Welcome!

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







Saturday, 4 October 2025

Carthago problema est!

 Today with storm Amy battering the UK, I was freed from lugging lots of figures etc into town and Lawrence (with the help of Phil's car) brought the game down!

We did Punic war Midgard again, accordingly (we do love our Midgard!)

I was with Lawrence, and we got the Romans, while Phil and Tony took the Carthaginians, who defended.

The Carthaginians got a bad Omens result, lost 2 Reputation, but got a 'Today we Fight to Win' extra!

The table. Romans nearside!

I was given all our Cavalry, and took 2 units of Velites to support them.
I took 2 units of Hastati, and 2 of Principes in a second command.
Lawrence, our Consul, had all infantry, 2 units of Hastati, Principes and Triarii...
... and a further 2 Velite units.
Tony, opposite me, had 2 units of Medium cavalry and seemed to be detaching a supporting unit of Numidians towards their right.
Tony had a strong force of African Spearmen, Spanish Scutarii in a second line.
Phil had the Elephants (again! - we really should start calling him The Elephant Man!) and the Gauls, the Elephants were screened by Balearic slingers.
We began with an infantry advance.

The Punics responded by attacking Lawrences Veles with the Slingers.
The Numidians were nearly at the right.
Tony was a little concerned to attack at first, leading with his Numidians.
The Balearics, with some great dicing and a Hero, destroyed one Velite unit in short order...
 ...and drove the other into the wood.
My Velites seized the wood on my wing.
On Lawrence's wing the massed Carthaginian light force closed in for the kill!
Tony's Numidians drove my Velites back in the Javelin exchange.
The main battle lines remained wary of closing.
I knew I would have to force the issue on my wing with Lawrence's wing collapsing.
I pushed my Velites forward again and Tony started eying up a cavalry charge!
Lawrence's last Velite unit was destroyed.
The Carthaginian Horse charged, my Allied Cavalry failed to counter charge! amazingly the Spanish Horse badly beat my Hastati!!!, at least my Roman horse, with support,  held!
The Carthaginian Infantry attacked, and again our dice let us down, the Roman Infantry should have done better ( I NEVER throw higher than 2 extra dice on my 'Today We Fight to Win' rolls!)
My Hastati being ridden down by the Spanish rallied and fought hard.
Lawrence's main line was also doing mostly poorly against the Gauls and Africans.
The victorious Punic right now moved to support their Elephants.
On my wing, my Velites flanked the Carthaginian Cavalry and routed them!
The Spanish routed my other Hastati unit though.
On Lawrence's wing one of his units broke an African Spear unit!
Next to them, however, a Gallic band routed the Hastati there. Lawrence's Consul led some Principes against an uncommitted Gallic warband.
The Gauls were routed easily, but the Elephants then charged the Consul!
These routed in short order, though the Consul survived!
Unfortunately we were now out of Reputation, and the Carthaginians had 6 tokens left, so not quite a disaster!
We would have done a lot better if another turn had happened!
Never mind, it was fun!


Saturday, 27 September 2025

Churchills on the defence?

 Today we had another game of What a Tanker at the club, and Phil decided we try the Churchills again. I worked out against 3 Mk VII Churchills, a fair battle would be a Tiger and 2 Panthers!

The Germans were run by my Solo System.

Lawrence provided most of the terrain, I added a few fields, and brought the tanks!


My Churchill was on our left.
Lawrence was in our centre...
...and Phil on our right!
Opposite Phil was a Panther G
Lawrence was in eyeshot (!) of another.
I, of course had to face the Tiger!
The battle would begin in the centre, obviously!
My first move was a mighty 4"!
Lawrence wasn't able to move, but fired at the Panther.
Phil decided to try and co-ordinate with Lawrence...his tank having received a hard rap from the 75mm gun of his Panther
 
The Tiger, opposite me probed forward cautiously.
Lawrence's Panther advanced on him, having already hit at long range.
The Panther was soon in a good firing position.
Phil's opponent made a very rapid advance towards him!
Phil took a hit which his driver reacted to by a rapid retreat!
I know the Churchill is a slow tank, but mine was ridiculously so! 
The Germans had the initiative!
Phil, using a corner as cover, began a gun duel with the Panther there.
The panther took a glancing hit...
...and lost a temporary Command die.
The Tiger had advanced far enough to spot me!
Phil was being shot at effectively...
...The Churchill has great armour though!
Lawrence, too was shrugging of Panther fire.
I finally spotted the Tiger and fired!
My shot bounced off its thick frontal armour, and it fired back!
Fortunately, he missed!
The Tiger was in a position effectively covering all my approach routes.
Lawrence and Phil were equally pinned.
Neither side seemed able to cause more than Temporary damage to their opponents.

The Tiger kept whanging big shells my way, fortunately most missed, and the rest deflected off my armour...so far!

Lawrence was getting some hits on the centre Panther.
Phil too had damaged his opponent without taking any.
The Germans seemed happy to stop and fire at us.
I was worried by the Tiger, as all I had caused was a single Temporary damage on it, My Armour throws had saved my tank a couple of times!
Suddenly Phil's tank took a hit in its running gear!
Lawrence was getting more hits on his Panther...
It didn't seem to be reacting!
What was happening?
The Panther had taken a hit in its tracks, and when it tried to shoot back, it had an electrical failure!
I decided to try and outmaneuver the Tiger, as frontally I was doing nothing. 
The Tiger fired, but again failed to penetrate my armour.
The battle lines were static, waiting for the first bit of luck.
My tank was still not moving well, so I parked it behind a hedge.
Phil changed position to get a better firing line on his Panther.
Lawrence got a lucky hit on the central Panther's turret!
Its shooting was now less of a threat.
I got a lucky set of command dice with lots of moves, but my dice were rather poor!
The Tiger was surprised and his shot missed!
My friends were winning against their Panthers, especially Lawrence.
Both Panthers were looking a bit 'ropey'.
Lawrence got another hit in!
The Panther was immobilised by a broken track!
Soon, the crew bailed out of their stricken vehicle!
I got a move which put me out of arc of the Tiger, and pressed on round its flank, but it got a great response and destroyed me with one shot!
It then moved down the road...
It saw Lawrence...
...Another one shot kill!
Phil wisely left the field, he was on the cusp of destroying his Panther too...
The Tiger saved the day!

I think its another example of balance in tanks...
The Churchill has 12 Armour, but only 6 for a gun (75mm)
The Tiger has 10 Armour and gun.
The Panther has 9 Armour and gun.

I feel its often the case that the more balanced tanks do better generally? - what do other players think?