The Other Partizan and SCW CoC

I got a gaming double-header last Sunday, kicking off with a visit to The Other Partizan up at Newark. Nor a show I'd been to before, held (for the last time) at the gloomy and labyrinthine Kelham Hall.

Unusually, I was completely uninspired around the traders, resisting more Empress SCW on the grounds that I've plenty more to paint still.

There were some fine games on offer though, most impressive being 'Berne Baby Berne' by the Bodkins. Full of excellent touches like this camp scene

Staggeringly big Swiss pike blocks (three of them!)

A gorgeous Burgundian Army

Other games catching my eye were Simon Miller's sizeable 'To The Strongest!', a large 'L' table with two games on

An impressive AVBCW game showing an assault on a BuF-held town

Something WSS-y? Good windmill feature

And in one of the even gloomier rooms a nice looking Pike and Shotte skirmish game.

So what did I think of Partizan? Well it was a nice day out, but felt like an 'old school' wargames show, similar in feel to Triples at the Sheffield Octagon. While the grognards may grumble , I think its a good thing for the hobby that many shows have moved on to more modern venues with better amenities - not least some decent lighting! After all, what's the sense in all the effort to put on lovely looking games if people can barely see them? And the trader shaving to supply torches to their customers is a joke , frankly. The show didn't seem busy on the Sunday, so hopefully the more to a new venue will reinvigorate it.

After the drive home, I headed over to Wyvern for a game of Chain of Command Espana with Ian and Matt. For a three-player game, we had two under strength platoons attacking Ian's Civil Guard. The balance didn't quite end up being right and Ian was up against the odds, but it was a fun game nonetheless.

My Carabineros take up positing in an olive grove, preparing to rush across the open ground

Ian deployed a Machinegun team in a do I any position in the church tower. With Los across most of the board, this could have caused real problems. But the dice offered a fitting moment - with its first shot, Matt's T26's HE she'll scored a direct hit, with a triple-6. Which invoked a rule I hadn't come across in CoC: the building starts to collapse, and Ian's gunners had to rapidly evacuate and  redeployed. A somewhat less dominant position!
  

Definitely a moment for a 'boom' marker to be applied

The Republican advance continues, making best use of meagre cover.

Taking up firing positions in a fruit grove, the two sides got bogged down trading shots for limited effect on the big sections. Matt's T26 was a threat, but advanced dangerously close to get firing arcs, cue a bold, but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to bring it down with Molotov cocktails.

To break the deadlock, my troops led a desperate tear gas attack and assault against the fortified churchyard, but we ran out of time to bring all of the action to a close. While Matt and I's Republicans were steadily grinding Ian down, we hadn't achieved our objective of forcing the Civil Guard from the field: their heroic defence against massive odds took the game.

With that I headed home for a much-needed sleep!

Tewksbury Medieval Festival

The summer does bring its advantages, like a big reenactment event this weekend, Tewksbury Medieval Festival. It marks the Battle of Tewksbury 1471, a decisive battle in the Wars of the Roses. The Yorkists, despite being outnumbered, defeated and routed the Lancastrians, leading to a great slaughter in the 'Bloody Meadow' just outside the town. 

Young Edward looks serious as the Armies assemble

Archers exchange fire.

Gunpowder weapons add further excitement

The Lancastrians advance

The lines meet

 A fine sunny afternoon out, it's a big and busy event, despite the crowds it was easy to park up and traffic all flowed freely around the town - somehow! Lots of era eye-candy on display, all shiny armour and heraldry. I was thankful for the zoom lens and tilting  LCD screen on my camera, helped me capture a few shots that I'm pleased even over the heads of the crowd of onlookers. 

Salute: The Games

I realise I'm a week late on the Blogoshpere, but here are the games that stood out to me as I whisked around the Salute hall. I didn't take down the details and don't have a programme to consult so few credits here I'm afraid. Having seen everyone else's, I clearly missed some corkers!

The hall before the crowds descended...



