FootSore Muslim Light Cavalry - Outremer.

Still in the Levant and I finished a another group of light cavalry for the forces of Saladin armed with spear and bow they could be a real handful on the table. 

Having played a couple of Baron's war recently I am looking to give Lion Rampant a run out in the next couple of weeks to see how the two compare, I am still a little light on forces but the idea of 12/6 points for units means I can get some smaller units on the table.

Great sculpts by the Footsore team as always, interesting to hear about their hook up with Atlantic Miniatures for some plastic box sets, I hear that 4 sets are planned, Foot Knights have been confirmed with suggestions that levy, Sergeants and Cavalry are in the wings.

Next up time for some Christian/Pilgrims as these raiders needs some easy targets to pester on the road to the Holy Land.

Tactics II - Turn 3 Allied - Game 4 Race for Garharish.

A month or so later than planned and it's the turn of the Allies to take the initiative, with the centre ground starting to bog down the Commonwealth forces pushed down the coast road clearing the mountain passes and rushed for the town of Garharish.

The town was garrisoned by the 20th Infantry 'Friulti' Division the Italians were facing 15th Scottish Infantry Division supported by the 16th Bedfordshire.

Rolling on the Platoon Forward encounter table the allies are ordered to launch a 'hasty attack' so with little or no recon the allies viewed the old maps to and made their move.

The allies had sight of the table above and had orders to cut the road west of Garharish, the Italians had the opportunity to roll on the support table for defences but chances of securing anything substantial was slight.... What you can say is the Italian commander is lucky....

The allies had marked their route of attack and thinking they could save time by cutting the road and seizing the town they placed their forces across a broad front, a front now blocked by wire and pill boxes.

The allies rushed forward looking to do things the old fashioned way with cold steel, ran into a number of defenders in the mosque, the Scots managed to break into the command but were losing a number a significant number of their fighters. 

The left flank looked to be clear of defenders and with the attack on the right pulling in more and more men, perhaps a chance to flank the Friulti Division.

Rising up from behind the dunes the allies rush forward.

The ambush is sprung and the Axis forces pour fire into the mobile gun platform and knocking it out.

Additional Italian troops are unmasked, with troops dug in across the front and covering the open square, The Bedfords and Scots would not be getting into Garharish today.

Axis Losses.

-160 Points

Allied 

15th Scots Inf Division - 55 Points

16th Bedfordshire Division - 100 Points

A great campaign game and one the of the reasons why Platoon Forward is a great system, the table on face value looked difficult to defend but some low rolls on the defensive tables turned the battle in the Italian's favour with wire and bunkers. If the allies could have cut the road they could have won the day, they can take some comfort that they inflicted a number of losses on the defenders which may force units from the main front to reinforce the town.

Arab Infantry for Operation Exporter.

You can't beat a day on the brushes.

I picked these up from Gripping Beast to make up the postage when I brought some Islamic shield transfers (honestly) these are from their WW1 Ottoman Range but I figured they would be fine for Palestinian Militia for Vichy French forces.

They compare reasonably well to the other ranges of Perry and Warlord, the officer is from the Perry Range. The rifles are slightly thinner than the other manufacturers and are a little weak near the bayonet, one to watch out for.

A useful addition to the French forces.

Arab Light Cavalry - Outremer

The Crusader project rolls on.

After the Christian Foot Knights time for some Arab cavalry, these have sat in the draw of shame for several years and the Outremer project is just the nudge needed to get these on the table.

I used Footsore shields to ensure they mix with the rest of the faction currently on the paint table, the decals are from Little Big Studio and are such a time saver, it's doubtful I could get even close to a similar output or standard.

The horses are a little larger than their Footsore counterparts, I will post up a comparison in a future post. But based up with scrub and scatter they will fit with the larger collection.

The Muslim forces are coming together nicely.

Zikanga - The rescue

Welcome to Part 2

With the Warlords militia firmly in control of the village, intel has reached command that the UN prisoners are still being held in the village - Strike Force Dagger have orders to infiltrate the village find the missing Blue Helmets and get them out.

8 Buildings but which one was holding the prisoners? - The mission started well with the silencer armed spec ops men taking out several guards randomly patrolling the village, the operators peered into a number of the buildings. No hostages only sleeping militia men.

