Monday 21 August 2017

Partizan II - The glorious bravery of the Camel Corps

The sun baked down relentlessly on the Sudan desert as the engineers tried to move the next rail into place. It was hot work and progress was slow. Every day they would advance and form up in a new camp built by the defending forces. Their force was strong with 2 regiments of Guards to defend the train, a Naval Contingent armed with newfangled Gardiner guns and a battery of Royal Artillery. It was approaching the end of the day and a supply column was coming in from the East escorted by the Lancashire Regiment. They had seen some skirmishing and were bringing in supplies and wounded to the train. The foot hills were full of signallers and various small parties were surveying the land whilst journalists watched on.
Far to the West the Camel Corps had taken up position in the walled village of El Damer. Their commander Major General Herbert Stewart had brought his wife and daughter along, so confident was he of a peaceful advance. To the South the 18th Hussars were on patrol and all was quiet.

The battlefield (North is on the left)

The train and zariba lined encampment

 The camel corps in El Damer

Suddenly to the West appeared Kitchener advancing quickly on his camel mount and from all sides Mahdists appeared out of the desert. He may have been a brilliant scout but it was if he had lead the Mahdists to the encampments. "Stand To" went the order and all across the battlefield the Imperial forces readied themselves for action. Zariba barricades were quickly finished and manned, outlying skirmish and scouting parties were recalled and men readied themselves for battle.

The arrival of Kitchener on his camel closely pursued by Beja skirmishers. He makes a B-line for the General in the Zariba
More Mahdists threaten the column to the West protected by the Lancs

Quite a lot of cavalry approaches threatening to cut off the Camel Corps. The 18th Hussars try to screen

Impetuous as ever Col. Burnaby leads 1/2 the Scots Guards out to protect the column

The Camel Corps are in trouble. Too many Fuzzies and not enough bullets

The Hussars rush to their aid

And smash into the side of some Beja  Camelry, seeing them off but the Baggara Cavalry inflict heavy losses

The Lancs hold off an initial Mahdist charge as 2 regiments of Bengal lancers arrive from the Indian Brigade.

The Camel Corps prepare to defend themselves

The Lancers charge and take out the enemy releasing the pressure on column

The Indians start to arrive in force

The zariba prepares

as yet more Mahdists arrive

and more. The Camel Corps is completely cut off

The Dervish charge has forced them out of El Damer and greatly reduced their numbers

With most of their opponents go the Indian Brigade and Lancs can start to turn to face the much larger forces to the North

and they've got a cannon

The Camel Corps are in deep trouble but they hold their ground to allow the women and injured to escape

The Baggara cavalry smash into the zariba but are repelled by cannon fire

But the Mahdist horde under the command of the Mahdi himself is poised to overrun the the zariba. 

The last stand of the Camel Corps. Camels stolen, 2 companies routing but they fight to the end

The Navy try to pour fire into the Madhists but both Gardiner guns jam in the same turn. The presence of the Mahdi gives them a save on a 4,5 or 6. They will hit next turn and overwhelm the zariba

The Indian brigade gets into position but they must be too late. They pour fire into the flank of the Mahdists and cause some to rout but still them come

The navy fire and then its a bayonet fight, 7 attacks from the Navy vs 14 from the Mahdists

A draw and the Mahdists are starting to be cut down

a win for the Navy and the Mahdists are wrecked. 

It was a close run thing indeed and the Camel Corps is pretty much gone saving the women. A noble way to die.
It was a brilliant battle well received by all at the show. Dave wrote the rules and they worked very well indeed.

“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods
” 
 Thomas Babington Macaulay,
 Lays of Ancient Rome









Sunday 20 August 2017

Partizan part 1

The other Partizan was today and me, Dave Docherty and James MacMillan went down yesterday to savour the delights of Newark. Great night out and today we fought a great Sudan game. More of that in the week but today the loot.

