Falkirk Club at Viking exhibition in Edinburgh

The National Museum of Scotland is holding a Viking exhibition which runs until 20^th May.  However the most important date for your diary is Sunday 10^th March when they are hosting a ‘Viking Wargames Day’.  A number of clubs will be putting on games.

More details on the exhibition here

http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum/exhibitions/vikings.aspx

The Falkirk club is recreating The Battle of Cruden - or the "Slaughter of the Danes" from 1012.  This saw Malcolm II lead his Scots army against invading Danish Vikings led by none other than Canute, then Prince of Denmark. The result was a bloody draw but a strategic victory for the Scots.

We will be using a slightly modified version of Basic Impetus.  The game is designed to be accessible to members of the public who may have little knowledge or experience of wargaming.  They will be able to take control of a command and will get to roll some dice.

Please pass details on to anyone who you think might be interested.  We don’t often have such direct access to the non wargaming public so I do hope it will be a success and might even attract some new people into the hobby.

Visit to Dumbarton Wargames Club

I like to try and visit other clubs from time to time and had the opportunity this weekend for a trip down to Dumbarton.  Thanks to the members who made me feel welcome and my opponent Andy, with whom I had an enjoyable game of Great War.

The club meet at the Masonic Sports and Social Club on Church Street where they hire a large hall.  They have the use of it from 17:00 to 23:00 which allows for a good session. If you live anywhere near it is certainly worth a look at.

This was only my second game of Great War and Andy had not played for a while so we were a bit rusty with rules, but managed fine.  My limited number of German late war figures means that I have to emphasise quality over quantity so I used 2 stormtrooper companies with support from 2 machine gun sections and a flamethrower team.  Andy fielded a 1918 BEF list with three companies supported by two machine guns, a mortar section and 2 18pounder field guns.  It looked as if I was outnumbered by about 2 to 1 and with the British having 2 Lewis guns per platoon I felt rather outgunned as well.  The objective was to take the hamlet in the centre of the table.

Andy got the first move which was not in the plan as I had hoped to get smoke down to cover a rapid advance using infiltration tactics which gives an additional (variable length) move.  The two platoons on my left were pretty much caught in the open and taken out by the company opposing them, supported by one of the field guns.  It was a disaster of a start.

My second company had benefited from more cover and was able to sprint forward in the centre and soon took shelter in the nearest building, which they were to occupy for the remainder of the game.  My two machine guns, sited to the right of centre, kept up a heavy weight of fire for most of the game.  They took out the other 18 pounder and the mortar which was caught trying to reposition itself.  Further damage was done to the British company on my right flank.

To my furthest right I had deployed the flamethrower team.  They started in the cover of a hill and fortunately I was able to get some smoke down to cover their advance to the crest.  Emerging from the smoke they were able to get in two phases of fire, taking out one company and distracting another which was as much as I could have hoped from them.

As the game drew to a close a pretty much unscathed British company was streaming around my left flank.  I had managed to keep a toe hold in the village but was really down to one platoon and the machine guns which were now looking exposed in the open.  I am sure if the battle had continued much longer it would have resulted in a British victory but my occupation of one of the houses allowed me to claim the narrowest of wins

Thanks again to Andy for a great game which I hope we will be able to repeat sometime.

 

 

The Hall which is a very good size indeed

 

 

The Germans atempt to scamper over open ground to get into cover

 

The British on their left, with no visible enemy to their front at this stage

 

The doomed left flank stormtrooper company just about to get mown down

 

Link if you are interested in finding out more about the Dumbarton club http://dumbartonwargamesclub.webs.com/

 

 

24 wargamers go to York

Alarm clock set to 4:00, to the train station to pick up the coach at 5:00 and off we went.  Including one independent traveller and 3 club members on a trade stand that made 28 from the Falkirk club, about 75% of our membership, which was a good turnout.

We arrived in time to pick up the free figures - I quite liked the call 24 figures over here! - and we then hit the show.

My plan was to play games rather than spend money and I managed 3,  The York club put on a visually appealing and well set up 28mm Pegasus Bridge game which I enjoyed.  Later ona I spotted a naval participation game being put on by Mongoose using the Victory at Sea rules, in which I took the part of the British Navy.  Finally I took the part of Jack the Ripper in an Empire of the dead demo game.

I was unable to fully resist purchases with the fleamarket offering up some tempting delights.  My purchases include a couple of carts, both nicely painted, some saxon infantry and 35  Chaos Warriors.  I put in a cheeky offer for a very scruffy 25mm Late Roman Army and on reflection was quite glad that it was not taken up.

The only thing that I was nearly bought from the trade stands was the air war rules Check Your 6.  I will probably pick these up at Carronade.