Guards are taken out very often at close range, before any alarms can be raised.

Strike Force Dagger went on over watch on several of the huts just in case any of the warlords troopers awoke. Each hunt contained between 1-4 men.

5 Huts down and no sign of the UN men, at the far end of the village a guard spotted a trooper (double 6) and shouted an alarm.

The militia man went down under several silenced rounds, but the village was starting to stir.

Finally X marks the spot and Hut 7 revealed the prisoners....

The alarm was sounded and a number of the garrison spilled into the street, several never made it as the operators on overwatch fired a burst into the militia men before heading out into the early morning mist.

Slipping out of the back window of hut 7, the UN men were escorted away as a trooper kept the heads down of the militia men.

Several rounds whizzed past the escaping hostages, one wounding a special ops man in the arm, but they made good their escape.

At the far end of the village the main force fell back drawing many of the garrison with them, allowing the hostages to slip into the hinterland.

Mission accomplished.

Not a bad encounter, a couple more tweaks to the rules adding in over watch and the ability of the SF teams to improve their targeting. 

I also split the models into NPC's and Characters only recording location of wounds for the leaders of the militia and all of the SF Team which made the recording of wounds simpler and made the militia men far more expendable.

The body count was 12 militia men for one wounded SF trooper which felt about right.

Old is the new, new - back to Zikanga.

It's been a while since we took a trip to Zikanga, I was wasting a few hours on the web when I came upon Joe Legan's Grunts Forward rules a variation to his Platoon Forward rules these are for isometric warfare and come with a whole bunch of new scenarios and adjusted blinds for irregular forces.

We got chatting about about rules for modern skirmish games and some of the rules of the past and how some of the older rule sets seem to be coming back into fashion - Warhammer Historical, Rapid Fire even some of Charles Grant rule sets...

One that cropped up was Foundry's Rules With No Name for Westerns games, then we remembered that they did a modern variant and what do we know they are still available and for free on the Foundry site...  Street Violence – WargamesFoundry

Giving them the once over they needed a couple of tweaks around activations and a couple of other ideas pinched from other rules sets but we had a reasonable rule set across a couple of pages.

A UN Outpost in a village in the hinterland, no Visitors this time but they are not always needed when the whole world collaborates.

With the UN in control of the village, order was starting to return to the region, several gang members were arrested.

But trouble was only a phone call away.

The local Warlord's gang members burst into the village pouring fire into the peace keepers.

The blue helmets stood little chance with militia members appearing from every nook and cranny.

A fun quick game giving these rules a run out, the wound rules were interesting rolling to see where you were hit, in the hope that elements of the cover protected you from the flying lead.

Despite the UN professional soldiers being a better class, quantity had it's own quality and the militia were able to force enough of the defenders to dive for cover, whilst other gang members got close.

Dropping the cards initiative to a quality level approach allowed us to get more figures on the table, but we may need to slim down the counters and markers, all in all a fun game with poor quality troops very often pinned down by the fewer better armed troops.

Let's see how a team of special forces get on next time?

Western Desert - German Armour.

After last weeks outing where the Italians were soundly beaten, I thought I might as well stick with a theme and get the last of Germans off the paint table. They were in need of some extra support and mobility given how the allies have now acquired a number of pieces of heavy metal which most certainly gives them the edge...

Sticking with the 3D prints a Medium Pz III to try and counter the Matilda, this one from 3D valley comes with it's two turret's one closed up and the other with an open copula, it sculpted with a number of bits of campaign clutter, canvas sheeting and the like so has that on campaign feel.

The Pz II acquired off e-bay, a nice printed it needed an officer to sit in the top to really finish it off and goes nicely with the Sdkfz 250 which is one of the latest releases from Warlord in kit form, the box has plenty of variants including Rommel's version - This one is fine for pushing recon elements forward.

Also in shot some wheeled transport for the Germans, unlike the British lorries who come with the option of open topped or an enclosed canvas back, the German print only comes exposed, but a good excuse to bag some Perry dismounted infantry to sit in the back.

Some great bits of kit the miniature arms race for desert superiority really hots up.

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 4^th Infantry Division & 7^th 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 7^th 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.

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....