Christmas in the old west. - Dead Mans Hand

The pre-Christmas bash at the Wyre Forest club and a suitable festive affair as the Cinderella Cattle Company once again take to table top looking to spread some festive cheer with the barrel of six shooter.

The town of Santa's Gulch and 5 gangs are on the hunt for treasure, spread across the table are 8 barrels, the content of each have to be taken to one of the buildings on the table for a cash reward.

The challenge for each player is to find the barrel that fits the location, find the bible and drop it back at the church and the reward is $100, the razor to the barber for $25 and so on and so on.

With players coming on from all angles it was not long until the lead started flying. The Mexican's took an early lead grabbing a barrel from the hangman's platform, but the look on the face of the leader suggested it was not the prize he wanted.

Confusion in the stable as the barrels are mixed up and carrots for Midnight the best horse in town turns out to be fresh linen for the hotel.

Meanwhile my Cinderella men were making hard work of getting the bible back to the church despite the fact that they were a few feet away, barrels had to be rolled through the door and this was covered by a hotel full of angry Mexicans.

Grabbing a hostage the Cowboys moved out into the street as the gang made a run for the church door. The hotel guests took down to of the gang before one of the guys from south of the border fell out of the window as he got to his feet the Cattlemen put him out of action (the card features in Dead Man's Hands have some great touches).

With a number of gangs seeing their morale crumble it became a race for the final barrel and the cash prize. The keys to the jail and the $100 on offer. One Gang rushed for the barrel only to be blasted by a shotgun in the back.... Merry Christmas.....

In what some might say is a slight of hand the outlaws pull 3 aces giving them the initiative for the turn.

Sneaking round the corner, the Outlaws bumped into Jeff Lebar from the Cinderella ranch who was making a run for the barrel only for poor old Jeff to be gunned down. 

Just as it looked like the outlaws had won, the gang failed it's morale and decided their own skins were better than the money on the table.... Giving Howard of the Sackmen the win....

Great fun.... some lucky shots and sneaky play but nice to get the boys on the table for an outing and a great way to finish the last club of the year. 

Welcome to the Jungle.

Somewhat behind on posts of late.

The UK weather and the Christmas take over of my gaming space has slowed the production line, the Christmas elves have filled the garage with decorations and storage boxes, no sneaking off for a few hours gaming for at least a month.

I will have to content myself with prep for future projects and the growing pile of bare metal, not helped by guys at the club constantly coming up with new temptations to distract me.

Modern Africa looks to be back on the agenda for next year, with ideas floating around for Somalia through to the Congo or UN operations against the various warlords or factions across several states in the mid 90's.

I still had some Africa militia types tucked away and this was just the nudge to get them table top ready. I opted for a more formal uniform for these types to represent government or paramilitary types.

Figures are a mixture of Spectre miniatures, Gripping Beast & the Assault Group, making for an eclectic group of fighters.

The last remaining metal is a group of 'operators' - Special forces or PMC's.... which could be quite useful in future games.

Hopefully back in the swing of things in the next couple of weeks.

More AWI.... British Artillery.

Real life put paid to much of this month... but I did manage to get a couple of guns done for the AWI and another infantry unit.

You can't go wrong at £6.75 for three guns and within Rebel & Patriots it's about as many as you need.

Being 10mm you can even get away with using British Crew for Continentals if you don't look too close.

With a game planned, that was just the nudge I needed to get these finished.

What I have begun to realise with 10mm is that you can mix a match a few scales and they don't look that out of place, the woods and barricades were designed for 15mm, the tents and hedges 6mm - but they look fine on the table top.

The scene is set. Rebel forces have been gathering arms and militia men in an encampment when a British expeditionary force is sent to disperse them.

The British main force advance down the road towards the waiting militia men.

The British line out and push the guns forwards.

The British make hard work of the attack, minutemen and militia with some good defences to their front can hold their own if you don't ask them to do anything else. A few poor command rolls disrupts the British advance.

Meanwhile help was at hand with a second British force entering the table looking to flank the defenders.

As the British pushed forwards, a unit of mounted militia men attempt to drawn units away from the attack.

In the centre,  the Crown forces charge into the plantation house throwing back the defenders, but they were too few in number to defend it and ultimately the men in red would have to fall back.

However despite the casualties in the frontal assault progress was taking shape on the right, as the flanking force reached the camp and the minutemen in the treeline.

Sneaky musket rounds from behind trees are no replacement for the bayonet, The Kings forces charged up the hill and threw back the defenders.

With the flank exposed the Americans had no choice but to leave the table.

A great game with the usual back and forth as command rolls were passed and failed, the mechanism can handle far more than initial 24 points. Good job as fresh reinforcements are on the way.

Off to see the land of Eric the Red for a few days.... Just as I was getting my painting mojo back. :-)

Chechnya - New Xenos Rampant Vehicle Damage rules.

Having painted up a number of in fills an excuse to give them a first outing.

The additional Russian and Chechen support units will come in handy and will give both sides that extra punch.

Now to break the freshly painted curse.

