Friday Night RCW Game

 Time for another RCW game at Julian's place, once again utilisng the "1914" rules from Great Escape Games. Rick, John and I were attacking with a Bolshevik force of 2 cavalry units and 8 infantry units, supported by two field guns, whilst Chris and Julian defended with 2 cavalry 2 field guns and 4 infantry units. We ended up with 28 activation tokens to 18 I think.

Rick commanded the cavalry on our left, I took the centre with three units of Red sailors and the field guns, whilst John spearheaded our attack with 5 infantry units on our right, countered by Chris with the infantry on the Whites left and centre, and Julian with the cavalry opposite Rick

Reds attacking from bottom to top - the aim was to capture the village

Right flank under Comrade John

Our gun battery

Cavalry and Sailors to the left. All the figures on our side are from my RCW collection - mainly Copplestone or Brigade Games but also a few Hinterland, Siberia Miniatures and Old Glory (cavalry)

The White troops are all supplied by Julian, again mainly the excellent Coppletone Back of Beyond figures

I don't know - looks cool though!

White infantry commanded by Chris occupy the woods opposite John's position

The forces of proletarian liberation prepare to advance

A dastardly attack by evil Cossack hordes is checked by heroic Bolshevik sailors

White infantry still concealed in the woods, with the exception of the HMG which was taking pot shots at John as he advanced across open ground

Hinterland (regrettably no longer in production) female sailors

John moves into close quarters with Chris' Whites 

The Sailorettes have made it to the edge of the village unscathed (In an earlier, unrecorded event, one of the units of male sailors got to the same point, but were wiped out by a combination of artillery and HMG fire)

Rick charges Julian's Tchanka - a successful attack that resulted in the demise of the HMG armed cart

John adds more units of Red infantry to the assault on the Whites left flank

Whilst Ricks cavalry charge infantry, including an HMG, head on - what could possibly go wrong?!

As it happens, not as much as you might expect - and the rear attack from Julian's second unit of White cavalry wasn't as devastating as it might have been, either - good news for us!

But the game was really being decided on the other flank, where John has maneuvered his four units into a great position to hammer the defending Whites (red markers indicate actions taken, not casualties or any other kind of disadvantage) 

The Bolshevik infantry pours rifle fire into the flank of the White line

"They are breaking, boys, they are breaking...!"

Technically this is only three units of Reds against two of Whites, but the Whites are pretty depleted by this stage

The action on our left flank (Rick and yours truly) was a bit more pedestrian, mainly thanks to atrocious dice rolling when firing. In particular, I had an MG firing at Julian's cavalry for about 4 or 5 actions, three D10 needing only 6 or better for a hit, and on four occasions, I got nothing at all!

The combined weight of the White infantry and cavalry gradually depleted Ricks cavalry, but it took them quite a while

By this time, it was about 2245 so we called it a night - a Red victory, we decided, thanks to the tenacity of the infantry on our right flank, commanded by John. I lost two of my three units of sailors (the females did not last long in their exposed position along the fence line, following their male colleagues to the side table of casualties!)

We Reds certainly did much better than any of us had expected at the start. There was a lot of open ground for us to get across and the Whites were in pretty good defensive positions. My only unit to survive (excluding the artillery) was the sailors who prudently advanced via the woods, the two who went hell for leather across the centre of the table were wiped out to a man (and woman). John, however, saved our bacon with his successful assault on the White infantry position in the woods.

Hope you enjoyed that and look out for a Great Big Bolshevik Parade coming to this blogsite very soon!

A Few Painted Figures

 I have managed to get a few of the Perry plastic Dervish warriors painted and based, mainly because they are on 40mm x 40mm hard card that I cut myself, so are not affected by the supply chain issues that have plagued the arrival of the 2c coins I have been waiting for since Weds 19 Oct - great job, NZPost, NOT! 

Very dark-skinned, dark-haired warriors, wearing a variety of tan colours, plus some white, and armed with a mixture of weapons, including some looted firearms

As usual, the Perry figures were simple to put together, providing enough options for a variety of poses, without complicating the assembly process with separate legs, torsos etc - just the right balance, in my opinion!

And after rummaging around in the midden ('Midden' is an old English word for a household rubbish dump) that is my painting desk, I found a couple of loose 10c coins I was able to use to base up two of the five Brigade Games swashbuckling ladies. 

The first lady joins the "baddies" side, wearing the red and black of the Cardinals Guard.

