Society Meeting 14/05/2022

In addition to the Stargrave game previously reported, there were two other games run at this meeting, both using rulesets new to the Society from from Two Fat Lardies .

First up the 6mm Ancients players tried out the Strength and Honour rules with a couple of games involving Roman and Pontic armies.

Our members collections are primarily based for Field of Glory / DBM, so for this trial game Perspex bases were used to reflect the bases sizes in Strength & Honour.

The left of the Roman Battle Line
Pontics on the left, Romans on the right
Roman Legions form up
Pontic pike phalanxes
Pontic scythed chariot supported by cavalry and clibanarii
View from the Roman lines
Pontic phalanxes with skirmisher supports
Clash of cavalry, Pontic Clibanarii against lighter Roman cavalry
Infantry lines get into the fray

The first game was a narrow Pontic victory, the second was a Roman walkover.

Some members are also building some armies in 2mm for these rules on the regulation bases, here’s a Roman legion arrayed in the triplex acies:

Trial basing for 2mm figures.

The second game to feature a new ruleset was an early WW2 game using “O” Group rules. This featured a British advance on German positions, and ended in a German victory as the British failed to inflict enough damage on the Germans.

The battlefield in the lull before the storm
German officer giving orders
Two Matilda II tanks advance
German Pak 36
German Pak 36
British infantry advance
Matilda IIs with infantry support
Germans take cover behind the hedge.
British infantry also take cover
German heavy weapons, le.IG 18 75mm Infantry Support Gun in the forground. Pak 36 in the background

Finally, a few pictures from the Stargrave game that didn’t make the game report.

Tony’s crew advance
A cyber enhanced critter, the bane of Andy’s crew
Andy’s sniper takes position to cover the flank

Work in Progress Wednesday

We’re back with another work in progress Wednesday. First up this week we have a first look at the miniatures I’ve choosen as a Stargrave crew. They are all from Copplestone Castings, I loved the old Grenadier miniatures marines Mark Copplestone sculpted. I’m going to convert them with different weapons and some alien bits.

Next up Mark and Felix have been busy with a Saxon Brigade and more Polish Lancers.

And last for this week Eric’s Game’s Workshop pile is (possibly) getting smaller. This time we have a Primaris Space Marine and Chaos Cultist.

And a Primaris Intercessor Sergeant.

See you next week.

Open Day 2022

After a two year break we are back with our Open Day. This when we put on many games and open our doors for all to come and visit and get a much wider idea of what we do and the games we play. We try to put on a good variety of games across all the popular periods and scales, all of which are open to visitors to join in.

The Open Day is on Saturday 25th June from 11am-4pm, at the Linton Village Hall, Linton Hill (A229), Maidstone.

You can find out about the games we are running on the day here.

Tribbles and Tribulations – A Stargrave Adventure

At a recent meeting Stephen ran a multiplayer Stargrave scenario:

Rather than a full blown battle report I thought I’d present the game as a photo report. Five star captains made their way to a disused research facility – Catrix Station. Each was after loot, but to keep things interesting they also had their own objectives…

Jeremey          Captain Blake
Tony                Captain Hosvarn
Eric                   Captain Kadel
Phil                   Captain Rita
Andy                 Captain Reynolds

Note some references to past TV/Film characters

Captain Blake (Jeremey) and crew disembark from The Liberator
Captain Reynold’s (Andy) crew take up position on the outskirts of Catrix Station
Captain Kadal (Eric) and crew
Captain Rita (Phil) and First Mate Old Ned approach Catrix Station
Captain Blake’s crew advance through Catrix Station
Monkey see, monkey do
Captain Kadal leads from the front into the ruins of Catrix Station
Captain Reynolds tries to organise his crew
Captain Hosvarn (Tony) is in deep tribble
‘Lets make a run for it’
Locked and loaded and ready to rock n roll
Two of Captain Hosvarn’s crew (on the right) cower behind cover at the approach of notorious bounty hunter Captain Kadal (Eric)
Captain Blake’s crew (bottom) advance on Captain Rita’s crew (top)
It took half of Captain Blake’s crew to kill a single monkey
Captain Kadal (in the centre) goes down as her crew engages with Andy’s crew
Private Property means nothing to these scavengers
Captains Hosvarn (bottom left) and Blakes (centre and top) crews as they surround Catrix Station

Any of the Captains that actually made it into the main Catrix Station building (see the photo of Captain Hosvarn above) landed themselves with a 150 credit bill for decontaminating their starships following a Tribble infestation.

Never heard of Tribbles? Follow the link: The Trouble with Tribbles

Work In Progress Wednesday

A tad late today, sorry folks, but here’s the latest update on member’s painting.

First off, Stephen is painting up some sample packs to test the waters on a couple of projects he’s been umming and ahhing about for the last year or so.

Above you can see some 15mm ECW Scots from Peter Pig.

He’s also trying to find his WW2 mojo, he’s undecided on figure size, but wants to focus on infantry actions rather than tanks.

First off we have some Warlord Games 28mm Late war British infantry, a recent free sprue from one of the wargames magazines.

WW2 British

And changing size, some Russians based up for Crossfire, also from Peter Pig.

