IHMN: BATTLE FOR THE ATTIC.

My Scotland Yard company took on Del's Star Theatre Players. 

The scenario was 'King of the Hill'. The 'hill' in this case was a great looking house, intended for Morheim, that David had put together.

           My coppers make their way onto the table. Where is the Great Detective?

                                   

                                    The Players make their way towards the target.

 The Good Doctor and a Special Branch plod make it into the building and head for the attic.

                  One of the Players attacks and disrupts the copper's supporting units.

  A view of the combat in the house.

 Most of the coppers had gone round the back of the building to come in the back door, so that allowed the Players to concentrate their forces, The Good Doctor fell early. One by one the other coppers were picked off.

After losing all but three of my coppers, and only taking down two Stage Hands, I conceded, as Del was well ahead on VPs.

Even though I lost this game, it was enjoyable. Our nrrative style of gaming helps to create atmosphere. One thing I should mention: the Great Detective was involved in the game. He has aquired the Master Of Disguise talent and was one of my Special Branch plods. He did not get an opportunity to reveal himself (ooh, er, missus!) to his advantage.

EAGLES!

No game this Thursday as I was at a funeral.

Last week, thanks to upheaval caused by BT trying to sort out a phone fault (now fixed!), I went with a game with an easy set up. This is a blast from the past: Eagles, the Napoleonic card game by Columbia Games (similar to the Dixie series). 

For the first game, we tried the Quatre Bras scenario. Rick's French won this game quickly. We then changed sides. Rick's British won so quickly that I had no time for a photo!

The second scenario was Ligny. These are the initial deployments.

The early game was defined by artillery duels.

The Prussians attack.

The French fight back.

A final attack overwhelms the French flank. Victory came soon after this photo was taken.

 The first couple of games went so quickly that we thought we were playing the game wrong: it didn't have the back and forth and didn't last as long as we remembered. The third game played like the games that we remembered from back in the day. It lasted for an hour.

A good game that is a useful standby for a short notice game.

SKELP! 2014.

On Saturday, 18 October, I made the annual trip to Forfar for Skelp! 2014.

                                               Above are some general views of the hall.

Kirriemuir Wargames Club put on a display game showing a clash between Thracians and a Macedonian force sent to extract tribute.

Shades of the old 'Caesars Gate' playset by Airfix!

 This demonstration game, by The Iron Brigade, shows a Caledone attack against a Roman fort.

Glasgow Games Group: Warzone participation.

RAF Leuchars Veterans: Operation Chastise, participation game. A successful attack on the dam!

The successful crew get their wings from Jed.

 Falkirk And District Wargames Club put on a display game of  a Viking raid using SAGA rules.

 The Geek Room ran a demo game of X-Wing in the morning and a participation game in the afternoon.

Dropzone Commander demo game.

Chain of Command demo game by Too Fat Lardies. 

I was down with David Drage and his son. After dropping off our stuff for the bring and buy and the painting competition  we did the usual tour of the traders. Crooked Dice were the first stop. As well as planned buying, we got a glimpse of their latest licence. More after Targe! After doing the rounds of Dave Thomas, Highlander Games and Colonel Bills, we had our first go at the Leuchars Veterans participation game, which had as it's theme the Dambusters raid. I will cover our attempts in a separate post.

The bring and buy was disappointing; there was not a great selection of offerings to start off with, and not much new throughout the day. Having said that, I sold all that I had put up for sale.

Skelp! is a small show, and we normally do not stay more than four hours. As David had entered the painting competitions, we waited for the results and also the raffle. This was productive. David won a trophy and came second in another category. i will cover this in another post.

For once, I did not buy anything from the bring and buy, but I did manage to bag a bargain from one of the traders, who was selling some painted  28mm figures.

Another enjoyable day out. Only 18 days to Targe!

THURSDAY ON WEDNESDAY: DBA 2.2.

A bit of a change this week. My normal Wednesday gaming group was cancelled because David had visitors. Rick was unavailable for our normal Thursday game, so we moved to Wednesday.

To make up for the lack of preparation time, Rick went for DBA 2.2, which we had not played for a while, although we have had a few games of Hodes of The Things, in the recent past.

It also gave us a chance to dust off our 15mm armies, which we also use for Commands & Colors.

 

The first battle was my Norse Irish against Rick's Later Saxons.  

The armies arrayed. Seen from behind my Norse Irish, Rick has gone for a concentrated smaller front.

The Saxons move quickly forward. Norse Irish light forces.

Saxon light horse destroy a unit of Norse Irish psiloi.

 

The light horse face a unit of auxila.

The armies close.

First clash. Rick lines up the units for combat. The Saxon hordes are still behind the battle line. The Norse Irish nobles are held in reserve.

The battle lines clash. The lighter auxila are pushed back, but destroy a saxon unit.

The heavier Saxon forces start to take toll on the auxila.



The marauding light horse dispatch a unit of auxila, my fourth loss, to give the Saxons the victory.



The second battle was my Hindu Indian taking on Rick's Sung Chinese.

The armies arrayed.

 



My psiloi, cavalry and bows rush for the hill 



A unit of my psiloi is destroyed after a foolhardy attack on bows.

My bows act as a screen for and attempt to shoot in an attack by my Elephants.

One of my bows is lost in a duel with the Chinese artillery and crossbows.

The combat on the hill intensifies.

 

In the cavalry battle, a unit of Indian cavalry is destroyed.

A general view of the battlefield.

 

The elephants are almost in action on the left flank..



In the battle on the hill, a unit of Indian bows is destroyed by Chinese spears. Victory to Rick's Chinese

 

 

 

 

 

Both games were close and tense. We managed to get both games played in little over two hours. It was a fine change of pace and very quick to set up and put away.

 

Some food for thought, methinks!