Looking back of previous scenario's I thought about giving the original scenario a run out a mere 8 when it first landed on the table, at the time with less figures using Chris Peers at close quarters rules. I was interested to see if Xenos Rampant gave a better feel.

It did not disappoint.

June 1995 somewhere between Benoi and Vedeno - Chechnya.

A Russian BM21 has broken down on a major supply route, a couple of sections of infantry and supports have been left behind to protect the rocket launcher whilst reinforcements arrive with a repair party. The area is known for insurgent activity who would like nothing more to get their hands on the extra fire power. The Federal forces must protect the vehicle and drive off the Chechen fighters.

The table looks a little better than 8 years ago with more rural looking buildings and repurposed woods. The BM21 can be seen in the centre of the table with the access road at the bottom of the picture. The Chechens will enter randomly on the table edges, with the reinforcements for the Russians appearing on 1d6 turns.

The centre point of the table, 2 squads a HMG and Sniper hardly seem enough to hold back the insurgents.

With the defenders awaiting the column, Chechen militia appear on the wood lined hill tops over looking the valley and the stranded rocket launcher. The Russian HMG and Sniper covering this flank to hold back the fighters.

On the opposite side of the table a Chechen sniper team appears the Russians unable to see him at over 12" push up the hill to drive him off.

A second sniper is spotted and again the Russians advance to close the gap.

The sniper having drawn out the infantry instead of firing calls down mortar fire on the infantry, in the first salvo 50% of the advancing troops are killed or wounded and the rest flee back down the hill.

At the far end of the table Chechen's creep into the settlement ready to slow the rescue party.

The Russian HMG chews up the militia in the tree line.

The Chechen mortar disproving the myth that freshly painted troops always lose, switches his focus to the sniper sending him running for cover.

Meanwhile the rescue column makes it's way on to the table.

Rpg rounds hit the column and the lead BTR70 is destroyed sending the infantry running for cover. 

Another whoosh of AT rounds and the BMP1 falls back behind the house.

Before the rescue party could regroup from out of the barn another RPG round smashes into the BMP forcing it to retire. 

The rescue mission had failed their would be no break through today.

That was fun, heavy weapons such as HMG's can really hurt infantry as can mortar rounds if you catch them in the open. 

The vehicle rules felt like they needed a little extra, if played correctly XR only allow for one vehicle but they can certainly handle multiple vehicles, the only potential downside is the attritional nature of the rules where strength points chip away at units. So I introduced a chart similar to that found within Bolt Action.

It worked well and resulted in the lead APC being destroyed in short order after being hit by a unit with the Anti-Tank capability. Hopefully this does not break the rules but makes the use of vehicles more challenging for larger games and could make for tank on tank encounters a little quicker.

Feedback welcome.

Battle of Short Hills 1777 - Rebels and Patriots

Thanks to Matt Crump and his excellent blog for this scenario - wargamesinthedungeon: Battle of Short Hills 26 June 1777 : AWI

An engagement between George Washington and General Howe as Howe pushed to defeat the Continental Army and clear the way to capture Philadelphia. Washington's forces numbered in the region of 11,000 men against a British force of Regulars, Hessian mercenaries and Loyalists in the region of 18,000 men. 

The British under one column under Gen Cornwallis and a second under General Howe attempted to outmanoeuvre the American forces. The Americans looked to delay the British advance and avoid being out flanked.

Matt converted the encounter to the table top, which I have 'borrowed'.

Played in 10mm using Rebels and Patriots rule set with some new fencing :-)

The British outnumbered the Patriots by approx. 20% with both sides split across to access roads, the Americans deployed behind fences and in the tree line. awaiting the advance of the Kings forces.

The ranks of red coats marched down the road towards the defenders.

On the left flank the Americans won the initiative and seized the high ground and picket fence but were not able to get all their companies into close order as the British approached.

The British advanced with a cloud of German skirmishers to their front as the Americans readied their lines.

A long range fire fight opened up the Patriots whittled away the skirmish screen only for the British rank and file to have formed close order and let off volley fire, the militia started to fall back from the picket fence. But they were slowly knocking the turns down.

Switching back to the right flank the British came into sight as the second American detachment stood firm.

The Americans reserved their fire allowing the British line out.

The view at the mid point as both lines close.

As the left flank ground to a stalemate the British pushed hard on the right. 

The final turn and the throw of the dice for the British as the Grenadiers look to smash their way through the Patriot lines.

The American lines hold.

A hard fought victory for the Americans, they had taken a real battering but their morale had held and they had held up the British forces for 12 turns swapping bodies for time.

Forces were twice those recommended for each company but it did not slow the game, having a random command generation for each of the 4 commands made it quite fun as to who had the drop on each other. A large first game but played to a conclusion in 3 hours.

You really need to get the militia into close order to stand up to the British volleys. The Patriots had some lucky morale rolls to hold their ground. The British played a great game with the skirmishers forcing the militia men to waste their first round of fire.

10mm looked great for the period and allowed me to play those larger games with flanks and ranks.

The next order has been fired off to Pendraken for more reinforcements in the shape of artillery, Continential Regulars and British Light Infantry.

More games to come and thanks again Matt for your scenario.