The REAL Last Game of 2018 - unless I have another one on Monday!

Turns out the title of my earlier blog was somewhat premature, as my friend Nick kindly invited a couple of us over to his place for game of Hail Caesar on Friday 28 Dec. We had all played these rules previously, but quite some time ago, so this was a test/learning game as much as anything else.

The scenario was loosely 12/13th century Hungarians against a random assortment of Eastern Steppe peoples - Nick provided the Hungarians (beautifully painted and based as is his wont) whilst Andrew and I combined to provide a purely mounted army of Cataphracts, medium cavalry and horse archers. My contribution was from my all female Dark Ages army - my figures are all Eureka with the exception of one command figure. The points were 502 on our side to 589 on Nicks.

Nick won the initiative but sportingly let Andrew and me go first. My horse archers advanced three operations, fired on a unit of foot archers, and disordered them. Andrew on our left flank advanced three units of light cav again for three operations and got right up in the face of some of Nicks cavalry opposing him. His arrows forced one unit back to the table edge.

In Nicks first turn, he forgot to do initiative moves first and rolled badly for the units opposing me - so basically they did nothing. On Andrews front, his light/medium cavalry on our left flank forced all Andrews to pull back - whilst in the centre, his extra heavy cavalry (Cataphract equivalents) drove off some covering light cavalry -  they rolled for three moves again and rode right off the edge of the table (luckily under these rules they can come back on again!) - then crashed into Andrews heavies (who had unfortunately BOTH been disordered by the passage through their lines of the fleeing lights!)

An epic melee ensued over the remainder of the game which eventually saw Andrew loose both his heavy units whilst Nick lost one of his four. On my side of the table, Nicks solid wedge of infantry advanced in base to base contact so they all supported each other, the front rank comprising archers who combined with more horse archers and skirmishers in the woods to discomfit all my light cavalry and force them back. My solid line of medium and heavy cavalry confronted this move but could not get the number of actions to carry out a charge - which would probably have ended badly but it would have been nice to see what happened - alas, it was not to be - after 4 hours play, we had completed 3 moves but decided to call it a day, with the Hungarians the winners.

Here are the images from the game

Nicks wonderfully painted and based Medieval infantry 

Some supporting light cavalry archers

My contribution to the game - Cataphracts, Medium and Light cavalry

My leader figure - who has featured on this blog previously!

The Hungarian camp, complete with at least one "follower" in yellow dress

Nicks heavy cavalry arrayed for battle

My first move - light cavalry rush forward three moves (36 inches) and disorder one of Nick units

In the centre - Andrews cavalry advance rapidly too

On our left flank, another 36 inch move took Andrews horse archers right up to Nicks line

Behind the screen of archers, an ominous rumble as the heavy cavalry advance, knee to knee

In the centre, Nicks first move - his four units of heavy cavalry come surging forwards

After a couple of rounds of melee, Andrews heavies have been pushed back behind the light horse archers again

Close up of the victorious Hungarian heavy cavalry

The action continues in another turn as the Steppe people are gradually forced back

On my flank, a solid wall of infantry and archers advance and drive off my light horse

My flank from another angle, Nick inveigled his bow armed skirmishers into the flanking woods and rained arrows down on my unfortunate light horse

A solitary unit of horse archers faces a wall of steel

My heavy and medium cavalry reposition to attempt a charge against Nick infantry

Annoying skirmishers in the woods

Action in the centre is dominated by the Hungarian heavy cavalry

The final clash of the heavies - Andrews second unit was destroyed 

Hungarians run rampant in the middle of the battlefield

The left flank as the game draws to a close

One final shot of my second line of cavalry, who failed to roll sufficiently low for a three action turn and were thus unable to charge the Hungarian infantry - who knows what might have happened if they had made it in?

A great way to spend one of my days off work over the Christmas/summer break here in New Zealand - the plan is to have several more games using these rules so we can become reasonably competent in them and able to run through most of the phases without constant reference to the rule book!

2018 Painted Figure Count

So I am copying this idea from another blog - cant recall who, I am sure many wargames blogs have a similar accounting at the end of the year!

I have had a rather unproductive year in my own mind, as I have had long periods with little or nothing to paint - but when I went through my blog postings and reviewed the figures mentioned therein, all of a sudden, I still seem to have painted a few units!

So following is a list, in roughly chronological order, of what I have painted this year:

Portuguese Napoleonic - 24 Cacadores, 84 Line Infantry and 3 mounted officers

War of 1812 British - 64th and 49th Foot (Old Glory Second Edition), 5th Foot (Perry plastic), 2/95th and the 1/60th Foot - total of 78 infantry - plus 4 mounted officers

2 RCW Tanks and a female HMG crew

A single AWI mounted colonel

WW1 in E Africa dismounted cavalry (Old Glory) - 15 figures

ECW Frame Gun - unknown provenance - 4 figures

ECW Cavalry - Perry Miniatures - 6 figures

15mm WW2 Brits - FoW figures - 40 bases of infantry, 8 command bases, 13 HMG bases, 6 mortar bases and 5 x 6lb AT guns - total of 250 figures

Christmas Comes but Once a Year - and with it, some toys to assemble and paint!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and received at least a few useful presents in amongst the usual dross that is standard fare once you pass 25 years of age!

I repeated my plan from my birthday in August and my young adult children (19 and 17) played the game - unfortunately, my wife reverted to the traditional t shirts and shorts, but you cant win them all!

