Sharp Practice in the desert.

The wargaming gods definitely sent a message this week.

Just when the thought I might move this lot on, to make way for other projects, the Perry Twins drop the start of a new line of Mini's for the Ottomans - Category: Ottoman Army 1790-1815 - Perry Miniatures (perry-miniatures.com)

Curses now it looks like they might be reinforced...

On with the game..... A clash between the French looking to hold the town until reinforcements join the fight whilst the Ottoman's look to break the line and reach the main compound.

The French skirmishers fill every window, door and roof top as they await the the first wave of Ottoman attackers.

The Ottomans advance on mass, many armed only with hand to hand weapons, but mass has it's own quality. French Artillery pepper the line as they advance towards the defenders.

The Arab forces rush the defenders, beat them back.

Yet more Ottomans fill the open ground in front of the village. This time better quality European trained troops.

The French slowly give ground as more Ottomans arrive including heavy artillery, which would turn the brick buildings to rubble in short order.

Help is on hand as the French column enter the table to support the hard pressed defenders.

The French fall back into the town, closely followed by the Ottoman Infantry who line out to assault hard pressed defenders.

The main French force prepares to meet the attack, Ottoman cavalry is attempts to flank the French line but is countered by Dragoons.

The Ottoman's mass for yet another attack, with further cavalry on the left flank.

The Ottoman cavalry finally finds a gap in the defences and look to encircle the defenders, they beat back a group of Coptic Infantry but are sent packing by a round of cannister.

A crashing volley shatters the Ottoman column as they advance down the main street, as smoke from the from volley clears the Ottoman force morale drops to zero. The French had held on.

A great encounter touch and go for both sides. The Ottoman cavalry was a constant threat but could not find the space to exploit the wider space. the French skirmishers were surprisingly resilient and dealt a number of blows on the Ottomans as they attempted to assault the buildings. By the time the Ottoman heavy guns were in position to fire the French had fallen back into the rear of the village.

Perhaps the Ottomans do need some extra reinforcements from the the Perry Twins after all.

The last Africa Korps......

The last Africa Korps clear the paint table..... and a couple of interesting characters, a tribute to Airfix and childhood games, with a figure in a forage cap throwing a grenade....

The eight man squads whilst perhaps a little susceptible to casualties, would get some more flexibility within Bolt Action with extra dice in the activation bag.

A second squad or squad number 7, there must be a dust cloud coming in as this pic is a little hazy. Yet again another MG34 in the prone position.....

The eighth and final squad and a MG34 firing from behind a huge rock as cover, this core infantry force should be enough... now for a couple of support pieces and finally a game.....

The big question is can they break the curse of freshly painted figures?

Operation Exporter - Games Two & Three - The Commonwealth on a roll.

Game Two

The Vichy picked static, while the Allied Player choose Attack, the advantage with the Commonwealth a roll for an Offensive type game we rolled within Platoon Forward and landed on Raid - So why not the likely home of an Observer, I have read several accounts of the Vichy Artillery being particularly useful.

Unlike the previous encounter the Vichy are umpire controlled with likely concentrations of troops marked by spots on the table, some would be real of various types and quality others blanks. The number of possible encounters are linked directly to the number of elements (BA Dice) taken.

Captain Preacher is joined by Lieutenant Jake Anderson an greedy man who will almost anything to get to the top but he does love bully beef and tinned fruit :-). Now is his chance to shine

A few miles outside of Deraa, Preacher thought a small patrol should have been enough but Anderson had other ideas it was high time the men saw action and why grab one prisoner when you could bag a whole company, that would get you noticed, So Anderson brought his entire command to hit the Frenchies hard, now a few miles outside your own lines it was too risky to send half of them back.

The two story building on the outside of compound looked to be the most likely vantage point for the French spotter, the Commonwealth forces could enter the table anywhere across the left hand side.

Anderson was lucky the French fearful of allied artillery had left the main vantage point clear of troops choosing instead to hold the compound and wheat field.

The allies advanced by the oasis laying down suppressive fire on the light French garrison.

The Legion were pinned in the field by the Commonwealth fire while a further squad edged closer up the wadi.

Realising their mistake French reinforcements rushed towards the undefended building as the Indian's rush forwards to bag the prize for themselves.

Preacher let rip tearing into the Senegalese who were rushing forwards, the colonial troops ran back looking to find cover where they could.

Lt Moulin gathers his men and led his men up the rise, so shocked were the Commonwealth that they fled the building.... (now they might tell you mission accomplished, but they also know thy rolled Double 6 twice in a row, forcing their defenders to retire).

Back behind the lines casualties were surprisingly light give the amount of lead in the air the platoon lost 3 men. One dead, One had a serious injury and One was missing feared left behind in the OP, lost in the scramble to escape the house on the hill.

The higher ups were pleased and managed to procure an extra MMG for future missions.

Game Three

The Vichy were on the back foot and picked defence, while the Allied Player yet again choose Attack, Commonwealth forces massed for an attack on Deraa but the French had left.

