If At First

Its been a long and busy couple of days, BUT today I made time to try out my latest attempt at a  'Goldilocks' edition of my rules. (As in not too quick and simple nor too tedious, fiddly or dull,  needing too much time to finish a game.) 

The first assault goes in and a prolonged fight ensues before the ridge is in Dominion hands.

A Rebel counter attack recaptured the ridge and a larger 2nd assault led to an even longer fight.

As the sun began to set, the General Lannigan ordered his remaining troops to fall back on the town in hopes of a draw.

With night approaching, Gen. Douglas ordered an all out assault. For a few minutes it seemed like it was too late but suddenly the Rebels had had enough. They broke and ran, leaving the town in Dominion hands as well as the ridge.

Temperatures are moderating and there is a lot of overdue outside duties to catch up on, but.......it might rain tomorrow, or the next day.......

Too Hot To Work

 But setting up a table inside isn't really work. .......

Any vague resemblance to situations, real or imagined, is.......well, ......... very vague and not meant to be an accurate representation of any historical situation, just a lazy scenario for a game of toy soldiers. 

You Shall Not Pass

 When last we saw Prince Micheal and the retreating Roman excursion into Persia, they succeeded (barely) in capturing an oasis and seeing off the pursuing Sassanid force, elephant and all.  (18 months ago?? Really???) With July half over with no (zero!!) games played, I decided to wrap up the campaign with another little skirmish. The game was quickly set up and........a week later, after several aborted starts, I finally played out the 20 minute game over 2 days.   (Don't ask! Its just been 'one of those' months for our household.) 

The Romans have a slight advantage in numbers and quality, the Persians have a good defensive position.

The Roman advance is met by some Persian light cavalry, hoping to drive off the lighter Roman cavalry and flank the line.

The cavalry wings face off and watch for openings while the Roman infantry line hits the Persian levies manning the barricade and......bounce with losses!!
(In their defence, it had been a long, thirsty march...)

("psst! What happened to the artist? He's missing the good stuff! Well, GO FIND HIM before the end!" 

After some heavy fighting (trust me), the Roman cavalry dealt with their counterpart, and the Roman infantry managed to take the village and the barricade, and even, more or less, held off Ellie until the Persian morale broke. 

Yeah, its just been that sort of month so far but there's time for at least another game. The 18thC is over due, but, I'm not really in the mood so we'll see who takes the field when it happens.  

We Interrupt This Already Interrupted Game....

 ....to celebrate having played in a multi-player game with friends at a local (ie about hour away) Tabletop game convention. The first one since COVID hit.  Its mostly about non-wargame games but they have made us welcome over the years and it was a pleasure to reconnect.

15mm Battle Honours French Revolution Austrian Cuirassiers that I painted in the 90's but which are now serving Jeff as Spanish cavalry during the Peninsular War, and various other roles when needed.

The game I played in was a 6 player 15mm Peninsula battle (I forget which one! In my defence, I haven't paid much (any) attention to Wellington's Spanish campaign since the late 80's, maybe early 90's). Jeff made himself a rather impressive hex battle cloth (or "mat" I think they are called these days), and uses the Command and Colours multiplayer game rules, cards and dice. 

Under my personal command, the Spanish on the right are holding firm.
Ok OK, haven't been seriously attacked yet, just probed a little.

Elected CinC of the Anglo-Spanish army, I immediately chose to personally take command of the right wing since it contained a unit I'd painted in the 90's and passed to Jeff when I was getting out of 15's about 10 years ago. (That way I still get to play with them from time to time!)

Overview early in the game. The high ground in the centre will soon be in big trouble.

I don't mind playing the the C&C rules and cards but I admit that it can be frustrating if the cards you draw are continually poor. Sure, maybe the General I was representing was asleep for the whole game but I'd rather make my own mistakes.  Actually, I'm pretty good at making mistakes.......

The key town (ie worth a couple of victory points) remained firmly in my hands all game.

Despite the card thing, the game was damn close at times but it was an overwhelming French victory at the end, largely because the French Commander in chief (a retired veteran Infantry officer) planned well and executed his plan well and gave his less experienced fellow players advice when they asked for it, while letting them make their own decisions. 

All in all, an excellent afternoon. Now, back to the game still on my table.

Hot Fighting On The Eastern Front

 Well, having done my outside chores early this morning, I envisaged an afternoon game. 

Yesterday, I gave the scenario some thought. My original idea was for a force of Persian infantry holding the pass with a cavalry force pursuing the Romans but that seemed too much like the last Persian game so I sent it back for review. The heat having drained energy and ideas, I settled on a straight larger force trying to break through a smaller force in a defensive position.

"Ready for a hot fight men?"

However, with a temperature over 30C in my room, and a reported Humidex ("feel like" due to humidity) temperature of 38C!, I decided that the game could wait a day or so!

Bring Up The Infantry

I have a rather crowded box of recruits for my Prince Valiant games so I try to paint at least a few figures for each game.

A new company of Sassanid Infantry.
(Oops..meant to add a darker wash over the flesh, I'll have to fix that. It was a super quick paint job.)

These recruits are yet another use of some of the 100  gold novelty figures I bought for $0.10@ nearly 20 years ago.

The table has been tentatively laid out and some troops brought out of storage.

Now to work out the details of the scenario.

Border Post

So close to home but there is one more obstacle to overcome....

A year and a half ago, we last saw the Duke, leading the remains of an expedition out of Sassanid Persia. At last, its time to find out what happened after that. 

Stay tuned......

A Wide Open Field

An EMPTY wide open field! Is there a sadder site? (sic)

I wonder how I should fill it?

(PS that's an invitation to make requests.)

Year 14: Steady as She Goes

Well, here it is again, the 4th of July, and time for my annual look at things. 13 years have passed since my "little incident" (ie heart attack) and very little has changed since last year. 

54's in Action

I have managed to resurrect some of the figures I had put on notice while simultaneously reducing the number of "periods" I'm playing, thus allowing more table time for each, and reducing the number of sets or rules I need to keep in my head.  I also managed to get to my first convention since Covid hit, and managed 3 games against live opponents in addition to the convention games. So, all in all a successful year. 

1/72nd ACW, its just about time they came back out. 

As for the year ahead, the only disturbing thing is my desire to just keep doing what I'm doing with no urge to change rules or scales or periods or......well, it just seems like not changing would be a big change but, on the other hand, not changing would be a change in itself, so I'll just go with the flow.   

I've got more BIG tall metal Scots Pikes and  CHUNKY printed highlanders to paint and then exercise so we should see at least one 16thC game. 

and  then....

Prince Micheal has yet to meet these fellows who also have 3d printed reinforcements on the workbench.

So, let the paint fly on and the dice roll!