THURSDAY GAME. CASTALLA 1813.

The original plan for last Thursday's game was that I would host, with a VBCW skirmish using FUBAR. However, with Neil visiting from the UAE, four people would be too much for my cluttered hovel. Rick stepped up to the plate with a re creation of the Battle of Castalla from June 1813, played out on his 6 x 4 Hexxon II covered table.

This is a Command & Colors Napoleonics game. With there being 4 players, we allowed the sub general to roll a D3 and order that number of units after the C&C had allocated orders from the card. blue markers are the commander's ordered units, white the sub general's.

 The starting positions seen from behind the Spanish and Anglo-Scicilian positions. It can be seen that the main French force is massed on the Allies left flank. A hopeless position?

                                                A closer view of the French dispositions.

                                                  View from the objective: Castalla!
In the early phase of the battle Suchet (Aidan) was happy to let the French centre and left flanks attack the strong positions around Castalla. There were a few casualties on both sides.

The French heavy cavalry then attacked. they brushed aside the British light cavalry and overran the guns. It started to look bad for the allies (below).

But the cavalry had outrun it's supports and had to pull back. The infantry in the French centre now made their presence felt in trying to exploit the confusion caused by the cavalry attack (below).

 The attack on Castalla made some headway, but was rebuffed by some accurate musketry and a glorious charge by the Spanish cavalry. The French on the Allied left flank still have not moved to support their colleagues(below).

The pictures below show the result of the battle of attrition on the Allied right and centre and around Castalla. This brought the French close to their required number of victory banners. Now the French right flank moved forward.

 The loss of the Spanish cavalry was the straw that broke the camel's back. The French now had 6 banners to 4. They had won!. We allow the loser one full turn to try to get a draw. Below, the pictures show the desperate gambit that I employed to try to rescue a draw. The allied forces on the hill attacked, but, alas, did not destroy any units. Instead, the French destroyed another unit. The last picture shows the end state.

This was an enjoyable game. Neil & myself took the Allies and Aidan & Rick the French. The French perspective can be seen here http://www.ccnapoleonics.net/index.php?option=com_kunena&view=topic&catid=4&id=891&Itemid=56#1139 .

Four Films.

Here are some potted reviews of some of the films I have been in to see in the past couple of weeks.

The Purge. This film was set in a distopian USA in 2022. The New Founding Fathers ( Tea Party/NRA?) have assumed power and have reduced crime to 1% by having 'The Purge', a 12 hour period where any crime against anyone not in government will go unpunished.

The film is the story of one family's struggle against a marauding group, when the son lets their 'prey' in to their fortified home. The plot is transparent with the twist well sign posted. This is a brutally violent film where no one ends up holding the moral high ground. Enjoyable but predictable.

Byzantium. A vampire film with a difference. Mother and daughter have to move from home to home to avoid detection by some mysterious assailants. They move to a seaside hotel and life settles into a routine. Their safety is threatened when the daughter begins a relationship with a local boy.

The way that Vampires are created is very specific and complicated and not automatically evil. This is a very entertaining film with some different takes on vampirism. It does get get quite bloody in the lead up to the finale. A thoughtful ending: not really a twist, as it is the only logical ending. I really enjoyed this film.

The Ice Man. Based on a true story, this film tells the story of the rise of  hitman Richard Kuklinski and how he manages to balance his gruesome day job with a family life. A wonderful performance from Michael Shannon as the cold blooded killer who would do anything for his family. Not for the faint hearted. Well worth a watch.

After Earth. This is a family film. A film by the Smith/Pinkett family. I found it self indulgent and disappointing, despite some good concepts that were not fleshed out. I tried hard to enjoy it, but it just didn't do it for me. May well have gone straight to DVD if it were not for the stars!

Past the finishing post!

As I write this, my two weeks of leave have come to an end. Where did the time go? What did I manage to achieve?

The first week was mostly spent in finalising arrangements for a charity race night to raise funds for my mother's care home's minibus campaign. It was held at The Ashvale and raised £1,800 http://www.theashvale.co.uk/FundRaising/. I am glad that it's over and that it was a success. I can highly recommend the Ashvale: both for a good fish supper and if you are looking for a venue for a charity event.

I had no Wednesday game, but Aidan has got into Bolt Action! at the Aberdeen Wargames Club, and offered to put on an introductory game for Rick and myself. I took the Japanese and Rick the US Marines. It was not a competitive game and we managed to test out most of the rules. No pics, as I forgot my camera again. The attrition level of the game was high. The activation system, using dice to determine the order and type of action works. This will easily be incorporated into our Fubar games.

After recovering from the race night, the second week was a bit of a mixed bag. My old friend and wargaming opponent Neil, made the temporary change from expat to native as he came back to deal with some domestic matters. We had a chance to catch up and have a game or two. The wargaming scene in Abu Dhabi is rather sparce, so Neil was happy to take part in a game of Combat Commander : Pacific on Wednesday and join our Thursday group for a game and a reunion.

