Adventures on the Wargames Table

At last!!! Orange Dave and I have got our calendars sorted and played the first two rounds of the club Saga campaign which brings me nicely up to date. My faction is a Viking War band led by the indomitable Magnus Håkonsson. I rolled for his traits and got "Learn'd" and "Hard Ruler" - both great for boosting my war band before and after battles, plus the special rule "The Conqueror". Magnus is clearly a man to be reckoned with!! Dave has been busy painting some lovely Foundry figures. The photos are a bit shonky but hopefully you can see how good they are! Some of Dave's lovely Anglo-Danes Game One - I decided to raid the territory of Dave's Warlord, the Anglo-Danish Leofstan the Bastard. The scenario came up as "Scout" so we both cautiously advanced in to an abandoned village. Now, it's been ages since I last played (that's my excuse anyway!) so I was a bit vague about how the game worked, but I soon picked it up. ...

With the second edition of the Bolt Action rules almost upon us, Wargames Table chum Steve and I decided to have one more go with first edition! Steve would be fielding his beautiful First Corps Russians whilst I would once again be trying to stem the advance in to Germany with my Panzergrenadiers. Here’s the field of battle. The scenario was simple: German forces must stall the Russian steamroller in this sector long enough to bring reserves up, however this can only be done if the crossroads remain in German hands. So, the usual 6 (or 7) turn game and the winner would be the one controlling the vital crossroads near the centre of the board at the end of the game. Steve and I both decided to commit our entire forces in turn 1 ... no faffing around with reserves here!! First blood went to the Germans as my tank rumbled on to the table and took aim at the only viable target, the Russian sniper in the church belfry... Boom! Steve had an alarming number of troops at his comman...

I already have four 8 man sections* but looking in my boxes of toy soldiers I stumbled upon enough figures for another section. So on to the painting table they went! (*I know that sections are theoretically 10 strong, but I'm allowing for a few casualties) The 'recipe' I use can be found under the Painting tab, see above. I especially liked the Bren gunner with the weapon shouldered and a look on his face that suggests he's having a good grumble about boots / officers / weather, etc. Hard to see at this scale but he has, honest!

Another Saturday at Bristol Independent Gaming playing Bolt Action with Wargames Table chum Orange Dave!! This time it's game five of our Italian campaign. The notorious Monte Cassino!! The battlefield map is shown below. Scenario map: published without permission ;o) Here's the table with all the troops in play. Dave's mega-hill does sterling service again! I put my best troops amongst the ruins on Monastery Hill with a strong secondary force holding Hill 444. By the way - we both missed the rule about the battlefield being impassable to vehicles - doh!? Dave's fine body of men! Indians and Kiwis - tough chaps all. Turn 1 saw a general advance mainly on the north-eastern flank of the hill. The tanks exchanged long range shots but the shells either missed or bounced off. Dave had deployed some smoke in turn 1 and now it rather usefully (for the Allies) drifted towards Monastery Hill. Turn 2 saw a little more shooting from the longer ranged element...

Here's a little article with some tips for building the lovely Brasserie from Charlie Foxtrot Models . I've already posted a few articles about building CFM kits ( here , here , here and here ) so I'll try not to repeat myself! I'll start with a pic of the nearly finished article. Bonjour! Here's the kit. Like the other buildings it's mainly a series of boxes which are easy to build, but a couple of things worth pointing out are the order of the pieces for the front doors and how the roof chimney components look. (Colin does include diagrams with his kit but I thought you might like to see it 'for real'). Don't glue the pieces with doors or panelling yet (the top and bottom pieces in the following pic) as these are easier to paint first then attach later! In this pic the final end piece for the gable/chimney has yet to be attached, so you can see how it all goes together. Also I spray the roof sections black or dark grey before assembl...

Private Perkins hummed gently to himself as he brewed his Lieutenant's morning cup of tea. The platoon had halted late last night and made themselves comfortable in a rather dilapidated barn. The old farmer had welcomed them by handing out jars of rough Normandy cider and fresh eggs. Naturally the men were delighted, though a few were probably feeling a little shabby as the day dawned cool and bright. The young officer was poring over his maps as Perkins approached, "Here we are sir, a nice cup of tea," he said placing the steaming mug on the table. The farmer had even provided some fresh milk. "Eggs for breakfast sir?" "Thank you George but alas there's no time for that," he said tapping the papers on the desk, "Message from Company HQ, they want us to push on and take a vital rail junction. Jerry is on the move. Reconnaissance suggests they could be Fallschirmjagers. So, be a good chap and let the Sergeants know I want them here in five minu...