Monday - DBM - Fatimid Egyptian v Dynastic Berber. In fact there were Berbers on both sides! A tense game that 'went down to the wire'. On our right flank Andy attacked the enemy Lh with Lh, Bw & Cv. The result was inevitable. In the centre my Frankish ally was loosing Knights' at a rate of knots' but hung on to the bitter end. On my left flank nothing much happened.
Altogether an undeserved 6:4 win for our side (Fatimids). With a little more dice luck Chris would have smashed the Franks.
On the other tables - a 5-handed Saga game, WW2 in 6mm and Wings of War (or whatever it is called now). Plenty of variety this time around.
Thursday - DBA-RRR - trying to put together an up-to-date set of rules using DBA v2.2+ and DBA-RRR v1.21. A time-consuming exercise which I have finished today (but it needs proof reading). Now working on a QRS.
Haven't managed to finish either of my new armies - Dutch Rebellion & Wallachian. Such is the pressure of trying to balance wargaming, folk dance calling and domesticity. It's a good job that I'm not still working.
Thursday, 17 September 2015
Thursday, 10 September 2015
Monday - DBM - opening game of new round - Late Macedonians v Late Carthaginians. Sneaky use of Elephant expendables - had they got into the pike blocks it could have been disasterous. Lack of time prevented this battle from being anything but a draw..
On the other tables - Square Bashing again - Turks v French; Sci-Fi again - rules still not right though (Andrew & Tim still experimenting).
Wednesday - finished reading Volume One - so here's a review:
"The first Colonial Soldiers - a survey of British overseas territories and their garrisons, 1650-1714"
Volume 1: the British Isles, Europe, Asia and Africa.
by Wienand Drenth & Jonathon Riley
Published by Drenth Publishing
ISBN 978-90-818887-2-1
http://www.drenthpublishing.nl
Well first of it is a survey so there are plenty of lists of officers, garrisons and artillery numbers. For the most part I only skimmed through these preferring the notes and secondary text.
1) Around Britain - the Channel Isles, Isle of Man, Dunkirk & Mardyck, Tangier, Gibraltar & Minorca. The major theme here is religious intolerance - Catholics v Protestants. Erratic 're-balancing' of the garrisons to match the flavour of the month or latest political manouvreing did not enhance esprit de corps.
There was even an 'albatros' for Charles II:
"Article III ceded the city and castle of Tangier to the Crown of England - not the nation or its parliament - thus saddling Charles's privy purse with costs that were to prove near-ruinous over the next twenty years." [p103 para 1]
2) West Africa and East Asia
What stood out here was just how ephemeral some of these footholds were. The most common threats to their existence being - other European colonial powers (notably Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish), native opposition, local climate and commercial rivalry.
"Goree is a small island before the coast of present-day Dakar, Senegal." [p205 para 1]
1444 - discovered by Portuguese
1617 to approximately 1664 - seized by the Dutch
"by a later date" to 1664 - captured and occupied by the English
1664 to 1667 - Dutch rule restored
1677 to 1678 - occupied by the French
1678 - ceded to France by the Treaty of Nijmegan
1693 - brief British occupation
1693 - back into Frnch hands.
The local population must have been in some confusion - "who do we belong to this week?".
3) Conclusions
There are no uniform plates or details - this book is about how these colonies came into existence and their trials and tribulations. However as a source for potential wargaming scenarios it is a treasure trove. Well worth a read
I have just started on volume 2.1 New England & the Middle Colonies.........so watch this space.
On the other tables - Square Bashing again - Turks v French; Sci-Fi again - rules still not right though (Andrew & Tim still experimenting).
Wednesday - finished reading Volume One - so here's a review:
"The first Colonial Soldiers - a survey of British overseas territories and their garrisons, 1650-1714"
Volume 1: the British Isles, Europe, Asia and Africa.
by Wienand Drenth & Jonathon Riley
Published by Drenth Publishing
ISBN 978-90-818887-2-1
http://www.drenthpublishing.nl
Well first of it is a survey so there are plenty of lists of officers, garrisons and artillery numbers. For the most part I only skimmed through these preferring the notes and secondary text.
1) Around Britain - the Channel Isles, Isle of Man, Dunkirk & Mardyck, Tangier, Gibraltar & Minorca. The major theme here is religious intolerance - Catholics v Protestants. Erratic 're-balancing' of the garrisons to match the flavour of the month or latest political manouvreing did not enhance esprit de corps.
There was even an 'albatros' for Charles II:
"Article III ceded the city and castle of Tangier to the Crown of England - not the nation or its parliament - thus saddling Charles's privy purse with costs that were to prove near-ruinous over the next twenty years." [p103 para 1]
2) West Africa and East Asia
What stood out here was just how ephemeral some of these footholds were. The most common threats to their existence being - other European colonial powers (notably Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish), native opposition, local climate and commercial rivalry.
