The Battle of Shiloh

 For the 1st time since about February I went over to Matt's for a game. Normally we play in the dungeon (cellar) on an 8x5 table. But with social distancing this would be problematic. However Matt has a new toy

He has a new shed, I say shed but it is more like a cricket pavillion and it easily holds a 12x6ft table. It's a really nice structure and fab for playing on a sunny summer day. Being the last weekend in August is is cold and cloudy.

We decided to go big and combine out ACW collections to fight the action around the crossroads at Shiloh. Overall there were 20 brigades and approx 1000 28mm figures on the table. We used our bolt action ACW variant which works very well.

The table was too big to get it all on a photo.

I was the confederates and generally have poor morale. My job was to attack, attack, attack. THe Union forces were battle hardened wit better morale

The Union wasusing hidden deployment with cards locating the regiments, some were blanks.

THe only plan therefore was to advance and find him. I rolled each turn to spot units, I only passed one of these so Matt appeared when he wanted to

Advancing past the abandoned Union camps

The Union camp has food, booze and boots so obviously the rebels kept stopping to have a look. THis really broke up my advance. Also historically the Confederates suffered badly from friendly fire, mainly cos some of them work blue uniforms. SO once per turn a unit, Matt's pick, to recieve an random number of pins and casualties. THis was also a little annoying

Artillery is generally not very effective in the rules. Not today. I haven't moved and Matt has routed a regiment from cannon fire

On the right as I advance the 1st Union division appears

On the left a few units appear

THe advance continues

Long distance shooting on the right is gradually thining out both sides, I am weak here

Back on the left the Union cards are nearly all blank.This is the way in. I can smash Matt's right and roll him up

The centre is also fairly weak. Let's smash that as well

Here we go

The field in the middle is difficult swampy terrain, keep out. THis will cause traffic jams

On we push

THe last turn, 8 hours later. I've not quite made it. The Union right is basically gone, the centre is at best about to collapse and I'm mob handed in both areas and will therefore force him to retreat away to the right. HTis is what happened in real life, the Union counterattacked, pushed the Rebels back and them the Rebels attacked again and won the day.

A brilliant game, the rules work well but we never quite finish, always too many forces. Great to see Matt again

Actual Gaming

 This week I've been on holiday and generally got out as much as possible. I managed to to get in two days of face to face gaming without the aid of Zoom. God it was nice to meet actual people 

First up I popped down to see Dave and we played a couple of gangster games using a mash up of his serenity city cowboy rules. They were an absolute blast.

                

Dave only has a couple of Chicago buildings and has never played with his gangsters so we played a raid on a country still

                

The Feds and cops approach

                

The bootleggers are loading up

                

One of the guys in the white brimmed hat is the accountant and he must be captured alive. In the 1st battle I was the Feds and managed to approach the still undetected by smashing down the gate and capturing the lookout without a shot being fired. I then chased and caught the accountant.

For the second battle Dave was the Feds and he failed to snash throug the gate, the lookout managed to sound the alarm and the chase was on

                

I drive head on towards the advancing Feds and my driver shoots the Fed driving the car coursing it to crash. I capture the other fed and hold him prisoner. However I need to men guarding him so I shoot him in the face and he dies of a fatal gut shot - it was a very big bullet.

Why did I need the men, well.....

                

I've nearly escaped in the natty white and green car when the patrol car reverses into me and I have to leg it on foot. I don't make it off the table but I do kill all the Feds so another victory to me. I really loved this, the rules work really well and have ordered some damage cards from Dave's supplier. I've also ordered some gangsters from Dixons and have been buying cars in junk shops all week.

Next up today the Old Guard had a game day in Scruton. Me, John, Angus and Steve were joined by James, a new guy. It may be the last time we ever see Steve as today is his wedding anniversary and he forgot. Being old men we suitably distanced each other. Steve and Angus played chain of command which they really enjoyed and John and I played a couple of games

                

1st up a To the Strongest game, I like the rules, not my favourite but work well. Only hte 3rd time i'd played so still a learning experience for me, John was very honourable. I fought my Numidians against Johns imperial Romans

My plan was simple. Hold the centre and harry John withthe light cavalry and skirmishers, I had many. Then once disrupted i could steamroller him. John was on a hill with most of his forces and he never leaves a hill.

                

So obviously he immediately came down off the hill and attacked my light cav with his legionaires

                

Pushing them back and off the table while my centre was much much too passive. He won, I made a pigs ear of it but learnt loads. Like the Numidians though

For the 2nd game John has been making paper soldiers from Peter Dennis. I was very very skeptical but

                

they look very good from the front and rear. From the side they are invisible. They come with a set of rules which actually work well and only need more detail adding. John won this one as well, but again was good fun.

