Wargamingnz

Quite a few years ago I painted up a series of stands to play American Civil War in 15mm using the Volley and Bayonet rules. I plan to add a few more stands to each side (currently the collection includes 16 infantry brigades, some artillery batteries, and one regiment of cavalry per side). With encouragement from 'gaming friends Adrian and Jon I bought the  Sarissa model of the USS Monitor . I assembled and painted the model itself a month of two ago, and finally found the motivation to base it ready for action. Here it is.

I painted the water effect with a green/dirty brown base, as I figured that North American rivers aren't exactly pristine pure blue. I do recall from my visit to Memphis some years ago that at that point anyway the Mississippi ran looking pretty brown and discoloured.

Righto... I guess I should try and organise some games.

Another week with a bit of varied war games activity. First was a game from the War of the Spanish Succession in the 1740's, an intriguing scenario in which the French and Spanish forces are retreating form the Austrian army, and are trying to get a supply convoy of four wagons across and off the table. The armies are from Adrian and Jon's collections, all 15mm.

Despite a massive encircling move from the Austrian cavalry, the cavalry were defeated and the convoy 'got away'.

Every now and then I have a flash of inspiration. Not exactly like realising how to split the atom, or solve world poverty, or banish the forces of the neo-liberal right wing .. but in the 'gaming sense, a germ of an idea that with a little time evolves into something I quite like. This is an example. 

My British Victorian Science Fiction army for HotT (Hordes of the Things) has lacked a stronghold. Browsing through my many 'bits boxes' as you do I stumbled across a 15mm old country farm house, and a futuristic piece of equipment that could perhaps have been a 'power house' .. or ... whatever heinous machine you care to imagine. The appeal, the inherent anachronism, of their juxtaposition appealed to me. Both on the same base, a heinous machine pseudo-disguised, only half hidden, behind an old farm house. So this idea took shape.

The finished product, farm house in front, scientific 'machine' behind connected with a heavy red cable, as you do.

I wanted the machine half hidden behind a mound, as if the ground had been partially excavated and the machine is half hidden deep in the earth. To create the 'mound' or hillock I glued some old plastic sprues to the base in order to give the filler compound something to key onto, and also to save weight on the overall base.

I then gradually layered filler over the sprues, allowing each thin layer to dry before proceeding. I am hoping this will minimise the chances of shrinkage and cracking

The base overall was then given a layer of plaster

... and the building and machine were glued into the wet filler

A few small hedges ... actually hedgerows for 6mm, but who notices ...

A piece of thick copper wire to represent a heavy duty cable connecting the machine and the house...

... and an old Airfix Cuirassier figure standing in the road outside the farmhouse with horse.. yes I know it's French, but this is 'fantasy', so I can do whatever I like.. and it was a way of emphasising the anachronisms I wanted on the stronghold base

And voila, a stronghold for the VSF army. 

I think I may finally starting to get the hang of this 'retirement' thing.. albeit that I have to agree with a journalist who recently wrote that the word retirement, implying as it does a withdrawal from something, is not be the best word to use for this new stage in life offering up as it does enormous freedom to do what gives us jou.

Anyway, last week saw four different wargames/genres/rules sets, and this week has seen two .. a Volley and Bayonet game run by Adrian and set in the Indian Mutiny, and a NW Europe Crossfire game with Americans and Germans. This is not an AAR, merely a small selection of photos from each.

The Indian Mutiny game used Adrian's beautiful 15mm armies and terrain.

The Crossfire game with Jim used my own 20mm armies and terrain.

It's been a while .. the whole 'painting mojo' thing comes and goes. Finally I've finished the Japanese infantry I undercoated a month of two ago.  I opted for a more open basing aesthetic for these.. the jungle style bases may be a little overcrowded, and anyway not everyone would be fighting in dense jungle all the time, and there would be clearings in the jungle.

This adds another two platoons to the force, designed and intended for Crossfire (although they could be used equally well for Spearhead, as they share a common basing convention. In that case this would offer another two companies.

The net result of the Crossfire Pacific painting project so far

The troops in amongst the scatter terrain markers I created a few months ago.

The force lacks the support weapons. I have been trying to order some SHQ miniatures from Grubby Tanks, as others better in the know recommended that they are perhaps the best size fit with these Airfix infantry which are on the small size for 20mm figures. However I received no response at all from Grubby Tanks, who seem to be the sole supplier, so I have ordered what I think I'll need from Eureka Miniatures... they have confirmed the order and it is apparently on its way.