I provided a list of 5 or 6 possibilities from which they selected the following items:

These will all be added to my War of 1812 collection, with both infantry and Light Dragoons in the later uniforms. I have not bought Perry cavalry before and am happy to note that they actually provide 28 cavalry figures although only 14 horses, so in fact, by purchasing separate horse sprues, it will be possible to produce a total of 28 cavalry from a single pack, as long as you are happy that the second 14 are in the earlier uniform (which I am!).

Oh, and we also got this "family" Christmas present, which cost the equivalent of 15 boxes of Perry figures and has already made an impact on my painting desk by spilling a jar of brush washing water ...TWICE!

Last Game of 2018

This actually took place about two weeks ago but with the time of year, I have just not found the time to transfer the images from my phone to my PC and thence to this blog....and now I can barely remember what happened!

Julian and I played two games of his OKKO Japanese Samurai Fantasy Board game with figures, one either side of a lovely dinner.

We had the same warbands in each game, and the games were linked, so that any figures discomfited in game one started game two disadvantaged.

I was completely beaten in game one but came very close to winning game two, which came down to a last "man" standing (it was some kind of 10 foot tall demon in Julian's case) duel to decide the game.

Here are a few images

My band deployed at the start of game one

The character cards for my band

Action in Game One - Noburu and The Samurai in the centre whilst Setzuka and Okko take on a single opponent on the left

My force was quickly reduced to two - Setzuka and Okko

Two each but Julian has the advantage of a rear attack on Setzuka

How the game ended - the Giant Sumo caused Okko to retreat but he was blocked by a disabled Setzuka and wiped out

Start of Game Two - all my figures were disabled due to how they ended the first game - my first task was to return them to normal activation status

The giant demon warrior quickly accounted for Noburu and Setzuka, then turned on my remaining two figures

The demon forced me back then put in a rear attack on The Samurai. Meanwhile, Okko had finished off the Sumo

The final dual - the demon v's Okko. 

Hope you all have a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year with your friends and families.

Roll Call - Part Four - L'Armee Francais

Today, I have tried a new trick - taking the boxes outside into the bright Auckland sunshine, in the hope it will improve the quality of the images - I think it has worked!

Box One is the Light Cavalry - 1st and 5th Lancers and 1st and 22nd Chasseurs a Cheval. The Chasseurs are a combination of Minifigs and Battlefront Miniatures - the Minifigs are the oldest figures I own, dating back 40+ years to my teenage years! The lancers are a mixture of Front Rank and Connoisseur.

 Box Two is La Garde - 2 battalions each of Front Rank Grenadiers a Pied and Chasseurs a Pied, Young Guard Voltiguers from Hinchcliffe, Polish and Dutch Lancers and a combined unit of Grenadiers a Cheval and Grenadiers d'Elite. The Dutch Lancers are also very old and were part of an "Army Deal" that cost about ten pounds when I bought them - I think the brand might have been Warrior Miniatures from Glasgow?

 Box Three is the first of the infantry - these are the first figures I bought in New Zealand about 25 years ago - Front Rank from the old Marua Road Battlefront shop in Ellerslie. These are the 8, 10, 13, 21 and 45 Regiments de Ligne The limber is Minifigs and the Horse artillery is Conoisseur

 Box Four is more infantry - these are all Front Rank, being the 2, 4, 13, 45 (AGAIN!), 46 de Ligne and the 1 Legere, plus a couple of commanders and guns.

Box Five is the Heavy cavalry, the 7 and 11 Cuirassiers and 1 and 27 dragoons. Some of one of the dragoon regiments are Minifigs and the Cuirassier regiment on the left by the guns are again from the Warrior army purchased in the late 1970's! One of the guns is also Minifigs from 40 years ago.

Box Sic is four battalions of Legere and an eclectic mix of figures - Foundry, Dixon and Front Rank. The gun is Dixon and the limbers Connoisseur and Hinchcliffe I think....

Three commanders - Soult, Napoleon (obviously!) and a Line Infantry colonel, all by Front Rank

Marshal Berthier, again by Front Rank.

That's it for today, will pull out another collection in a few days and add it to the list!

Roll Call - Part Four

Having missed the opportunity for an AWI game last Sunday (for the second time this year I think...GGRRRR!), tonight I hauled out the four boxes containing my British and Loyalist troops for this conflict

Box One contains - Two Green Coated Loyalist Regiments, Two German Regiments, the German High Command, some guns and some limbers. Most of the figures are Front Rank with the German Grenadiers being Foundry

Box Two Contains - Several Guns, both British and German, the 16th Light Dragoons, The Anhalt Zerbst Regiment (in white), the Fusilier Regt von Ditfurth, an unidentified Hessian Regiment and finally the Hesse Hanau Regiment Erbprinz. All barring the cavalry, who are Old Glory, are again Front Rank figures

Box Three Contains - the Queens Rangers in green, a generic Loyalist Regiment in red coats, the 54th Foot, the 71st Highland Regt and several British command figures. The highlanders are Old Glory, the remainder Front Rank

Box Four Contains - two Light Infantry regiments, the 42nd Highland Regt, a Marine Regt, the 26th Foot, the 3rd Foot and the 21st Foot. Again, highlanders are Old Glory and the others are Front Rank.

Total roll call is one regiment of light dragoons, 5 regiments of British foot, two regiments of British light infantry, 6 regiments of Germans, 4 regiments of loyalists and 9 gun crews plus various commanders.