Cavalry Encounter 20th September 2010

Mike Barnatt and Tony Waumsley had a 7 years War game using Tony’s 15mm figures. Tony was French whilst Mike was the Prussians.

They were in fact playing a Scenario called Cavalry Encounter from a recent issue of Battlegames.

In this the French had to enter from one side of the table (bottom right in the photo) whilst the Prussians had to enter from the other end. The French had to keep the road clear so that they could move their forces through.
Unfortunately as the French did not achieve their objective they lost the game. There was lots of rallying and plenty of melees but ultimately the Prussian forces stopped them.

At the same time John Ogden, Paul Robinson of the Grimsby Wargaming blog and Mark Alcock were having an extremely lengthy discussion on WW1 rules. I was hoping they would get their figures out and play a game but they were so engrossed in the discussion it never happened. To hand they had the rulesets To the Last Man, Through the Mud and the Blood and Schwerpunkt, which our own WW1 club rules are loosely based upon.

Communique from the front regarding Seven Years War game at the club on 21st August 2010

Over the past week I observed that a communique had been put on all the walls of the Grimsby Wargames Society and its new official website. It details a magnificent battle set in the Seven Years War period to be held at the Grimsby Wargames Society this saturday 21st August 2010.

Everyone is welcome to come. Don’t miss it!

This communique is from our club member and commander in respect of this game, Tony Walmsley (Frederick Rex). It reads as follows:

“The game has been set for Saturday 21st August 2010 and I would be very grateful if you make a firm commitment in your plans in order to ensure your attendance.

Each player will command a brigade on the day and a week before the event each player will receive a reconnaissance pack,containing the identity of the General you will represent, the troops you will command,known information about the enemy and most importantly a scaled map of the battlefield which will be accurately reproduced on the gaming table.

On the day,the programme of events will be as follows

08.45-09.00 - players arrive

09.00-09.30-respective council's of war

09.30-10.00-Austrian/Reich army will be set up

10.00            -battle is opened by the Prussians commencing their attack.

12.00-13.00-lunch

13.00-17.00-battle continues

17.00            -battle ends.

Everything the players need for the game will be provided,therefore all you will need is your lunch,expertise,enthusiasm and most importantly your sense of humour. Again please make sure that you keep the 21st August clear so that you can enjoy what will be hopefully be a memorable multi player game.

I remain your friend or enemy as the case may be.

Frederick Rex.”

Wargames at Club 27th April 2009

War on the Eastern Front again. This time between Mike Barnatt as the Russians and Dave Tuck as the Germans. The goal of the Russians was to make sure the Germans were not able to connect with their forces at the very top of the table.

It is my understanding that the Russians did not succeed in their mission. Sadly as I was preoccupied playing in a board game no other photos were taken of this game. By the time this photo was taken the game had finished with only the board game 75% of the way through.

Blitzkrieg Commander rules were once again used for this battle.

As above the photos of this WW1 game were done after sneaking off the board game for 5 minutes while waiting my turn to come round.

These days I try to take better pics with my digital camera aiming to take more "artistic" photographs - still working on that - which have a decent amount of light with more depth to them. Many of the photos on this post have a depth of F7.7 or more but not all. The lighting at the club has improved considerably at the club in the past year which helps plus I don't use a flash anyway and always use my camera's built in macro lens. All the photos on this post that have an F of 7.7 or more will be pointed out.

The above photo is of Mal Taylors WW1 Germans in a battle with Andy Hamilton's British. Here they are slightly dug-in. The photo is F7.7

Andy Hamilton's British were attacking the town. These chaps are quite literally on the outskirts.

This photo is F8.7

Mal's Germans scouting the town which the Germans were occupying anyway. This photo is F8.7

More of Andy's British descend towards the town. Things were getting a little rough for the British about half way through the game but apparently evened out later on. The end result was much more of a draw.

This photo is F9.9

Finally we get to the board game I have been banging on about all post. The board game pictured is Friedrich named after Frederick the Great set in the period of the Seven Years War.

Playing were James as the Russian and Swedish, John Ogden as the Austrians and Imperial Army and myself as the French. Mark was the Prussians and Hannoverians, who had the unlucky task of having to defend himself against the rest of us. Each player was allocated a certain amount of armies which were able to battle other armies. The armies are the round counters while the cubes are their supply trains. Each player had to achieve a certain number of objectives to win the game. In my case the French required to achieve 10 objectives.

Most of the French objectives were in Hannover. The small flat squares are objectives. As you can see I somehow managed to achieve my 10 objectives and thus I won the game. My last objective was protected by 2 of Mark's armies so in order to win it and protect it I had to battle his armies and win, which is what I did. The Hannoverians only had 2 armies while the French had 3.

Friedrich eventually finished just after midnight several hours after everyone else had left. I really enjoyed the game and would be happy to play it again.

The photo above has an F of 7.7 and shows everyone's positions at the end of the game. The French are in Red.

On the subject of Photography it has been noticed by me that the higher the F value of a photo the longer exposure it may require. Part of the fun is making sure that the photo is not overexposed - not too dark and not too light. The LCD display on a digital camera can be deceiving as it appears lighter on the LCD display than when it is downloaded. All photos taken above, as always, had an ISO of 80, the lowest ISO on my camera for the best quality photo.