Warlord Games Naval section. Great for VBCW and possibly Matt's sealion campaign

the smallest pre order ever, £1.35 from Col Bill. 4 X 6mm tanks

6mm Leven buildings for my team yankee project.
6mm walls and fields from Cortani and Tree Fellers
38 X 28mm ACW from Old Glory for £20 - bargain
Velociraptors and a Nanotyranosaur - just for the sake of it.
steel paper and magnetic tape for basing. Cortani
and finally George Orwell SCW figure

Great time and I will post the AAR soon







Saturday 12 August 2017

Cold War Gone Hot - I've Come Over all 1980's

So 28mm is my thing. I have some 10mm stuff but 28mm is what I grew up with, what I like to paint and what I like to play with.
So it has come as a shock to me, dear reader, that I have embraced Team Yankee - in 6mm. Last year I bought a bag of toys from the flea market for £15. It contained lots of random stuff - most of it junk. But it did contain 60 odd 6mm British 1980's vehicles. Exposure to James in the Old Guard has sparked my interest in Team Yankee so I decided to paint them up.

The complete painted collection. Very Recon heavy but with loads and loads of Milans

Scimitars and Scorpions

Foxes, Wombats and Ferrets - this petting zoo is not in the lists for Team Yankee but easy to canibalise stats, and you have to have ferrets.

Abbots and Strikers

Full recon squadron, missing one tank

Infantry support.

I added red flowers to each of the unit commander bases - need trimming. I have ordered some Chieftans, other stuff to make up an mech platoon and some Rapiers from Heroics and Ros That will give me just over 100 points with tanks, recon squadron, infantry and an odds and sods to make up a TA type unit. 


Sunday 6 August 2017

Old Guard Refights Waterloo

So the Old Guard met today and John was in charge. so we refought Waterloo but using 28mm Renaissance  Italian Wars Forces. John has a huge number of figures from back in the day, Hinchcliffe etc. Lots of flags as you will see. The figs are great and they make the battle look great.
I was the Florentines (British). Stu and james we the French (French) and Pete and John were the Holy Roman Empire (Germans). I was to hang on until the Germans saved my ass.

The set up. I'm bottom left in the 2 walled farm houses. Local rules were that as I had aquebusiers and  halberders in them I could fire in one direction only per turn at full weight of fire. This messed with Stu's head all day. His French are all along the right and the Germans are at right angles along the top edge. The arrived immediately after we had set up and really messed up Stu's deployment. More or that later.

The French. Massed Swiss Pike blocks, gendarmes and missile troops

The Florentines, all straight from the biscuit factory. Really crappy pike blocks, some poor mercenaries and a couple of cannon.

I have some knights and I've put units in both farm houses.

John's Germans

Pete's much larger Germans

Stu's French advance rapidy

Between the farm houses and towards my lines. Some good shooting, and a crappy understanding of the Impetus rules causes damage but its only turn 1, 10.15am, and I'm about to get butchered.

Very close indeed. The Germans are miles off. Worst rescue ever.

They hit and I stop them dead, then push them back. The biscuit men are epic. Outnumbered, out classed and they have come out swinging.

Over on Stu's right James have turned up and been left with a near impossible situation. The Germans are near and he has to turn his whole division to face them. His troops aren;t great but he does have some very strong gendarmes and the Swiss Guard. If he can retreat then may be he can hold on.

John is checking the cricket score.

James has sorted out his flank and Pete is stuck trying to get over a simple fence while James shoots the crap out of him and his gendarmes butcher the infantry and cavalry.

My Florentines are still swinging. I've lost most of my troops but I've taken out another pike unit and 2 units of horse archers (heavy cavalry with lances!) with my crappy infantry.

However my Army has reached it's break point and I collapse. It's 5.00pm and I've really knocked the French about. However with John still too far away and Pete getting beaten by James it's all over.

A great day, much closer than it should have been. Impetus is not my favourite rule set and it is hard to change your dispositions once you've started. Units of the day were my militia pike and James Dopplesword infantry and skirmisher infantry.
Really want to play Italian wars again.