The journey was long but I sat with Rory both ways and we had a good natter setting the world to rights.

We are planning our next trip, possibly Sheffield or Leeds.

 

My first glider landed in the water

 

The second in a clearing

 

Not a very good shot of the Victory at Sea game

 

Club members taking part in the Mutineer Miniatures game

 

Same game from the other side

 

Closer look at some of the figures

 

Jack the Ripper ready to start his dastardly deeds 

 

The unsuspecting streets of London

 

Holmes and Watson about to try to protect the citizens 

 

Another one of the attractions (yes I mean the canteen)

All in all a 'Grand Day Out'.  Thanks to the York club for putting on such a good show.

Hammerin Iron

Last Monday I was able to join a game organised by John (who is good at these things) at short notice.  Ships provided by Allan.

The gallant Confederate navy was attempting to steam past a heavily defended Union fort and attack a depot and 4 merchantmen at anchor.  It was anticipated that enemy naval forces would attempt to intervene.

At set up the Union fort was near the Confederate starting point.  This was to have a significant impact on the game as we decided to steam away from that side of the river and concentrate on the merchantmen.

As the game unfolded we ended up in very restricted part of the river near the port and took a frightful battering.  Despite sinking one Yankee almost all our fleet was either sunk or struck  and we only managed to damage one merchantman.

In the terms of the rules the result was a Confederate Slaughter!

In retrospect we should have sampling steamed past the fort and taken whatever damage it might have inflicted.  One ship was very severely damaged by it anyway.  This would have enabled us to threaten the depot and attack union ships from both sides.

Good learning for the next game

 

Vapnartak 2013

I have signed up for the Falkirk club's trip to York this year.  There will be about 20 of us heading down so I am looking forward to a great day.

I don't have very much of a shopping list so have decided to do something different (for me) and try as many of the participation games as I can.  Hopefully I should be able to get a good few in.  Watch this space for a report!

Dux Bellorum with Double points on Impetus bases doesn’t work

Particularly when using 2 shieldwall based armies.  I took Romano British against Kev’s Late Romans and after a couple of hours of play we had each lost a skirmishing cavalry unit and I don’t think that any of the other units had lost more than 1 or at the most 2 cohesion points.

The issue remains the use of leadership points to negate hits, particularly against units that already have a high cohesion value.  Hitting on fives or fives and sixes when up to three hits can be taken off is vicious amusement.  The problem is that given the choice of an additional attacking dice roll (hitting on a 4, 5 or 6 depending on troop type) or a 100% chance of negating a hit the maths will always favour negative use

Earlier games, using 32 points and normal base sizes, had been too short for a good evening’s play, which is why we increased the numbers so substantially.   One other change to the rules is that instead of using base widths for moving and shooting we used half base widths giving most cavalry a 24cm which did not seem too excessive.

My plan was to use superior numbers of cavalry on the flanks to win there and then sweep round whilst my centre of shieldwall and the better cavalry held back to suck the Late Roman centre in.

What actually happened was inconclusive sparring on the flanks and then once the two lines closed more inconclusive sparring in the middle.  In short one of the most boring wargames I have ever played.

We have not given up on Dux Bellorum though.  Our intention is to try again with some restriction (yet to be decided) on the negative use of leadership points. 

The one substantial improvement on the other games we have played was the look of the battle.  Much more impressive.  I think we will be keeping the Impetus bases.

I had some photos but it seems blogger no longer allows one to copy a photo in from your PC so I will have to see what other options there are.  Something about Picassa albums???

Wargaming – Neutral or Partisan?

I have recently bought the Force on Force supplement Day of the Rangers.  I like the rules although I don’t get to play that often and am slowly collecting the books.

Reading the introduction I was struck by the obvious implication that the reader would empathise with the US forces involved in the conflict.  It talks about ‘the valour and sacrifice of America’s soldiers and airmen’ for instance.  The language made me feel a bit uncomfortable, which rather surprised me.

I consider myself a patriotic Brit and when thinking about our military past I identify with the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have fought and died for their country.  My interest in conflicts involving British forces does, to a degree, direct my wargaming interests. However when I get on a wargaming table I put all thoughts of nationality aside.

A wargames force to me is just that, a wargames force.  Usually a lot of planning and work has gone into getting it on to the table. I want to enjoy the games I have with them and I certainly prefer winning to losing. What I am not doing is identifying with the ideology of the real life men the figures are designed to represent, be they British, American, Somali, Mongol or whatever.  I suppose that is why the tone of Day of the Rangers made me uncomfortable.  I would not have a problem with that sort of language in a history of the conflict. 

In a wargames book such language suggests that one side is morally better than the other.  Whilst that is very often the case in real life (and indeed in the case in point in my opinion) it is certainly not the case on the table.

Others may differ of course