This Blog is 2 and Wargames 16th Feb 2009

It's been around a month since I mentioned anything wargamy so sorry for that. On the 22nd March 2009 this blog was exactly 2 years old. So thank you to everybody who has been reading this blog for the past 2 years. Your support is appreciated.

Overdue now is my mini report of the Wargames from 16th Feb 2009, so here we go:

Paul Robinson, the grimsby mariner, was playing a game with his son using the Ultra Simple Skirmish Rules from Bolt Action Miniatures. These are the Americans.

Stand off at the Farmhouse using the Ultra Simple Skirmish Rules.

Dave and Rob were playing a small game of Rapid Fire!

Mal Taylor (left) playing 15mm SYW with Tony Walmsley (right). Tony is Prussian, Mal is French.

Mark Alcock and John Ogden playing 15mm Napoleonics. John (right) is Russian whilst Mark is French.

Here follows several photos of the WW2 Blitzkrieg Commander game that took place. Steve Mercer as the Russians with Mike Barnatt and Dave Tuck as the Germans.

Russians lie in wait for the German Tanks.

Steve Mercer's troops come on.

The Scenario was simple: The Germans had to get from one side of the table to the other - through the opposition of course.

This tank and infantry of Dave Tuck's are dressed for Winter.

This group of German Tanks look intimidating as they go down the table.

Close up of Steve Mercer's Infantry.

The German Convoy comes down the table. Now that's what I call a convoy...

That's Martin Buck in the background overseeing proceedings.

Wargames 6th October 2008

Been meaning to do this for days. There were only a couple of games last week. As usual, my camera was out and about.

Andy Hamilton (left) as the British playing against Steve Graham and Mal Taylor as the Germans on our WW1 Trench boards which they built.

These Germans up front belong to Mal.

On this occasion they were using our usual Schwepunkt rules without the cards and using a handful of Rapid Fire! elements incorporated into the game.

Andy's British in the trenches.

These excellent german figures belong to Mal Taylor. A previous photo of these officers is being used as our Yahoo! group photo at the moment.

Tony Walmsley and Mike Barnatt playing a 15mm Seven Years War game as usual. That's Tony there on the left.

Paul Robinson and Mark Alcock playing a game of WSS. This time they were using a tabletop teaser of C S Grants that can be found on Steve the Wargamers blog. Not sure of the nationalities but from here it looked like it involved the armies of red and blue.

A view of some of the figures in the village. Apparently the side which took both the village and the bridge, achieving the objectives, was the winner. I was told later that Blue won. The blue figures belonged to Paul.

Talking of WSS, there was a huge MEGALEAD game at the club on Saturday 11th October in which I also played and took photos. Hope to have them up in the next few days.
6 of us played. Myself I played with Paul Robinson's French Dragoons and horse. View his MEGALEAD blog posting to see what he thought of that!
Photo wise, I think my camera had a bad night last monday but a great day on Saturday! WSS figures are so colourful.

30th September 2008 Wargames

Several games again. World War 2, Boer Wars and Seven Years War. I hadn't actually intended to join in any games, just dropping by but then Steve Mercer asked me to join in. So decided "Why not?" and joined in on Steve's side.

First off is the World War 2 game using Blitzkrieg Commander. I was on Steve's side with his British playing Andy Hamilton's Germans.

General Von Hamilton overlooking his side of the table whilst he puts his troops out.

Unlike his other WW2 games this time Steve only had 1 or 2 tanks this time.....The British were attacking. Actually they always do.

Some German equipment clogging up the "entrance" to the fortifications.

The Boer Wargame. Dave Tuck was playing John Ogden using all of Mark Alcock's figures. Dave was British while John was Boer. The rules used were created by Mark Alcock. You can just get a glimpse of the playsheet in this photo. It tested well but needed a few tweaks. It was also the rules first game.

British Artillery. It's actually a large Naval gun.

Boers on horseback.

Some British, in kilts, occupying this building. Mark had owned this building for a long time.

Tony Walmsley's Prussians. Playing against Mike Barnatt who was Russian. All the figures were Tony's. Seven Years War.

Russians.

British Blenhiem doing an unsuccessful bombing run.

The game at the end. The British advance had been slow. Slowly but surely if there had been more time the British would have won.

Using these figures I was able to start breaking through the German line.

German Reconaissance vehicle. Very nice. Most, if not all, of Andy's German forces are Raventhorpe Miniatures. Many of the infantry are conversions by Andy.

Wargames 7th July 2008

Sorry this update has been long in coming. Other things on my mind such as the new hosting for the website which may disappear sometime tonight. I am still setting up the new hosting but having some serious technical problems. At worst it should be down for a few days.

On the night of 7th July 2008 there were 2 games going on:

15mm Seven Years War between Mike Barnatt and Tony Walmsley;
A WW1 Trench game with Mark Alcock, Steve Graham, Andy Hamilton, John Ogden and Andy Sharp. Mark and Steve were the Germans. The 2 Andy's and John were the British.

Mike's British on left with Tony's French on right.

A close up of Mike's British.

An overview of the WW1 Trenches.

Andy Hamilton's British Highlanders.

Mark's Germans, painted by Joe Dunn.