Adventures on the Wargames Table

Another Sunday night at the club and this time Dave and his Shadow Collective, led by the fearsome Darth Maul, take on my Empire, led by the implacable General Veers. An 800 point game, the mission was to capture and hold the objective markers scattered across the middle of the table. Here's the table just after we'd started. I had a very vague plan to spend a couple of turns shooting before making a dash. With this mind I made the best use of Veers' ability to buff the shooting of nearby units and pounded away at the enemy line. I have to be fair here and say that the troops had clearly been practicing on the range, plus Dave's armour save rolls were not kind to him at all. However, I managed to repeat the little blunder of leaving Veers slightly exposed when he used his Maximum Firepower command card. The Pyke disruptor rifle wounded the General who had to scramble for cover. On my left flank it was going very well indeed and the first two turns saw many Black Sun, Py...

Good chum Colin very kindly gifted me a prototype kit of one of his more recent pantile releases. Being a prototype there was no resin roof section so I made a simple extra storey from foam core and Wills pantile plasticard for the roof.  The door to the balcony is just balsa scribed with a pen to give a wooden planking effect. Some closed shutters give the impression of windows without the faff of cutting holes and fitting window frames, etc. Buildings like this add some extra height to the battlefield and provide ideal look out points. Thanks mate 🙂

With the attacks going in on the Olive Oil factory it was important to try to keep Jerry off balance. The Australians of 2/1 Battalion must not let the enemy consolidate the their positions. So, orders came through for the reinforced 3rd platoon to begin the attack. I had hoped to paste Jerry with some naval gun support but the meagre points available for this scenario meant that the matelots would be pointing their guns elsewhere. More on “support” later. Here’s the table. The brave Australians would be attacking along the road from the left in the second picture. The patrol phase went rather well and I was able to get a couple of JOPs in the gardens around the house with the lavender. The other being next to the little culvert. Dave had his in the vines and amongst the buildings which certainly suited him. First in the field was a section whose aim was to defend the right flank and/or harass FJs in the buildings with covering fire whilst the real attack went in on the left, where the...

The infamous Hawtrey Gang have turned up in Blackwater County and their villainous leader Charles (aided and abetted by Sid “Shotgun” James and Jim “Sneaky” Dale) is keen to rustle some cattle and hold up the stagecoach. But Sheriff Shotte and his Deputies, Randall and Hopkirk are on the gang’s trail. Being an introductory sort of game I kept the forces quite straightforward. Each side had a Shootist plus two Greenhorns armed and equipped as per the rules.  The first few turns were really just moving up from the table edges (Hawtrey Gang from the left in this first pic, the Lawmen from the right) so the pics start as the real action begins. This isn’t a full after action report, but more of a series of highlights. Charles Hawtrey has moved up to the telegraph pole as he tries to draw a bead on the Sheriff in front of the white farmhouse. But his shooting goes wide. Jim Dale, by the barrel next to the fence, shoots too but again the shots miss. From the other side of the table we ca...

Club night and Steve has kindly put on another gorgeous looking game of What a Cowboy. It’s a second warm up game ahead of the start of a campaign next month. Here’s a few pics before our gangs set to. The “spades” gang was Simon, Mike and Rob whilst the “hearts” gang (and self-styled heroic good guys) were myself, Jordan and Ken. The objective was simple … shoot the other gang. Umpire Steve assures us that campaign games will have more complex objectives. I’m sure he’ll have a few surprises up his sleeve too. Here’s a pic from a few turns in. Ken’s lads have camped on the shed roof whilst one of Jordan’s men swaggers towards the railroad halt, no doubt intending to tip his hat to the lady standing nearby. Some of the other figures in the pic are “civilians” and they can act in a variety of ways when the lead starts flyin’. Opposing them were Mike and Rob’s men and they were advancing quite cautiously thanks to their dreadful rolls on movement dice. On the other side of the parked up l...

More fun in a galaxy far, far away! Sunday night is club night, so Simon and I set to. He had his splendid rebels and I the glorious might of the Empire. The mission cards were resolved as “Battle Lines” for deployment (very convenient), “Clear Conditions” (Phew! See later) and “Recover the supplies” as the objective. I was especially pleased to get clear conditions as my leader is General Veers and he has a fantastic command card, “Maximum Firepower”, that you really need to play in the first couple of turns due to the long minimum range involved. Here’s a couple of pics of Simon’s lovely figures. I especially like Chewbacca and the squad of Wookies! The early part of the game saw a lot of forward movement as each side sought to capture one of the five vital supply tokens. However, I’d been a bit more cautious and so was able to put a lot more shooting on to the Rebels. This seemed like a good idea, at least to begin with… Veers’ Maximum Firepower card had damaged the AT-RT, though it...