One the painting front I've nearly completed the 7YW Prussians and will post the lot in a couple of weeks.Then it's time to start a new project, I've got some Arabs and some Huns to paint, some gangsters on the way and all those Landsknechts.

Really been good to see the guys again. Stay safe.

A Game, Some Prussians and a Moment of Madness

So I'm still mad busy and to be honest a little worn out. But I've still done some stuff.

1st up I hosted a remote game with Matt last weekend. Matt was a section of French Foreign Legion in 1894 Dahomey. They landed by boat at an abandoned trading station and had to undertake a sweep and clear of the area. Fon army soldiers would appear at random. Matt had to collect a series of red skulls and return to the boat. We used IHMN, one of my favourite sets and not played for ages.

The board

Matt's troops, Captain, Trialleur, hunter and 3 Legionaires

Trap, there were loads of these and killed off 2 legionaires.

And then i took no more photos, hard to run and photograph. Matt made it, just, with the captain and  trialleur Roussel making it back to the boat chased by a horde of warriors. 2 legionaires died in traps, the hunter got hunted and 1 legionaire was captured. It was great fun.

All streamed via my new tablet tripod.

My final troops for the battle of Lobositz arrived from Pendraken, all the Prussians plus a few extras

battalion guns

1 battalion of Anhalt infantry, oddly these had 3 battalions and not the usual 2. Therefore this was made up from the random odds and sods that you always get

Paper flag, not the usual handpainted. in fact the new batch of prussians only have one flag per pack and not the 2 that the last lot got. Odd is they are only supposed to have 1 flag

Coach, a good general figure, and a freebie from Pendraken

Szekely Hussars

And now my moment of madness. I've had a refund from Easyjet for a not going to Ireland in May. Nice. I was doing an Ebay trawl and found this, which came today

Nice big box from the post woman

It's contents are 1000 10mm Landsknechts, renaissance Poles and Turks. All Pendraken and will go nicely with my collection of, well actually I have absolutely no figures at all that these will go with but there are enough to play with themselves. It does mean I will have to buy some more cavalry, artillery and other stuff. Should keep me busy for a couple of days

Off to read about the Italian Wars

1st Century BC Roman Legionaries and some weird trees

So I've just had a week off, only replied to 4 emails all week (my in box is horrific but if it's important they will get back to me).

Weather been pretty rubbish, cloudy and showery. I went to the beach and it was so foggy i couldn't see the sea. I went shopping and they were mainly shut. Still I did a lot of napping and became part of my sister's bubble all weekend, which was nice.

I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to visit Dave and James to drop off some figs and Dave gave me a Gripping Beast Arab Saga Warband

I've done some bitza painting.

A few years ago I was given some metal trees, a donation from Col Bill via the Old Guard and i wasn't sure what to do with them. So I painted them up this week. It was a quick job with green and brown spray paints and a green dry brush.

They are small but work well with 10mm Austrians and there are quite a lot of them

I've also completed my 1st cohort of Romans for the Pontic project

The are Forged in Battle Late Republican Romans and easy to paint

Only another 9 to go plus cavalry, artillery and officers

Hope you are all well

7 Years War Prussians, Austrians and Galatians(?)

I've been quite productive this week and I have next week off, weather forecast shocking, but shops are open as I need stretchy clothes and more exercise.

I've finished off the last of the 7YW figures I have, but fear not dear reader I've ordered loads more.

Austrian 12lb Artillery

My original plan was to build the 2 opposing armies for the 1st battle of the 7YW (old Glory). However they are a little unbalanced, lots of Prussian guns and not a lot of Prussian Infantry. So I've tinkered with that and evened up the number of heavy artillery with these 5 Austrian 12lber guns

Prussian Limbers (Pendraken) Heavy artillery from Pendraken come as 1 cannon and 1 limber with crew, whereas Old Glory come as 12 cannon only. A bit a shuffling as there are loads of spare artillery men in the Pendraken 3lb battation gun pack, enough to crew the 12lb artillery. Limbers are neither here nor there. Generally they look good but large artillery is often static.

Prussian Grumbkow and Keist Grenadiers. Prussians not only used ad hoc combined grenadier battalions but also had standing battalions like these.

Prussian Braunsweig Infantry

Prussian Von Brandenburg Cuirassiers. Love the white and sky blue uniforms with the orange pompom on the hat!

Not only I am working through the 7YW forces but I am also working on the 15mm Ancients project. 

These are galatians but could double as Gauls which is why they are an attach column with skirmishers in front, no wait that is a different French period

Have fun