...and the crowd - quite a queue snaking in a whole unit.



7TV's lovely Ghostbusters game



An awesome AWI fort game, with six gorgeous ships. It won best in show I believe.

Beasts of War's Assault on Hoth game - looked a bit unfair on the Rebels!

Napoleon's Last Gamble(?) - the Assault of the Guard at Waterloo. A very striking table and lots of very well painted 28mm Napoleonics. 

Wargames Illustrated (easy one to credit :-) ) Simon De Montford must Die!

A striking fantasy naval game: I liked the choppy seas that they'd modelled. 

The Wyvern Wargamers/Kallistra game that I helped to run for the day. Is was the First battle of Ypres, 1914, the assault of the Prussian Guard on the British positions.

And from the German perspective. As the game played out, the Germans penetrated the British slit trench in three places, with much lighter casualties than historically.



Simon Miller's To the Strongest!, table, Bloody Cremona. Great terrain and miniatures as always.

A demo table of Osprey's Black Ops

Two Blitzkrieg Miniatures tables for their upcoming ruleset 'Panzer Battles'. Bit heavy on the tanks for me (what is this, FoW?) really nicely painted though. Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps



And Battle of the Bulge

Hawk Wargames display game - a lot of lead on the table



A VBCW game? Nice scenery

Oshiro Modelterrain's gorgeous Japan table - a highlight every year.

And that's your lot! A good show, but as with most, it feels like there's too much to see. That's for a paying punter, manning a table meant a very long day, though we each managed to get away a few times to whisk around the hall. Worth going once again, thanks to the a Wyvern lot for the offer, I don't think I'd have made it otherwise.

On a separate note, Ray of 'Don't Roll a 1' has a rather smashing giveaway going, so head on over there if you don't like any of the dame stuff as me. 

Salute: The Loot

So another year's Salute finished - what was my haul? Quite an odd one, all in all. 

The big buy was Star Wars Armada, which I've had my eye on and already racked up a few fun games using my brother' core set. It's not cheap and the core box isn't really enough for a game, but with two of us collecting, we should be able to split the new waves of releases between us and keep the cost more palatable. The Troll Trader had it at £55, an excellent price considering the rrp is £80. Even at that price, I'm glad I know what I getting myself in for. 

Three 15mm 4Ground buildings - Wyvern chaps split a preorder which made the max 25% discount, so I supplemented the farm I've already got with the beginnings of a town. I also grabbed more Landmark walls as they are heavily discounted and may vanish off the market. 

Renedra terrain - desert accessories and sandbags. Also a TFL/Warbases chicken coop (I couldn't resist)

Stocking up on paint (replacing some dried up old GW paints with suitable vallejo), as well as bases and tufts. Also some black primer that avoided the photo. 

Some markers for status effects and vehicle damage (the latter in the Troll Trader bargain bin for £1). - always come in useful. 

Just a few miniatures: Artizan Designs 'tea time' colonial officer for the Sudan and Hasslefree 'not Last of Us' survivors. I was sorely tempted by Lucid Eye miniatures simians and cro-magnons, but I just don't have a use for them at 

All in all, mostly hobby supplies and terrain. No substantial impulse purchases. No new projects. Barely any miniatures. Oddly that feels like a good thing - I've enough to paint already!). 

Salute: Bravo...

...Mr Perry and Mr Perry. Their new plastic set(s) announced at Salute were:



Colonial British infantry - yay!

I eked out of Alan that there will be two separates boxes covering the conflicts as above. No ETA, these will either be before or after the HYW French infantry, whichever is finished first.

More photos of some great games when I'm less ruined from a very, very long day.

Operation Market Larden 2 (Part 2 - Verdun)

For my afternoon game at Operation Market Larden on Saturday, I had the opportunity to play Sidney Roundwood's outstanding Verdun 1916: Operation Gericht, its second outing after its debut at Partizan. I suspect I was quite fortunate to have responded to the survey quick enough to take one of the commands. I took on the role of Fahrnich Joachim Vogel, of the 157th Reserve Infantry Regiment. Fellow Wyvern regular Bob took Leutenant Ulrich Bek, with our Strosstruppen assaulting the French poilu commanded by Ralph and Paul.