Whilst the second mademoiselle is turned out in the blue and yellow that will represent the Kings Musketeers - the "goodies" according to all the movies I have ever seen!

Thats all for tonight - I will hopefully have a goodly supply of individual figure bases in hand tomorrow, PLUS I will be having a game of RCW using the 1914 rules at Julians, ably assisted by Rick, Chris and John, I believe - so stand by for a scintillating AAR over the weekend, chaps!

Oh, by the way, this is a great clip from the latest (I think) version of the classic "Four Feathers" movie about the war in the Sudan ....

British Infantry Square Vs Cavalry - YouTube

A Weekend of Walks

 Annoyingly, my "order" of 100 2c coins for use as individual bases had not arrived by Friday (they are coming to my work address), so I have been left unable to base the completed Pulp Turkish infantry, or the five Brigade Games Swashbuckling ladies whose painting was completed ten or twelve days ago.

So, with no toys or games to blog about, I have to fall back on my secondary role with the Tourism NZ marketing department!

(WARNING - OVER SEVENTY IMAGES FOLLOW!!)

On Saturday, my wife suggested we do a return trip up the local Mount William but aiming to be at the summit at or about sunset. She herself had done the walk to the summit two or three times during the previous seven days, which I suspected was an attempt to show up how unfit I am in comparison, the next time we made the ascent together!

We left home about 6pm and grabbed a Subway sandwich each to eat at the top of the hill, then headed off. Quite surprisingly (to me anyway) there were a number of cars at the parking spot - I had expected the place to be deserted at 630pm on a Saturday evening. 

After seeing about twenty rabbits on the short approach road (more than I have seen together in 30+ years in New Zealand I think!), we also encountered another imported wildlife species as we commenced our walk - not quite up to the excitement standards of the animals seen by our American colleagues!

We used to tell our kids when they were little that the cluster to telecom towers in this pic were the Fairy Queens Castle!

The sun heads towards the western horizon at around 1950 (taken with the trig point in view to prove we made it to the top) 😀

We started our descent, so we did not end up at the top of a hill in the middle of some fields in the pitch dark!

A strategically placed resting point

Slightly arty-farty view of one of several styles we cross on this tramp

Some images from where the car was parked, taken around 2030 Saturday evening

On Sunday, we headed southeast to Wairongomai, another Dept of Conservation walking site

So, the township didn't last, then!

Hopefully. if you click on these, those who are interested can read some of the potted history

Most of the trails we followed were part of the "tramway" that was laid to facilitate the extraction of ore and road metal from the various quarrying operations. It seemed like it started off as a gold mining operation, but the terrain was too tough and profits too low and that company went bust. It was then used to bring out rock and gravel for use in road building in the local district, but the quality wasn't great, and it had to be sorted into different grades, prior to use, making the whole endeavour economically unviable, and operations completely ceased in the 1920's

One of the trucks used to transport ore and road metal along the tramway

The "highlight" (and I do use the word advisedly!) of the walk is Butlers Incline - about 2km up at an angle of 40-50 degrees I would think - at some points, we were virtually climbing it, like a ladder!

There are probably far too many images of this to be honest. but it made quite an impression on me!

Having Ruth in the picture helps give an indication of the gradient!

Finally, at the top (we stopped halfway up and ate our lunch - really, it was just an excuse to take a fifteen-minute break!

The machinery used had travelled a long way.....

...... and ended up in a remote corner of a distant land

Our route back down had a warning that it was VERY steep and should only be attempted with extreme caution...

....the path at one point crossing a spine with probably 100 feet drop on either side...

.....and again, I use my dear wife to give an impression of the incline 

The path she had just descended

Health and Safety gone mad - it's a 50-foot-long tunnel with no obvious threat to life and body!

I thought the comparison of late 19th century views with those of our own times were quite instructive - the idea that man was taming the natural environment and creating productive infrastructure where previously only a "bleak mountain" of birdsong and rustling trees had existed!

The valley through which we had just walked for 15km

The last remnants of human occupation......

Today, (a public holiday called labour Day here in New Zealand) we are having a break (hence this post) and had a coffee in this local park adjacent to the main street of Pukekohe

An ancient Joshua tree

Another example of local "wildlife" - obviously used to being fed by patrons of the cafe, she was out of luck with us - her male colleague is out of shot, sitting down watching proceedings.

Now, I will attempt to get into the garage where my painting desk is located, without our car Lulu following me and disputing possession, as she is wont to do! I have 14 of the Perry plastic Dervishes assembled and under coated, ready for my first attempts at painting them up.