2 games in 2 Days!

Now then,

I have been lucky enough to have 2 games this weekend!Firstly on Saturday James popped down for a game of Battlegroup Kursk. It was only a small game, based mostly on the introductory scenario in the Kursk book. It went really well and I like the Battlegroup rules alot. 

James has written a great report over on his blog -

 the mad tin hatter HERE

The second game was with Pete, Stuart and myself having our first game of Impetus Baroque, using our newly painted English Civil war Armies.

It was another cracking game, and it looked ace on Petes terrain.

Both games were really good fun and ill be playing them both again in the near future!

Cheers for looking,
Steve

Ancient Britons vs EIR, To the Strongest!

Now then,

Not a battle report as such but a few pics of our game this evening. Stuart popped down for a game of To the Strongest, and took control of the Legions of Rome whilst the unruly warbands of the Britons were mine.

Turn 1 saw the armies advancing, the British light chariots racing to outflank the Romans.

The blue beads are ammo markers, so in TtS units have a limited ammo supply. Although you can stockpile more in your baggage train / camp.

The Legions charge in, throwing their pilums as they do. The red beads denote disorder.

Here, the British hero is about to be unleashed, and promptly die....

 The light Chariots are bogged down on both flanks, on the left by the Equites Alares......














And on the right by the Legionary Cohorts.

Eventually the Legionary's were outflanked and the Britons rolled up their line. Just as the Roman Auxilleries started to have some success on the other flank.

Thats our second game of TtS now, and we are getting used to the rules, although a few mistakes were made. The Romans wont be beaten quite so easily next time, now that we have re-read the rallying rules!

Cheers to Stuart for the game.  Right, id better get these bases finished off on the Romans, (the horror, gaming with unfinished figures!)

Cheers,
Steve

First Bolt Action Game

Now then,

The Youth surprised me this morning, when as he was going out the door to school, he asked if I could set up a game for when he gets in!!!  He wants to be the Soviets, which is fine by me.

Gaming with non gamer's or young uns!

Here's my take on it. The most important thing is preparation. To that end I have made some bits and bobs, to make things as easy as possible. Obviously the armies are sorted out, points worked out and reference sheets all done and ready.

Pin markers. These are actually blast markers that I made for epic, but they will serve nicely I think.

Dice cup. I couldn't find anything else, so my "Dads Army" teacup will have to do!

 The cup easily hold about 20 of my homemade BA dice.

German platoon, Pl HQ, 3 squads Grenadiers, MMG team, and a sniper team.

Soviet forces. Pl HQ, Free 12 man conscript squad, 2 LMG squads, 1 10 man SMG squad, MMG squad Light Mortar team and a sniper team!

The massive stone Die, turn marker!.

The mission we will play will be Scenario 2 from the rulebook, Maximum attrition. This one sounds like it will provide suitable carnage. The game needs to as straightforward as possible, so no extra rules etc.

In this mission, no forces are set up initially, half your troops are in reserve and the other half are in the first wave. When troops receive an order, they move onto the table, with either an advance or run.

The beginning of the game saw both sides running into position, The German platoon commander ordered his MG42 team over to his left, to cover that side and the remaining forces moved into the center. The Soviets hastily moved their support weapons into position, with the Soviet sniper taking up a position ready to threaten the MG42 next turn.

The Soviet sniper got the first shot off, and shot one of the MG42 team,  placing a pin marker on it. The return fire was way off its mark. The rest of the troops on both sides moved onto the table, or moved into
position ready for next turn.

The MG42 team took another casualty from sniper fire, before the remaining gunner went to ground. It was to stay that way for the rest of the game, all the while harassed by the sniper. On the soviet side, combined rifle fire and a little bit of help from the light mortar pinned down and hampered the Grenadiers.

The game turned into a long range exchange of fire with the Soviet forces taking heavy casualties, but in the end Soviet manpower overwhelmed the Germans and by games end the German platoon was in a desperate position and withdrew.

Thoughts

The game flowed along at a good pace, despite it being our first game, and trying to teach it to the lad, however he still beat me in the end, the little git. We got a few of the rules wrong, such as order tests for pinned troops etc, but it was good to push some figures about and roll some dice!

He wants another game tomorrow too, we have decided on a Spartan vs Athenian battle using basic impetus.

Cheers
Steve

Stormbringers vs Necrons!!??

Now then,

A part of the deal to get my son to give me a game of Basic Impetus was that i had a game of 40K with him.  Only fair i suppose, so heres a few pics of the game, and a chance to show some of James's figures.

Space marine force

tactical squad, scout squad, devastator squad and a dreadnought commanded by a captain in terminator armour.

Necrons.

2 units of 12 Necron Warriors, 6 bases of Scarabs, 2 Destroyers, and Necron lord.

I've no idea what the points might be, as we don't have the codex's. Literally a few months after i bought all this stuff for James, the new rules came out... So i dont know whats what... We just kind of made it up as we went...:)

 Tactical squad moving into position!

Destroyers moving up to support their robotic friends...

Necrons about to run into a hail of fire from all manner of weaponry...

Dreadnought and scouts.

The star of the show, the dreadnought. I think James has done a great job on this, all i did was apply the dip and paint on the name "FURY". Great work for an 11 year old,

Anyway, the marines, commanded by james won in the end although it was a total bloodbath, i think we ended up with about 5 models left each, when he killed the Necron Lord and ended the game.

Not really my cup of tea, but my game next...Basic Impetus Crusades I think!

Cheers for reading.
Steve

Basic Impetus, Persians vs Athenian!

Hi all,

I managed to prize the xbox controller out of my sons hands for just long enough to have a game of BI today! I haven't written a proper battle report, because i didn't want the lad getting bored as i scribbled down notes and took pictures..but here's a quick run through of what happened...

Click for bigger pictures.

Persian set up, a bit haphazard, which caused problems later...

Athenian set up, pretty standard really, Hoplites in the centre with the cavalry and skirmishers protecting the flanks.










Sorry for the crappy pic, but here's the two armies deployed opposite each other.

The first couple of turns saw the Athenians advancing across the dried river, whilst keeping in formation, only the skirmishers managed to disorder themselves....

The Persian general pushes the skirmishers forward and tries to get round the flanks of the Greeks.

First blood goes to the Persians, with the Takabara slaughtering the greek skirmishers, and trying to get into a good position to attack the now exposed Athenian flank..

A confused melee breaks out in the centre, between the Greek cavalry and the Bactrians, which sucks in a unit of Persian National cavalry and the Persian general himself.....

The Athenian phalanx looks on as the cavalry fight it out....

Meanwhile the scythed chariot manoeuvres to a better position to attack....

The Greek cavalry get the worst of it in the centre, and the Persian general orders his skirmishers forward in an attempt to gain some time to re-organise the cavalry in the centre.









The Takabara and scythed chariot try to move up and form a battle line on the exposed Athenian flank...













It was not to be. The Greeks launched a preemptive strike before their flank was overwhelmed, and the Hoplites, now finally in contact, made short work of the Persians...










Really fun game, and it was great just to get some figures out and roll some dice, its been a long time, i have to give him a game of 40K next..that was the deal.

The lad now wants a rematch  and demonstrated with the troops after the battle how he should have deployed...Infantry in the centre and either a strong flank of cavalry, or cavalry deployed on the flanks. He reckons if he pins my phalanx in place, he'll be able to get round and attack the rear....Sounds like a plan to me!

Thanks for reading,
Steve