Friday, 6 January 2012

The Great War


Fought a couple of months ago at” The Redoubt” was this WW1 game using "The Great War" rules. The British force was charged with holding a village and the land to the west, including a dominant hill. The Germans were under orders to take the hill at any cost. Out numbering the British by about 2 to 1 the Germans struggled to gain ground going forward under very heavy fire from the HMG the British had in position on the hill. When the German artillery finally arrived, several hours into the battle, it was immediately ordered to open fire on the HMG position. Eventually the HMG was taken out and finally the German troops were able to advance. Several platoons of Germans made diversionary attacks toward the town but were cut down by heavy fire from the British sheltering in the houses on the outskirts of the town. After a long fought advance the Germans took the hill, but at great cost.





British troops shelter on the edge of a village.




Germans platoons advance toward their objective.

View of the British defensive area.

The hill with the HMG hiding behind shrubs.

German High Command observing the advance.

A British platoon hiding amongst the trees.

German platoon advances through a near by farm.

The HMG that did a lot of damage.

Germans going forward.

A German platoon tries to cross a road under heavy fire.

British 18pdr behind a barricade on the outskirts of the town.


A German platoon gets cut down trying to get through the barbed wire.



Germans advancing on the hill.




All in all an enjoyable game. 


Sunday, 27 November 2011

Saxon Surprise


This was a battle fought by the Southern Strategists a while ago using the Stradhogg rules.
The Vikings had carried out a dawn raid on this little coastal village somewhere along the Saxon coast. After defeating any resistance the victorious Vikings set about collecting up the spoils of war. These included  monks, women and children,farm animals and a few other odds and sods. As the mopping up operation got under way over the hills came more Saxons intent on preventing the Vikings from taking anything away, even their lives!
So, the game began with the Saxons arriving on the table edge and the Vikings in and around the village. While some of the Viking warbands tried to slow the Saxon advance the rest of the Vikings were herding their captives toward the waiting ships, well, ship in this case.


Vikings prepare to face the oncoming Saxons.

Vikings herding cattle and pigs toward the longboat.


Farm animals and peasents being incourged to join the Viking way of life.

Viking ship waiting for the plunder to arrive

Some of the women didn't seem very keen to leave.

A Saxon warband charging down the hill into the Vikings.

A mounted Saxon warband reaches the village. Are they in time?


More mounted Saxons arriving on the hill top.

A controlled retreat toward the waiting ship.

Saxons begin to over power the Vikings still in the village.

The Vikings are struggling to get their captives to the ship with the Saxons about to recapture the towns folk and animals.


By the end of the night the Vikings had managed a very narrow victory. Having herded just over half of the available victory points worth of plunder to the ship.

A special thanks to Tim from Comics Compulsion (our local wargaming store) for coming along and joining in the game.

Sunday, 30 October 2011

Conquest 2011

Conquest is an annual gaming event being held in conjunction with Comics Compulsion and the Christchurch Cavaliers Wargames Club. Every year, apart from a couple of times, the Southern Strategists put on a demo game and this year it was a Napoleonic naval game.

Here are a few photos from our game and some of the other games going on around the place.

Kings of War demo game.


Beautiful Dark Age troops from the Kings of War game.

  

There are some more photos from our game on Wayne's blog
http://dispatchesfromthemess.blogspot.com/.
Our naval demo game.



A few photos from the competition rooms.


Some very good building skills here.


Flames of War and Ancients competitions
 Some photos of an excellent Casino layout for FoW made by Craig from
http://craigswargamingblog.blogspot.com/. Lots more info and photos on Craig's blog, well worth a look.




Some of the other FoW tables.

I thought this layout looked really nice too.