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Welcome to the Blog of a Skirmish wargamer! I hope you enjoy reading it!



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Saturday 2 December 2023

Evening patrol

 Today, unsure as to the number of players we had coming, we decided to do |Wings of Glory WW1 again, always a favourite of ours.

As usual, we took the Allies against the Central Powers (run by my solo rules, of course)

Our enemy, 3 Fokker DV's and An Albatros DVa...

...deployed in line abreast.
Opposite them we had 3 Camels, run by Roderick, his son Aloysius, and Lawrence. Phil had a Sopwith Snipe, and I had my favourite Nieuport 17.
We closed, already my Nieuport was getting left behind!
Lawrence's Camel was taking his usual wide outflank!
There was some confusion between two Fokkers as they crossed in front of each other!
Phil and me combined fire against the Yellow plane with good effect, Roderick and 
Aloysius engaged on the far side of the table, with mixed results!
Lawrence's outflank got a good hit on the pink tailed Fokker.
Aloysius and I 'Immelmanned', he scored heavily on a Fokker, my fire was ineffective.
We ploughed through and Lawerence's Camel hit the White Fokker (Göring), while my guns again did nothing!
On the far side, Roderick got hit by the dreaded 'Bang' card, while a Fokker fell to Aloysius! - not bad for his first game!
Phil was unlucky, he went nose to nose with 'Pink Tail' and couldn't shoot back as a Camel was in the way!
Aloysius now wrestled with the Yellow Fokker, fortunately the Albatros was badly out of position.
Phil was rounding on Göring.
The wayward Albatros was turning to rejoin the fight!
Lawrence and I were left behind by the Yellow Fokker making a sudden turn.
The Albatros was making heavy weather trying to rejoin the fight!
Phil and Aloysius were being split up by the milling Fokkers.
Lawrence and I ignored the approaching Albatros to help.
Phil was getting chased by the Yellow Fokker, and was fairly lucky not to get more than minor damage.
He Immelmanned and fired back, but his guns jammed!
Lawrence and I returned.
Lawrence could shoot as badly as I!!!
We all turned into one big Fur-ball, all fired, and all missed!
It got so congested we replaced planes with their bases for a turn!!!
The Fokkers seemed to be getting the upper hand for a couple of turns.
Göring caught me for 3 damage, I was getting stuck between him and the Yellow Fokker!
Laurence tried to help, and did a lot of damage, but his guns jammed! 
No matter, the Fokker was down in flames!
Aloysius got a good shot on Pink Tail, I missed as ever, and I took 3 more damage for my trouble!
I evaded Pink Tail...
...and was soon face to face with the Albatros, which had been chasing the moving dogfight.
Pink Tail had Immelmanned and caught me between him and the Albatros. I tried to evade but was too slow, but I was lucky!
Escaping, I got a deflection shot on Göring, but just jammed my guns!
Aloysius was lucky again, catching the Albatros unawares!
We were then separated just as suddenly as we had joined,
Aloysius was chasing Pink Tail, having guessed the way he would turn.
Pink Tail evaded with a sharp turn.
Phil, with Lawrence in support, chased the Albatros.
Both Immelmanned and now the Albatros had the advantage, though Lawrence was in a good position to help!
Lawrence crossed bases with the Albatros, but couldn't save Phil from heavy damage.
Unable to turn left, I had to turn to face Göring, but took some damage, still, I had time to clear my guns!
My next sharp turn brought me into a good shooting position on the Albatros, and I actually hit it!
Unfortunately, Phil's evasive turn blocked any further help I could give him!
I stayed on the Albatros' tail though.
On the far side, the nippy Snipe caught Pink Tail...
...It had a lot of damage already so spiraled to the earth. 

With half of their force gone, Göring and the Albatros made their way home to safety. Another great day for the RFC/RAF!


Saturday 18 November 2023

Improve, and repeat!

 Today, we returned to Galleys and Galleons - with some improvements! - The ship stats were more balanced, and the fleet sizes were half of the last game!!!

So, how would the game play this time as we were repeating the scenario? (The last game is at this LINK)

Lawrence was commanding six East Indiamen, basically heavily armed merchantmen.

Phil was using a Xebec and two galleys.
I had the same.
Lawrence had provided his nice little islands again!...
...and the port, which the British had to bypass and exit in the table corner.
Gotta love this Bastion!
Lawrence set up in two columns, each providing mutual defence.
Phil was becalmed, having to use his sweeps, so his Galleys surged ahead!
The Indiamen had favourable wind, so moved quickly.
I got problems with activation again, one Galley stopped dead, and my Xebec nearly ran into the back of the other, which I had managed to get out of the way...just!
Phil was having similar problems , though angling his Xebec meant it was making headway.
Phil was in a good position to intercept the Indiamen. 
I managed to co-ordinate a galley with my Xebec to run the gauntlet of fire and attack the British rear.
My failure to activate my last Galley meant only Phil's Xebec moved.
An Indiaman fired a broadside at my galley, but it missed, just!
Now we would have a chase on!
My Xebec fired ineffectively...but the Indiaman damaged my ship in return! 
Phil's Xebec crossed the 'T' of the Indiamen but his fire failed too.
My Galleys were struggling to keep up, activation failures meant the British were pulling away from them.
A Traffic jam beckoned!
Phil's Galleys were struggling to keep up too!
One Merchantman smashed into the blocking Xebec, 2 others had to swerve to avoid the pile up!
Phil's Xebec gallantly grappled and boarded the Indiaman but were soundly trounced, and combined with supporting fire hitting the Ottoman, the Xebec succumbed and was lost!
All our Galleys were becalmed again! - except one of Phil's!!!
My Xebec attempted a charge to board the rearmost merchantman but a 1 on my damage die meant they got 'confused' and sailed out of the battle!!!!
An activation failure meant one of the Indiamen wrecked itself on the harbour wall!
Phil's Galley couldn't keep up with the last merchantman, which made its escape.
A narrow win for the Ottomans!
We found the activation frustrating again, so next time we are taking a rule from Oathmark (Which we haven't played yet --until I finish painting my Dwarves!) - and we are going to allow ships which fail activation to do a simple, non aggressive action instead, and the activation will not switch to the other side unit all one side's ships have dice to move.