AWI at John's

John pulled out one of his large collections and put on an AWI game for 6 of us a few weeks ago in the garage.  The Colonials won at the end of the day - but not before I learnt the difficulty of attacking (attempting to!!) a redoubt that was held by Hessians.

"The Redoubt"

Just up there boys

The 4 marker signifies casualties from defensive fire on the way in - we didn't stay for long

Revenge was had a few turns later when my other regiment attacked the rear of the redoubt.

And finally a shot of an excellent cornfield that had been put together by Phil who unfortunately could not join us for the day.

   

Christmas big bash at Cumberland

The annual Christmas Napoleonic Big Bash at the Cumberland club took place in mid December.  It is basically an excuse to get as much lead on the table as possible and advance.   I had a Corp of Bavarians and faced off against John with his Russian Corp and a s***load of Russian guns.  The Age of Eagles rules were used

The other tradition is a wonderful lunch put on by Joey - I thought I had photos but alas they do not appear to have been on the phone.  

But to summarise as glazed ham, roast lamb, chicken, mango salsa for the ham and baked veggies washed down with a Crown Lager or two.  Excellent.

The table from the French and Allied right flank

Our left flank with the Bavarians in the middle to the right of the fields

Bavarian gun line

Inspired by the Russians

Bavarians advancing to hold the village

Considering whether we want to advance on those Russians brigades

A Russian Brigade snuck through up the side of the village

But was quickly seen off 

The end for the Russians with the Bavarians in the clear

Dogger Bank

Another game put on by Ralph at the club.  This time with his collection of Navwar WWI 1/3000 ships.  

We played Dogger Bank and a great day was had by all.  

A sign of the times ;) 

Ralph hard at work studying the rules

 

Quick photo of the ongoing 6mm Napoleonics for 1813

Work continued through the year on my 6mm Napoleonic project for 1813.   The last post I put up was Saxons for 1813

Two simple shots taken before basing material has been applied - Guard Chasseurs - Old and Young Squadrons

And the rest of their cousins

Over the course of the year I have done approximately 200 French and Allied battalions of infantry and 20 cavalry regiments.  Work started on the Prussians about a month ago.  

But .... I still haven't decided on the basing material I will use so all are simply on painted Litko plywood. 

Fuentes de Onoro with Blucher

 As is obvious from the lack of posts, I have been derelict again this year in maintining this blog.

Now that I have some time off work over the Christmas holidays I will make a few posts mainly showing the few games that we have gotten in over the period since March.

First up is a great game of Blucher that Ralph put on for us at the club in July.  It was the Battle of Fuentes De Onoro.  John and I were the Spanish / British.  A few photos with captions.

British Division advancing to protect the right flank

We're defending the river and advancing to Fuentes

Just in the time as French cavalry appear on my right flank

British Guards are in Fuentes and would be very hard to evict

After many attempts and wasted French brigades they get into part of Fuentes

But not for long - we took it back on the next turn

We had a great day's gaming and as to be expected :) the British / Spanish forces won the day.  The victory came down to the covering action on the right flank and the steadfastness of the British in the town.

Rapid Fire at the Club

First game of RapidFire we have had at the club for a number of years. Chris and I decided to get the forces out for a scenario from the Normandy Battlegames book with the 6th Airborne Division against elements of 21 Panzer Division.

We used the RapidFire Reloaded rules and were both very new to them. The Germans got hammered by all of the indirect fire and didn’t really threaten the British

Heavy metal (at least for 6th Airborne)

The forces of evil.  The gun didn’t last long.

Table from the German end as we were setting up

Pretty good turnout and a wide variety of games