusaders done before the end of the year... Ideally Christmas - so 47 nights to finish the Crusader project.... And paint everything in the draw.

After the mixed bag last month this month it's all desert....

Another unit of 12 spearmen for Lion Rampant with a mix of Crusader Shields and traditional feudal shields.

I dropped them into a Midgard base to give them some uniformity on the table. 

The recent Men who Would be King games got be thinking about adapting the Mr Babbage rules for the Crusaders with the Arabs controlled by the dice. With a number of long commutes this week I might try and flesh these out.

Next up you guessed it more Christians.....

RJW War - Not the Laishui Boxing Grounds - Game 2

Game 2 of the adapted Boxer Rebellion Linked games adapted for the Russo Japanese War and the Laishui boxing grounds scenario which sees a the Japanese advance to Northern Laishui after a Russian column had attacked the village. The Japanese counter attacked but the Russians were lying in wait for them. The Japanese win if they can get with 6" of the temple.

This is the table layout with the 1o Russian units who can be deployed anywhere behind the yellow line.

The Japanese massed on the left flank looking to push directly down the table using their mass ranks to push any defenders or potential ambushers.

The Russian outdated doctrine meant that with less range they would need to advance to meet the Japanese attack, dismounted cavalry appeared on the treeline and Infantry marched out from the village.

With artillery in support the Japanese columns advanced up the table with HE shells landing amongst the deploying Russian sailors.

The Russians advanced forward to engage the advancing Japanese.

The Russian sailors were forced backwards and but more Russian Infantry rose up from woodland who  were confronted by the Japanese firing line. With multiple casualties the Russian formation was battered.

The Japanese pushed forwards driving back the remaining Russians there was nothing left to stop the advance on the temple. Another Japanese victory.

Points from the game.

Japanese Results.

Japanese fulfil their victory conditions. - 3 Points.

4 Russian units destroyed - 4 Points.

Russian Results.

2 Japanese units reduced to half strength - 2 Point.

Next up the final game of the this phase with the Russians down 12pts to 5pts they will need to really pull it out of the bag.

Happy Halloween - A little something for Silver Bayonet - Zombie Camels.

What better timing to get these finished.

Napoleonic Dread - Zombie Camels by Koolkiwi Miniatures great 3D Prints for Silver Bayonet and adventures in the desert.

I love the detail of birds hanging off their decaying flesh and the skeleton sticking out of their rotting bodies, very spooky...

Fun to paint and very much in the spirit of getting stuff done in the month of October which is not core.

November is looming and back to the Crusades to try and break the last of them before the New Year.

Excalibur - Oathmark Orcs.

I need to seriously increase my pace - time seems to be running away on projects. Another one where the last post on the blog was over 3 years ago.

With all the chatter around Dragon Rampant 2 and keeping with the theme of getting s**t done this month the focus continues to be on random stuff. 

These Oathmark Orcs, they were a Christmas present and were put together in the summer so have been on the to do list for almost a year. 

The box art was lovely and I thought they would make useful additions to the forces of Mordred and the Excalibur project. They are slightly larger than the Knights but don't look to bad and will largely be in their own units on the table. A rich variety of head gear and weapons many fit that old school style which mirror that of the original Chaos Knights.

I was thinking about the origins of the Excalibur legend and lost several hours in reading Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory and thinking about the final battle at Camlann and what the foot troops might look like and these most certainly fit the bill.

I opted for a flesh tone rather than the common held green variant - They look better to my eye.

Using the mechanics of Lion Rampant or Dragon Rampant each knight from the Round Table could be a unit on there own against the mass ranks of Mordred's rebellious forces. So it should playout that heroic feel. - Let's see....

Lancelot and King Arthur find themselves in a spot of bother.

Chatting about scenario's with a buddy over a coffee he mentioned that they had a feel of the Blood Bath at Orcs Drift from the early the 80's.... it might be fun to dig out the scenario's even though the figures, booklet and buildings are long gone.

Strange how some projects just don't go away.