"Goree is a small island before the coast of present-day Dakar, Senegal." [p205 para 1]
1444 - discovered by Portuguese
1617 to approximately 1664 - seized by the Dutch
"by a later date" to 1664 - captured and occupied by the English
1664 to 1667 - Dutch rule restored
1677 to 1678 - occupied by the French
1678 - ceded to France by the Treaty of Nijmegan
1693 - brief British occupation
1693 - back into Frnch hands.
The local population must have been in some confusion - "who do we belong to this week?".
3) Conclusions
There are no uniform plates or details - this book is about how these colonies came into existence and their trials and tribulations. However as a source for potential wargaming scenarios it is a treasure trove. Well worth a read
I have just started on volume 2.1 New England & the Middle Colonies.........so watch this space.
Thursday, 3 September 2015
Not Painting Those Wagons
Monday - DBM - Comnenan Byzantine v Hussites
Andy's right wing advanced four WWg forward and a bunch of Bd(O). My Lh(S) skirmished against the WWg whilst Chris attacked his Bd(O). Eventually the Blades took enough casualties to break.
At the other end of the table Andy was pummeling a flank attack and only the dice gods saved Chris from a rout. A 6-4 win to the Byzantines.
Andrew was running a Sci-Fi / Future game using some new rules. Seemed to be spending quite a lot of time with their heads buried in the booklets.
The 'usual suspects' were 'Square Bashing' - a set of rules for the inter-war period. These are becoming quite popular and more time is being spent actually playing. This week it was Turks v Anglo-Australian forces in Mesopotamia.
Otherwise.......
On the personal front I'm now another year older.
More heavy rain on Tuesday but not on the 'biblical' scale of last week.
Reading and painting progressing at the 'snail olympics'.
Andy's right wing advanced four WWg forward and a bunch of Bd(O). My Lh(S) skirmished against the WWg whilst Chris attacked his Bd(O). Eventually the Blades took enough casualties to break.
At the other end of the table Andy was pummeling a flank attack and only the dice gods saved Chris from a rout. A 6-4 win to the Byzantines.
Andrew was running a Sci-Fi / Future game using some new rules. Seemed to be spending quite a lot of time with their heads buried in the booklets.
The 'usual suspects' were 'Square Bashing' - a set of rules for the inter-war period. These are becoming quite popular and more time is being spent actually playing. This week it was Turks v Anglo-Australian forces in Mesopotamia.
Otherwise.......
On the personal front I'm now another year older.
More heavy rain on Tuesday but not on the 'biblical' scale of last week.
Reading and painting progressing at the 'snail olympics'.
Thursday, 27 August 2015
On a Hiding to Nothing
Saturday (22nd) - Cloudburst - large puddle in the kitchen and the water started to over-top the front door sill. I was lucky as one of my near neighbours had raw sewage flowing through his garden.
Monday (24th) - DBM scrap between Al's Later Crusaders and my Later Muslim Indians.
My able SG (Chris) did reasonably well in the centre and right flank. The Reg Bd(F) lost a few bases but caused quite a bit of damage in the process.
On the left flank yours truly had the C-in-C's command of Reg Cv(S) supported by Irr Bw(I) and a couple of Lh(O). My opposition didn't look too bad but then up popped some Reg Kn(S). I fared badly and blamed the match-up. I also thought that my Bw(I) might have done better.
Working out the tables, and allowing for 'superior' and 'inferior' status (plus 'quick kills') the results were not as I expected.
Bw(I) v Kn(S) = 58.33% Bw deaths / 27.78% Kn / 13.89% draws
Cv(S) v Kn(S) = 27.78% Cv deaths / 27.78% Kn / 44.44% draws
So, in theory, I had an equal chance! That's not accounting for the dice gods of course. Oh well - it's only a game!
Tuesday (25th) - taking cat to the vets - 6 teeth removed - £220 - eeeeeeek!
Wednesday (26th) - calling at Barnsley U3A Kitchen carpet finally drying out.
The trials and tribulations of a wargamer huh!
Thursday, 20 August 2015
Something to Show For It.....
For the first time of regular posting I have some pictures (scroll down).
Saturday - club meeting with a World War 2 game going on. Not my 'cup of tea' so I turned up around midday to do some stocktaking. Ended up doing precious little of that but did carry out a thorough tidy-up.
There was also a 'book-swap' going on in the church. I managed to pick up a Christian Jacq title that I didn't have in my collection - "Ramses: The Lady of Abu Simbel".
Monday - no club meet. I had planned to make my annual visit to the Wakefield Games club but my car had other ideas. The steering wheel was shaking when I applied the brakes. Booked in on Wednesday at the garage.
Wednesday - started reading this book:
I get the feeling that it's going to take a while - will review it properly in the fullness of time.
Thursday - photographed some figures that I finished the previous day
On the right - one more shot block for my European colonials. They will pass for Spanish, Portuguese, English or Dutch forces for my Irregular Wars scraps.