Our briefing material contained an aerial reconnaissance image of the terrain facing us:



Our objective: capture the ruined village of Fleury at all costs, to open up the route to Fort Souville and shatter French resistance at Verdun. Clearing the forest of Le Bois de Guise was a minor objective. We settled on an unconventional plan to surge past Le Bois de Guise, hoping to make quicker time by circumventing any French defenders there. Sidney described this as 'bold', but I suspect he was being polite.

With two support options to choose, Bob and I took some German pioneers, concerned about French wire teams disrupting our rapid advance, and after much debate we settled on an inspiring speech to improve morale from the incessant privations of Verdun. This gave our troops a small advantage in close assault, until we lost an assault.

The daunting view from the German lines - surely our men would be too exposed?



The tense strosstruppen assemble in the cratered fields of Verdun.

As they surge forwards, French defenders pick out targets, the entrenched machine guns spitting fire. German gunners and granatenwerfer respond.

Our elite troops take no pause and surge forwards - to falter means death...

Right on time, the German artillery bombardment rains down...

...while our troops pass unscathed over the cratered landscape, relieved that the German gunners' aim is true. Could anything survive such a barrage?

As the lead infantry approach the French trenches, they pause. Men fall. Where are their commanders? While the German fire support has managed to neutralise one machinegun, SOS fire from the French soixante-quinze guns rains down over their heads. It is mercifully ineffective. Still, our brave Strosstruppen are taking murderous fire and the assault risks faltering at a critical moment.

Poilu pour forwards to reinforce the village - surely seizing this is too much to ask?

Relief! The pre-arranged German barrage recommences, with French gunners taking the best shelter they can from the savage bombardment.

This was our chance chance - Forwards! Forwards! Pioneers take the lead, with Ulrich Bek urging them on. Joachim Vogel follows, allowing no man to linger over this briefest opportunity.

The barrage lifts, dazed Poilu lifting themselves from the landscape - new craters piled on top of old. Are the assault troops close enough to engage the French can open up on them again?

Almost there - charge! The French counter-attack, hoping to fling the handful of surviving Strosstruppen back before they reach their objective. German stick grenades rain down and a fierce melee ensues.

Joachim Vogel rallies his men, desperately mustering a second wave, but is it too late in the day?



The brave Poilu waver and are flung back, pioneers surging forwards in their wake

Victory! Fleury is taken!

We gambled it all on taking the village and with (literally) the last turn of the card, by the skin of our teeth, the strosstruppen pulled it off. With dusk falling (and the pub calling), there is no time for a French counter-attack. They fall back and the route to Fort Souville is open.

All in all, one of the most exciting wargames I've played in many years, Sidney put on a stonking game. The visuals were made by his exceptionally painted collection of miniatures and oh so fittingly bleak terrain (with comment of the day being "grey on grey, a bit difficult to photograph really")

But what really made the day was the steady build-up of background information over the preceding week, the propaganda of the Zuricher Zeitung with the latest news from the front lines. Though it was a one-off game, Sidney managed to make it feel like the culmination of a campaign, with our pre-game decisions influenced by the propaganda he fed us. Those decisions of when to time the bombardment and how best to support our ragged troops directly influenced the outcome of the game. I could only have wished for more time to play through a French counter-attack - it seemed to cruel to have to end the French resistance so abruptly. Bravo Sidney anmd thanks once again to you and the Bob, Paul and Ralph who made the afternoon such an experience.

As for Fahnrich Joachim Vogel, survival and a modicum of fame in Weimar Berlin. Memories of those days in Verdun providing ample inspiration for bleak impressionistic works. At least something good came of his war, for a few years, at least...

Rolling your post-war years, one last neat touch