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



All my rule sets are freely downloadable from our club website's Downloads page





If you need to contact me my E-Mail address is richardbradley5@gmail.com







Friday 31 December 2010

A very Happy New Year to all our readers!


 Greetings!


Well, 2010 is almost over - at least in England! - Thats the end of the Naught-ees! - 2013 will be the beginning of the Teen-ees, then the Twenties, Thirties et al.
This leaves the problem of what to classify 2011 and 2012?
My thought is that perhaps they should be the one-tees, or (with the Tories alliance in power) possibly the Want-ees!!!

What do you think?

Well, Whatever - Make it a good New Year - and endeavour to be happy in it!

(One thing I have learned in my years is that all people really want out of life is to BE HAPPY - and have the likelyhood of being reasonably happy for the foreseeable future.
Of course, this means different things to different people, and we all have different conditions to meet to achieve said happiness!)


(Pics courtesy of Icanhazcheezeburger.com)
Ciao!

Sunday 26 December 2010

Colonial pacification game!


Colonial skirmish game (18th December 2010)

Situation:

The British force, consisting of a small group of Sikh regular infantry, a patrol sized force of British cavalry and some Askaris, are approaching a low valley, where dissident locals are thought to be gathering their forces to resist our benificent rule.
The natives are deployed hidden, represented by a random mix of dummy and real counters.

The aim of the British force is to ascertain the threat posed by the locals in this region and if possible to arrest any dissidents found. (Lexington all over again???!).



The Battle:

The British formed up with the Askaris on the left, attempting to clear some woods and rough ground.


The Sikhs formed in the centre, where they were to advance via a small ridge to their front.


On the right, The Cavalry moved off in line to attempt to outflank any natives defending the valley.


The Cavalry decided to split into two groups of five, and moved through and round a copse only to be confronted by a large group of natives further back.


The Cavalry drew their carbines and wounded two natives before having their officer and one of his men killed by accurate native archery.



The remaining cavalrymen charged the archers, but lost another man in beating them.


...despite receiving fire support from their comrades in the wood.
The spearmen behind the archers then charged, and chased the two remaining horsemen off.



In the centre, the Sikhs advanced over the ridge to be confronted by over seventy natives in its lee, including some archers.The Natives were surprised and suffered casualties from the Sikhs point blank firing.



Soon however, the natives recovered and began to surge up the ridge against the Sikhs, who seemed sure to be overrun.




The archers closest to the Sikh fled, allowing the spearmen to attack the Sikhs.



The Sikhs began to take casualties from this attack, and were in danger of being outflanked by more natives moving round their right flank.




However, the surviving other half of the cavalry appeared in their rear and fired into the outflanking natives.




...Before charging them...

Half the natives were soon fleeing from the Sikhs, who amazingly had survived the spear onslaught, which allowed them to support the cavalry.



The rest of the natives fled, but they and some more archers futher up the valley managed to take a toll of the rashly pursuing cavalry!




So what of the Askaris on the British left?

They advanced and were confronted by a force of natives in rough ground.


These natives initally stood, but unable to reply to the Askaris accurate fire were soon forced to attack.



This attack was doomed to failure and all but wiped out by the massed muskets of the Askaris!
The survivors fled back to the rough ground and were soon routed out by the fierce auxilliaries.


With their forces in flight, the natives scattered into the approaching gloom of evening.
However, the British losses, particularily amongst the cavalry and Sikhs, had made this a costly victory!


Players: Ian - Sikhs
             Lawrence and Phil - Askaris
             Me - Cavalry

Figures - Lawrences (Unknown manufacturer)

Rules: Our own - see http://tynesidewargames.co.uk/downloads.html   for free download!

To see our previous game visit: http://blog.tynesidewargames.co.uk/2010/05/colonial-skirmish-game-8th-may-2010.html

Saturday 20 November 2010

How to use the Wings of War Solo rules!

I have been asked to show how my solo system works for WofW!

Until the enemy comes within 24" of your sides aircraft, they just move a series of fast straight manoeuvres. I can command my aircraft as I wish...



Each turn thereafter, I place my manoeuvre cards as normal.

Then I throw a D6 (or flip a coin!) for each solo run aircraft....


Typical! - a 1! - though in this case its not bad!

and place the game template around the models base...


...then see in which numbered sector the nearest hostile model is in, then cross reference the sector with the die roll on the Manoeuvre card....


..and place the relevant 3 Manoeuvre cards as normal on the play card.


..and play the three moves as in an opposed game as normal!

And if you are lucky....

Dakka-dakka-dakka!

Yay!

Back for char, what?


(Incidentally, I normally repaint all my models- the SE5a is Rhys-Davies' and the Fokker DR1 is Werner Voss')

Saturday 13 November 2010

Einar strikes back!

Situation:

This was a follow up game to our last Viking bash http://blog.tynesidewargames.co.uk/2010/06/viking-game-29th-june-2010.html

The Battle:

Once again Gunnar the aggreived sought vengeance through combat with Einar Scumbagga. Once again Einar took up a position behind a waterway, but unlike the river in the last battle this was a mere stream.



Both forces split into two wings and advanced...
















Einars forces, with nothing to gain from an attack, remained behind the stream and positioned themselves on 2 small hills to await Gunnars attack.

Gunnars 2 forces moved to attack across two fords...


Gunnar himself remained in the centre between the two wings, supperted by six archers.



The archers attached to both sides began a long range arrow fight, and despite the wind being against them, the greater number of Gunnars archers began to tell. In time all Einars archers on the hill were dead,but not before their courageous stand  caused two fatalities and several injuries on their advancing enemies.






Another small party of Einars archers belatedly advanced to shoot from behind cover on the stream edge, but had little effect before they were charged and scattered by Gunnars men charging across the ford.




On the left - Gunnars spearmen had followed a track to the second ford, some of Einars men moving to guard the ford rapidly falling back to their hill rather than face this overwhelming force. They began to form a line facing their threatened flank.






 
The spearmen crossed the stream ford and spread out to attack the hill facing them in concert with some swordsmen on their right.



At this point Einars troops began to counterattack - on the left a group of spearmen on the second hill moved down to attach Gunnars right wing crossing the ford, though they had to suffer shooting from Gunnars Javelinmen and archers





In the centre, Einars mercenary saxon spearmen attacked the Viking swordsmen who had attacked their archers, this fight mushroomed as more troops joined in.



The spearmen Gunnar had sent round via the second ford now attacked Einars men on the hill, killing one on contact, but Einars men rapidly reformed their line and began to resist.



 Sadly, the sun began to set before any more progress could be made. Einar, leading from the rear, managed to slip away again. Though he had lost a few more men than Gunnars force, he was holding his own and managed to withdraw safely into the autumn gloom...



 (Einar - Phil, Gunnar - Richard and Ian)
(Rules - our own)