Thursday, 13 August 2015
Another Week Gone By
...and this time it really is Thursday (afternoon).
Monday - Irregular Wars - the first time played against a live opponent. Chris won convincingly with his Mesoamericans (versus my Conquistadores).
My crossbow & shot proved to be very weak in melee (1) and the artillery even worse (-1). The knights, on the other hand, were unkillable. 'Natives' out of command range were skittish and prone to run away. Suit-wearers & cuachic were made of a much harder material.
Setting up went more smoothly than expected although I pre-set the terrain but offered the choice of starting side to my opponent. Cards were drawn (but were largely forgotten about). Dicing for army composition gave the 'natives' plenty of troops and the Spanish precious few.
We soon fell into the rhythm of Initiative - Shooting - Movement - Melee. I'm sure we missed a lot of things in our 2 hours of play but there you go! Finding references in the rules section was far from easy (not happy with the layout/format). Didn't find the QRs very helpful either.
Looks like I am going to have to revise the rules layout. So far I have split them into sections - set up, main, campaigns, chance cards and QRs. Now I need to simplify and clarify.
An unforseen difficulty was that my opponent could not remember which figures represented what (he also had trouble with the facing of same). I will have to come up with some way of marking and/or numbering each base. Initial thoughts are for a 'rock' at the back of each base with a number painted on. Needs some thought.
All in all it was a useful exercise and thanks to Chris for indulging me.
Monday - Irregular Wars - the first time played against a live opponent. Chris won convincingly with his Mesoamericans (versus my Conquistadores).
My crossbow & shot proved to be very weak in melee (1) and the artillery even worse (-1). The knights, on the other hand, were unkillable. 'Natives' out of command range were skittish and prone to run away. Suit-wearers & cuachic were made of a much harder material.
Setting up went more smoothly than expected although I pre-set the terrain but offered the choice of starting side to my opponent. Cards were drawn (but were largely forgotten about). Dicing for army composition gave the 'natives' plenty of troops and the Spanish precious few.
We soon fell into the rhythm of Initiative - Shooting - Movement - Melee. I'm sure we missed a lot of things in our 2 hours of play but there you go! Finding references in the rules section was far from easy (not happy with the layout/format). Didn't find the QRs very helpful either.
Looks like I am going to have to revise the rules layout. So far I have split them into sections - set up, main, campaigns, chance cards and QRs. Now I need to simplify and clarify.
An unforseen difficulty was that my opponent could not remember which figures represented what (he also had trouble with the facing of same). I will have to come up with some way of marking and/or numbering each base. Initial thoughts are for a 'rock' at the back of each base with a number painted on. Needs some thought.
All in all it was a useful exercise and thanks to Chris for indulging me.
Thursday, 6 August 2015
Weakly Posting
One of my readers suggested that I post every week. I decided upon Thursdays. Well it's 0049 Friday but that's close enough:
Monday - DBM - Chris put up Fanatic Berber versus Andy's Western Sudanese. A slow business with both sides playing cagey. Chris was waiting for his Spanish flank march to arrive (he's still waiting). The game ended in a draw with the Berbers being close to a broken command.
Tuesday - turned out my Renaissance boxes to see what forces I could field for" Irregular Wars - Conflict at the World's End". Looks like I have enough for an 'Aztec' type army or a Mayan one. The Europeans can be fielded as Conquistadores, Colonial Spanish or Colonial Portuguese. A few more bases of general-purpose 'natives' would be useful so I based up & flocked some slingers & warriors.
Wednesday - woken up at an ungodly hour so decided to get my computers sorted out. A whole day to install Win7. Reminded me of a poem called "Reinstalling Windows" by Les Barker.
Thursday - so I got on with my painting didn't I? Had a surprise visit from a friend with accompanying mutt. Spent the day walking around the local reservoir and socialising. The best laid plans............
Monday - DBM - Chris put up Fanatic Berber versus Andy's Western Sudanese. A slow business with both sides playing cagey. Chris was waiting for his Spanish flank march to arrive (he's still waiting). The game ended in a draw with the Berbers being close to a broken command.
Tuesday - turned out my Renaissance boxes to see what forces I could field for" Irregular Wars - Conflict at the World's End". Looks like I have enough for an 'Aztec' type army or a Mayan one. The Europeans can be fielded as Conquistadores, Colonial Spanish or Colonial Portuguese. A few more bases of general-purpose 'natives' would be useful so I based up & flocked some slingers & warriors.
Wednesday - woken up at an ungodly hour so decided to get my computers sorted out. A whole day to install Win7. Reminded me of a poem called "Reinstalling Windows" by Les Barker.
Thursday - so I got on with my painting didn't I? Had a surprise visit from a friend with accompanying mutt. Spent the day walking around the local reservoir and socialising. The best laid plans............
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