Wyvern Wargames All-Dayer

Last weekend Wyvern Wargamers held the annual winter all-day club. Three of us, plus my visiting brother Gharak got all of our toys it to play a game of big Chain of Command Espana. We played the Battle of Seseña October 1936, an excellent scenario kindly posted by Gaming with TooFatLardies.

Following the fall of Toledo to the hands of the Nationalists forces in late September 1936, Madrid became now the next objective of Franco’s Army of Africa columns. These approached the capital city almost unmolested, as the morale of the Republicans crumbled and by late October they were to less than 100 km away.

After the arrival of Soviet tanks and advisors,  a short period of training and concentration, the first Republican tank unit was operational and the Soviet advisors  pressed the Republican Government to put it into action sooner rather than later as the risks of Madrid falling to the enemy were evident.

A decision was taken and the objective was to cut the road connecting Madrid and Toledo with a main attack in the South through the Seseña-Esquivias-Illescas  axis, supported by a secondary action in the north aiming to pierce the front at Griñón. A spearhead of 15 T-26 tanks made for Seseña on the morning of 29 October. 

Ian and Matt took two platoons of infantry to represent Lister and Burillo's Republican columns, equipped with light support weapons and a mighty three T-26s for their assault. Defending Nationalists comprised of a platoon of Moroccans (kindly lent by Wyvern Stu, cheers!) garrisoning Seseña and Gharak's Civil Guard in Esquivias. If we were lucky, a column of Armoured cars might turn up too! (standing in for the Italian tankettes present on the day).

As on the day, the scenario had the T-26s charging forwards into Seseña and on towards Esquivias.

The experienced Moroccans, caught by surprise, seek what cover they can.



But where are those T-26s heading now? They scatter for cover in the face of a single antitank gun. 

Emboldened by the armoured thrust, Republican infantry slowly make their way forward, but come under fire.

Meanwhile Gharak's Civil Guard emerge quickly from their garrison and into the countryside to  face Ian's infantry. 

A brave (or, foolhardy) Moroccan tank hunter team makes a dash for an unsupported T-26. Amazingly, their grenades and molotovs cause the crew to panic and bail out! What isn't pictured is the first team, that tried the same, failed to make the dash and were cut down in moments.

From the Republican side  - good progress on the left, where a bloody me lee has cleared Gharak's paramilitaries but stubborn resistance continues from my Moroccans.

Lunchtime brings stalemate and the end of our first game. The Republican forces hadn't managed to capitalise on their surprise and take Esquivias but keep a foothold in Seseña. The Moroccans are battered but remain an effective force, but of course two of those T-26s remain in a commanding position. Honours even, but a strategic Nationalist victory. 

After a break for lunch, we set up a second scenario to continue the Republican push, moving the battlefield westwards and each side bringing up reserves. We ran a patrol phase and the attack and defend scenario. 

Game two saw the appearance of my Carlist Requetes. Viva, Cristo, Rey! 

Once again, the experience of the Army of Africa is telling, having fallen back from Seseña, they quickly take up defensive positions outside the town...

...and lay down a heavy fire with their light machineguns. And the Natuonalist airforce is scrambled to provide close fire support. 

Game two saw Matt and I's infantry grinding away at each other from range, my Moroccons having the edge, but  three wounded leaders bruising their morale. 

Meanwhile on the Republican left, Ian Column, better supported by armour that we were unable to draw a bead on and neutralise, managed to maintain up relentless pressure, eventually shattering Gharak's platoon. Game two, a clear Republican victory, but at quite a cost. 

All in all a great scenario for the day. Taking the Nationalists, I expected a battering from all that armour and us to be able to do little to mitigate them. But I had Moroccan firepower, six command dice and a sprinkling of luck in my favour. Gharak's platoon suffered the worse, but I gather he enjoyed a day back at the historical gaming. 

There were three other fine looking tables taking advantage of a wet Sunday afternoon, a massive 14' AWI game using Carl's huge collection. This was still going on when we'd packed up and left but looked like a close game. 

A smaller game of Sharpe Practice, hosted by the esteemed Rich Clarke himself, using a work in progress second edition of the rules. 

And a fabulous WWII game using Ade's extensive collection. 

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!