The Vichy had withdrawn from Deraa and were falling back to the North, the Commonwealth had followed up but there was no sign of the French, the Platoon holed up on the main road, the men given the choice of the shell damaged bunkers or the large compound, they mixed the main compound it had strong walls and a good view of the local vicinity.

Anderson tucked into his rations and looked out of the round tower brew in hand. Stone the crows those were Frenchies working there way through the fields to his front.

The Allies grabbed their rifles and manned the walls pouring fire into the Vichy forces, with the entire front to cover they had to appear outside their residence.

The attackers under a constant fire looked to flank the defenders, the Senegalese took a number of causalities crossing the track, as the Indian troops poured out of the compound to get a better view of the attackers however members of the legion were able to jump the rash Sikhs in the road beating them back and grabbing one of their number.

A slight victory for the French who had come looking for a prisoner, but the Indian's were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. The platoon suffered one dead and several injured, who could be patched up.

As Anderson tended to his wounded, a runner came in the Battalion Adjutant wanted a word.

Bunkers get a make over.....

 A short break before diving back into the final batch of Africa Korps.

These have been languishing in the draw for a number of years, made by the sadly out of production Snapdragon Productions. They originally had a Northern Europe paint job but never really had any table time, hopefully the spike in desert games and a middle eastern make over will give them a new lease of life.

Perhaps useful for the likes of Tobruk or the defences for Operation Torch.

That's all for now.

Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #4 - Turn 3 The attack on Pyongyang.

After a 6 month hiatus we are back to the Russo-Japanese War....

With the successful defence of Cinampo the Japanese consolidate their position and set about fortifying the town Spending 3 of their 8 action points.

In the south Admiral Uryu heads to the home land to collect a further division for the campaign, I figured with land forces now in country and good progress being made in Korea a further landing in Manchuria would help the campaign.

General Oku marches north and captures Seoul without a fight, the city is filled with locals waving makeshift flags for the liberators.

Satisfied that Cinampo is well defended General Kuroki strikes north and heads for the strategically important city of Pyongyang, which is defended by Gen Glasko and 150 points of defenders.

Can the Japanese breach the defences???

General Oku 200 Points 

General Kuroki 210 Points 

Admrial Uryu 22 Fleet Points

Admiral Nabu 24 Fleet Points

Bolt Action - War of the Worlds

Some enjoyable Bolt Action games of late and with a number of long train journey's got me thinking about how I might adapt them to cover my War of the Worlds Invasion Earth forces.

I much prefer knowing one or two rule sets really well, which keeps games flowing rather than the constant picking over rule sets, so I thought I would have a crack at tweaking Bolt Action and adding in elements from the original Martian Empire Rules.

Where possible I have looked to keep to the main rules for Bolt Action.

A few more play tests are required but feed back was pretty positive given it's first out with a couple of regular Bolt Action players.

On with the game - Crown Forces are looking to hold the line on the approaches to Winchester.

The British line, the cream of the British army, heavy cavalry, lancers and guns in emplacements. Surely this would be enough against the invader. 

Red weed had already started to creep into the eco-system, before the war machines were seen on the horizon, Fighting Machines, Handling Machines and smaller scout machines marched forward.

A fighting machine towered over a column of refugees as the guard rushed words to distract the tripod.

As the Martian raised its heat ray the heavy batteries let fly from behind the wooded ridge supressing the machine long enough for the column to stumble on.

As the local yeomanry advanced the fast moving scout walkers scuttled forwards wading into the valiant militia as they attempted to form up. The handling machine turned to face the tide of humanity trudging down the road. 

In a rare victory on the day the life guards caught a unit of Martians outside of their protective hoods, cutting them down before they in turn were wiped out by the fighting machines heat ray.

The invaders pressed on as the Royal Artillery fell backwards having been stripped of their infantry cover.... England was not yet defeated but the invaders would take some stopping.

A good first run out. Some things to ponder before the next game.

• The Heat Ray needs perhaps a slightly shorter range and when firing at infantry perhaps need the penetration score dropping to stop them all being completely wiped out in a turn.
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• The massed infantry ranks adding additional +1 for each stand beyond 2 felt right, but might need a limit to the number and arc of fire.
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• Artillery worked well at pinning the main tripods several times the main fighting machine was pinned and had to rally/repair themselves to stay in play.
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• Hand to Hand combat needs a slight rework allowing units to fall back rather than simply wiped out, I am thinking the difference between kills, becomes pins and units fall back 12" to keep them on the table.

All in all nice to get these guys back on the table.

WW2 Western Desert - Yet more Africa Korps.

3 more sections roll off the production line.

I did think about swapping back to French or Brits but have my eye in on the uniform detail and mix of tunics so the German reinforcements continue.

24 in one can can feel a little bit of a stretch, but it does have the advantage that once washed and varnished you have a workable table top force.

With over 60 in production it's hard not to repeat poses and uniform mixes, but these look good with a mix of sun helmets and steel helmets.

A few more caps, I do wish not all of the MG34 Guns had to be lying down.

The final batch from this sitting....

Until next time....