This, and the films I have seen, will be separate posts.

                                                                           Thursday teaser.

Priorities,

I have been guilty of  a lack of focus in my gaming (haven't we all?) for years. During last Thursday's game I had an idea of how to prioritise my projects.

Hopefully, this is one of the only times I will mention my work. My employer has been introducing their version of Lean working processes. Part of the induction process involves a role play, using Sticklebricks, to demonstrate how gradual changes to processes and visual management can improve efficiency. I enjoyed the excercise.

My idea was to use visual management, to keep me focused, by setting out a list of three projects and concentrating on these till completion. The first three projects will be:

28mm Interwar/VBCW; 28mm Sci Fi and 15/20mm early WW2 project.

My thinking is influenced by the fact that we are gaming 28mm Sci Fi using Fubar rules already and my recent VBCW purchase from Carronade is a core that can be built on, using figures that I already own, to game 1930's games using Fubar. The early  WW2 project will use a combination of 15mm to fight larger battles and 20mm for skirmish games. Once again, I already own enough figures to game this period.

My fellow gamers can be trusted to keep me on the straight and narrow.

I will keep you updated.

No rest for the wicked!

Pressure of work and domestics have curtailed my usual gaming week. I was not able to get to the games night on Wednesday. This was a real blow as one of our former Wednesdayites, Mike,  had briefly escaped his exile in Durham. I did manage to see him for a few minutes today at our FLGS, Plan 9,  which is just around the corner from my work.

Thursday was restricted to a last minute game of Combat Commander Pacific: a repeat of the Operation Cherry Blossom Scenario D, with the sides reversed from two weeks ago.

                                The perfect combination of a place of work and wargaming!

Alas, although I will be on leave for the next two weeks, the first week I will be involved in organising a charity event to raise funds for a minibus for my mother's care home. Time to myself will be at a premium!

Thursday Game: Experimental Fubar.

My Thursday group have been searching for a common set of rules to use with our figure games. We have been using FUBAR for several periods. A few weeks ago, Rick ran a game using FUBAR principles, Hexon and Warmaster figures. There were difficulties with the melee/close combat system, so after some tweaking, this was another test game. I took th Mountain Indian army facing Aidan's Macedonian.

The initial setup and a general's eye view. I don't intend giving a blow by blow account, but will add some photos for flavour.

Early moves. My intention was to draw the Macedonians into my centre, where I could use my archers to disrupt the pikes enough to unleash my elephants. Note the dice, these are important. One dice per unit was rolled (different colours for different classes of unit). Dice that exceeded the activation number were allocated as desired. This meant that there was some restriction to the godlike ability of players to move as they desire each turn. Also dice were lost as units took losses, making an army less flexible and adding morale, after a fashion.

A General's eye view of the Macedonian attack.

First clash: an overview of the combat. We were using DBA factors for combat. The Macedonian attack was repelled. The hill on the Indian left was attacked. After a hard fight, the Indians were forced off the hill and fell back towards the centre.

 

The Macedonians rushed forward and finally beat the Indians quite easily!

All in all, an interesting game and a valuable test of the rules. We will discuss the outcome and, no doubt, agree some changes.

Wednesday Night 40K Bash.

Our Wednesday game this week was David's Tau versus Del's Eldar. The scenario rolled up was exactly the same as last week's : capture and control, with spearhead deployment.

The initial deployment. The Tau are defending the Derrick end of the table. The derrick is available from http://www.fenrisgames.com/news.html .

Early turns. The Kroot are devastated in a firefight.

The Howling Banshees and Wraithguard destroy the remaining Kroot and a Fire Warrior squad.

A flank attack by Piranhas hit the Eldar hard. Out of shot, the Eldar Striking Scorpions have deep struck into the rear of the Tau deployment zone, taking out the Hammerhead and the Fire Warriors squad at the derrick.

After dispatching the Piranhas, the remaining Wraithguard head to support the Striking Scorpions, who are under attack from the Tau commander. The centre of the table is pretty empty of figures now.

 

The Crisis Battlesuits sneak towards the Guardians, to try to deny the objective to the Eldar.

This result, for the Tau commander trying to hit the Striking Scorpions, sums up David's dice throwing for the night!

The clash between the Crisis Suits and the Guardians. And the aftermath! This meant the game ended in a draw because neither side had troops, which were the counting units for holding the objectives.

The end state. Two Wraithguard and the Farseer are all that remain of a 1000pt Eldar force. One Krootox, the commander and three Crisis Suits are all that remain of the Tau. A very bloody and hard fought draw.

Hopefully the next game will be my Necrons against the Tau.