Operation Market Larden 3: The Games

Last weekend brought the Lardest Day in the Wyvern Wargamers calendar: where like-minded gamers travel from far and wide to indulge in a day of all things Too Fat Lardies. We're honoured to have the presence of Rich Clarke himself and other Lardy luminaries such as the esteemed Sidney Roundwood for our day's gaming.

And wow, what games were available. With two sessions everyone got chance to play some real cracking setups from a whole range of eras and Lardy rulesets: Dark Ages to modern day. The village hall was packed out with 10 games and nearly 40 gamers.



Once again Ade of Bullets, Bandages and Lard did a sterling job of organising the day, as well as putting on an amazing Sari Bair-Gallipoli game using Big Chain of Command. Ade used a clever sharply sloped setup to represent the Anzac assault on the Turkish positions on the crest of the ridge, which looked outstanding but was a pain to capture in photos. I gather from the roars across the room that both games were particularly tense. 

Looking up at the ridge, a daunting assault

And looking down from the Turkish trenches 

We had Rich Clarke running his upcoming Fighting Season game, with modern British in Afghanistan














Returning from last year, a gorgeous Peninsular Napoleonic game of Sharp Practice by Jim. The buildings are Grand Manner and the boards are re-painted and flocked GW terrain tiles.

We had some 'Cold War Gone Hot' with West Germans looking to blunt a Soviet armoured assault. Fine looking terrain on this one, lots of neat details like the hot tub and washing line, and a large Aldi (of course!)

Wyvern's own Stu put on a lovely looking Russo-Japanese game based on the battle of Shaho, 1904. Stu did a cracking job of the new terrain tiles and pieces to really evoke the era and his growing collection looks excellent on the tabletop. 

On the next table over, Wyvern Paul had Sharp Practice in the Wars of the Roses with his new collection - what a great ruleset that can cover such an expanse with just a little tinkering here and there!

Last but not least (for this post anyway, was this great looking game of Big Chain of Command - a really great job done here of pimping the 4Ground buildings with gardens and allotments (I've been building a few of these this week, and will thieve these ideas unashamedly). This game run by Jason and Nathan.

That's all the games that I photographed (my own excepted - for a future post). I know Wyvern Chris was running Dux Britannarium and I think there was a game of IABSM too, apologies to those that I missed. But one more thing must be remarked upon: the continuing tradition of Lard-themed 'tiffin' on offer


What other event offers you branded cupcakes for all your rulesets of choice?! I can sense your envy from here. 

All in all, a corker of a day in fine company, rounded out by a few beers in Evesham's finest (?) drinking establishment and curry house. Roll on OML4 in summer 2016!

AAR: The Zareba at Handoub

At the last club night at Wyvern Wargamers, I put on a further game in my ongoing Sudan campaign. Bob and new Wyverner Furphy of ('Furphy's Brush with History' - check it out) took a British brigade each, while Dane took the Mahdists. It was a slightly smaller game than usual to fit in over a shorter evening, on e again using the ubiquitous Black Powder rules with my own modifications. 

The British briefing took up the story of the Anglo-Egyptisn expeditionary force after the games last October (wow, almost six months ago):

Your Anglo-Egyptian expeditionary force is to bolster its position at a Handoub throughout the construction of a zareba around a farmstead on the Eastern approaches to the town. This zareba form a staging post for future operations towards Berber on the Nile. The local Bija tribes have retreated to the foothills in recent days offering a chance for your troops to rest and recover from recent engagements. Mahdist incidents have been limited to night-time sniping from positions overlooking the town, the perpetrators melting away before pursuit

The British deployed around a central farmstead and half-constructed zareba, with two units out cutting the nearby acacia bushes to finish the work. The Mahdists had a choice of two of three entry points. 

As Beja skirmishers emerged from the low hills to the West, the outlying British units returned to for a defensive ring. 

The first wing of Mahdists arrives and Dane, typically direct, sends them surging towards the British lines. Dane had rightly marked the Bazingers in the zareba as the weak point (on their first outing no less! They come on, despite the murderous fire against them thinning their ranks. 

One group made it to the zareba itself and swept aside the doughty Bazingers, before crashing into the Indian troops alongside. With a second Mahdist wing entering, things looked decidedly precarious for the British defensive line!

More Mahdist fanatics plough on, with the British unable to bring heavy fire to bear because of the swirly melee. The KRRC that have garrisoned the farmhouse itself, find themselves trading fire with Mahdist skirmishers rather than the much more dangerous warbands. Despite repeated attempts to order them out to bolster the line to the east, they flatly refuse to budge. The shame! 