In the process of solo 'gaming the Anzac landings recently I realised that there was a gap in my scenery selection (yes there's an issue with hill contours, but that's a different story). I have village sectors that measure 3"x3", but nothing to represent those even smaller villages. So.. with a few spare 6mm buildings to hand I created these. They are on 1.5" square bases

I've been reading a bit recently about the Dardanelles campaign of 1915, and the 'Gallipoli' landings. Not exactly a campaign in which allied commanders covered themselves in glory, and a campaign in which Turkish commanders mostly did. One of the wargames obstacles I have faced, particularly with the Anzac landings, is the complexity of the terrain and how to model it on the wargames table. I have also pondered how you could model the path of the battle at Anzac with the hindsight of our historical knowledge, and the very small force of Turkish troops immediately available for the defence. How did you stop this assault with such small defending forces?

Source: https://heritage.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz/objects/5154/landing-at-gallipoli

I had a fresh read of Shawn and Robert's scenario book 'Our sons as well', featuring the battles on the peninsular. There were several specific rules amendments in particular that caught my attention, and led me to give this a try:

• The landing rules, that in particular slow the speed of progress off the beach. HQs cannot move off the beach without an order change, the roll being reduced because of the relative remoteness of the higher level command elements out to sea, and
• Troops can only land if there is room for them on the beach front, otherwise they must wait another turn, and the length of beach on which they can land is limited, and
• The reduction in speed (half speed) for elements crossing contours, to reflect the relative difficulty of the terrain facing the Australians and New Zealanders.

I used every single contour piece I had in my terrain collection, and even then wasn't able to model the four contour levels that the terrain warrants.

The first Australian brigade starts to land, not all there yet

Defending Turkish gun battery

Defending platoon at Fisherman's Hut

The forward defending Turkish company, which became an early casualty

Flank fire on the attackers

Australian infantry move off the beach

By turn 5, one Turkish company has been eliminated, along with four Australian companies

Turn 6 and another Australian Brigade is landing. The Turkish defenders from Gaba Tepe on the right of the beaches have moved onto the flank of the attackers (right edge of the photo)

The attackers are beginning to get strung out by the terrain

Having been held up in front of the defending Turkish company, and gun battery, I decide to push the bulk of the attackers on past them. Sari Bair beckons. The attackers are held up by the failure to roll high enough for the orders changes for HQ.. this rules mechanism works well in reducing the attackers' flexibility, and speed of advance. It's all about timing ...

The leading attackers now well out ahead

Move 8 and the degree of attacker disorganisation is becoming evident

And still the attackers race for the inland heights

Still the Turkish gun battery holds out, albeit suppressed at this stage.. it actually survived the whole 10 turns I played

Pressure on the attackers' right from the troops that have advanced from Gaba Tepe

Move 10 and the first Turkish reinforcements arrive .. most of a Turkish regiment, top left of the photo

Turkish reinforcements .. and under strength regiment

The view from behind the Turkish reinforcements

I stopped at this stage. This was a solo run through of the attack. I was interested in if or how this would play out, as on paper I had the impression that it was a damned hard ask for the Turkish defenders to keep the attackers at bay. By move 10 the leading Australian Brigade was approaching a morale check, with not quite 50% casualties, and was already facing a fresh Turkish regiment, with another regiment only two moves away.

As I suspected, the limitation to the attackers' ability to get off the beach created by the rules addition that requires an HQ to sit on the beach until it rolls a successful order change, the normal existence of a command radius for all units pert the standard rules, and the impact on movement of crossing contours coupled with the complexity of the terrain with ridges and valleys, has a profound impact on the attack. That is the intention. I initially sat thinking I'd shoot it out in a firefight with the few defenders, and then being conscious of the impending arrival of Turkish reinforcements, decided to rush forward and grab as much high ground as I could, meant the attack became disorganised.

Sounds realistic to me...

Now I was loose with the rules, as one may be when solo 'gaming something (are you?), and so the rigour of a 'live opponent' might well change things. However my overall sense is that this is a fascinating wargame, much much more than a simple historical recreation for visual effect. Both sides can win.. that's a win!!!

The game was fought using my 6mm armies, created using miniatures from Irregular Miniatures. The boats signifying the landing are also from Irregular. I showed them in more detail here.

You can see Robert's Gallipoli demo game here.