The KRRC are no help, but in the nick of time, the Naval Brigade troopers (who else?!) help the Indians push back the Mahdists that managed to storm the zareba and regain the defensive position. 

The second Mahdist wing hits the line and a second melee ensues. 

But the line holds. The last charge is stopped and with remnants and the overdue Baggara cavalry, the day is done for the Mahdists. The British position is held, a solid victory. 

Once again, Black Powder seemed to put on an entertaining game. The scenarios was a bit defensive for the British, which they should excel at but perhaps makes for a less interesting fame but after the first wave hit and the second arrived, I thought they were in real trouble. But calmly bringing fresh troops up in support ensured the compact position held in the initial melee and won the second rounds. 

I gather that Furphy enjoyed his (first ever) tabletop wargame - he's just been a painter to date but got chatting to the Wvyerners hosting a demo game at WMMS the previous week. Welcome the to club!

I've volunteered to out on a game at the annual Wyvern 'Day of Lard', where gamers from far and wide are invited to play too Fat Lardies games over a pleasant summer afternoon.  I'll switch to Sharp Practice for that - any suggestions on rules changes from anyone that's tried it with a later era would be warmly welcomed. 

AAR: Impromptu Chain of Command 10mm and Stalagbite!

I was up in Yorkshire the orther weekend seeing the brother Gharak. As usual these days we hadn't planned any gaming, but I'd thrown the 10mm WWII just in case. And lo, we found the time for not one but two game of Chain of Command on a 2'x4' board on the dining room table. All ranges were played as cm. 

The first, while tightly fought, saw Gharak's many MG42s seeing off my British platoon. For the second, I remembered to dig the camera out! 

After the patrol pahse. We were playing a flank attack, one that I've never played. I was very concerned about being pinned in on a hill from two sides, but just about managed to force a JOP near cover on the near short edge. 

The first sections deploy on facing hills and trade fire. Thankfully, Gharak hadn't indulged in panzergrenadiers again- I'm not sure I could have faced eight MG42s once again! 

Shock still starts to mount, but I'm winning the firefight - with fewer units on the table I could more reliably spend my order dice on trading fire. With two senior leaders, I could drop one down to take the worst of the shock off - Gharak didn't have that luxury. After a few phases, his section was forced off the crest of the opposite hill. 

Gharak pushed mechanised units down the table length and packs the woods with more troops. I manage to snatch an undecided JOP on the near left table edge and use my third section to occupy the woods on my hill. 

The stalemate broke when Gharak made a bold (c.f. rash) move on my right flank - barrelling a mechanised section towards the nearest JOP, which was undefended. This would have enabled him to capture a JOP and roll up my flank wi a fresh section. 

Except it wasn't undefended. To their misfortune, I rolled a double-phase at this most I opportune moment and out popped my platoon's PIAT. 'Thunk'....missed! Phase two: 'thunk'...kaboom! Direct hit! 

The half track exploded, taking out half the section with it. Stranded in the open, one phase of fire pinned them, then I was able to rake them with more fire, with little that could be done to extract them. 

The inevitable rout...

...and my saved CoC dice ended the turn and the fame as the German morale tumbled. 

Heroes of the day, the plucky (and rarely used) PIAT team. 

And for something slightly different to make a true gaming weekend, Gharak's little daughter (3) had been tempted into the hobby with her own game: a cute dungeon crawler called Stalagbite! From Midlam Miniatures and sourced at Vapnartak, it uses MDF tokens for dwarves exploring a hex-based randomly generated dungeon full of treasure. Obviously, the dungeon is also full of biting stalagmites and 'Jeeping Creepers' (or was it Creeping Jeepers?!')

Of course, Gharak being a true gamer, those MDF markers were quickly replaced with painted miniatures, and stalagmites made from DAS clay. The dungeon fully painted and tokens in bright child-friendly colours. And those naff dwarves replaced with sneaky goblins - plastic GW Knoblars I believe. I reckon Gharak has spent more time painting this than anything for a good few years! 

Well, the diligent fatherly work had paid off - it was a blast. A neat little game, simplified rules to make a dungeon crawl fun for two adults and one little lady - a born gamer, surely!