WW2 Russians, for Crossfire

Eric continues to work on some Games Workshop figures, a chaos marauder and cultist:

Chaos Marauder & Cultist.
Chaos Marauder & Cultist

Mark has been working on his 6mm Saxon 1809 army, Ist Corp division Generallieutenant Polentz, brigade Generalmajor Lecog, Prinze Celement, von Low and von Cerrini regiments. Basic uniform colour and regimental facings done, flesh, weapon, knapsack and bases to do, you can see the rest of the division in the background including some cuirassiers

Saxon 1st Corp, division Generallieutenant Polentz

That’s all folks, we’ll be back next week.

Bingo Master’s Breakout #2

As expected, progress has accelerated in the hobby bingo challenge in the past two months. At the end of February, five club members had claimed a total of 14 squares on their respective boards; we’re now up to 40 squares in total with two new participants.

Stephen has held onto top spot, having now claimed 12 of the 20 squares on the board already, including being the first to complete a line (in fact he has two), giving him 160 points. Jeremy has stalled, claiming just one square in the past few weeks, although it did help him become the only other person with a full line. Tony F has slipped past him into second place, although a scattergun approach means that while he claimed five squares, he has yet to finish a line. Andy and Mark K both got onto the table with their first points, and Eric and Marcus both added at least one square to their existing totals (Eric’s Chaos horsemen shown above gained him square B3).

Square A1 (play at least four different games) is the most popular and was claimed by almost everyone as we got through more club meetings. Next most common are D4, B3 and C3 which have all been claimed four times. There are still two completely unclaimed squares – D4 (write a book report) and C5 (paint any unit).

Hobby Bingo Leaderboard 2022

NameSquares (10 pts)Lines (20 pts)Total
Stephen197330
Tony F151170
Eric121140
Jeremey7190
Mark H5-50
Andy4-40
Tim4-40
Marcus3-30

You can see the full grid plus everyone’s individual progress in the Bingo Hall page at any time – this gets updated weekly, usually after WIP Wednesday.

Work in Progress Wednesday

After a short break for Star Wars day we are back with another work in progress Wednesday.

We start this week with some 15mm Wars of the Roses artilery from Stephen. Stephen has also been modifying the bases on the rest of his WOTR army to add a hit/strength dice frame.

Next up Marcus has started on some Brigade and Dark Star 15mm models  for 5 Parsecs From Home solo gaming.

Tony has been working across genres with some 6mm sci-fi terrain to start with.

Followed by some Gondor Citadel Guard archers.

That’s it for this week, see you again next Wednesday.

April 9th, 1940

Alan K reports on his anniversary refight of the ‘battle’ of Hokkerup, Denmark, on April 9th, 1940.

Some time in March I suddenly realised that our first club meeting would be on the 9th of April, the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Denmark in 1940. Having “invested” in a platoon of 28mm Danes from Great Escape Games I really didn’t want to miss the opportunity and so I put on a game based around a skirmish that took place near Hokkerup on the Jutland peninsula.

The encounter we were commemorating, the ambush of a leading German reconnaissance unit, was captured in a 1946 painting by Anna Maria Mehrn which was, in part, the inspiration for choosing this particular scenario along with a scene (likely inspired by this engagement) from the Danish movie 9. april. We’re not sure about the copyright of the painting so we’re not including it, but here’s a link to it.

The Danish army went on full alert at 13:30 on the 8th of April and were held back ready to take up positions in the event of a German invasion. A thorough reconnaissance had been made regarding defensive positions but the Danish government had given strict instructions that units were not to be deployed near the border nor was digging or other fortification to be undertaken in order to avoid provoking the Germans. Despite this the Germans crossed the border at around twenty past four on the morning of the 9th.

Our intrepid 3rd bicycle platoon of the 2nd Company, 4th Cyclist Battalion supported by the autocannon and light machine gun sections of the 2nd platoon Afværgekompagniet (Anti-tank Company) , 2nd Battalion, Fodfolkspionerkommandoet set off from their barracks at just after four thirty and took up positions just after 5am. They hastily erected a roadblock before sighting the armoured cars leading the German column at half past five.

Lieutenant H.J. Højerslev had overall command with Second Lieutenant A. Olsen commanding the anti-tank sections. The team manning the 20mm auto cannon was led by F Jensen, accompanied by Gunner Nørholt and Loader Eliasen as immortalised in the painting.

The opposition is less well documented so I had them facing two SdKfz 222 armoured cars, a motorcycle section and two more sections mounted in SdKfz 251 half-tracks supported by a Panzer II.

I used the Nuts! second edition rules from Two Hour Wargames for the game.

The encounter saw the Danish auto cannon taking out both of the armoured cars and the advancing German infantry taking heavy fire. In the end the Danes were forced to withdraw but they had delayed the Germans significantly.

In the end the game lasted almost as long as the entire Danish resistance as, despite the valiant defence put up by the Danish armed forces against overwhelming odds, the Government surrendered at just after half past eight in the morning.

Are These The Droids You’re Looking For?

Over the last 12 months or so Phil and I have been assembling a variety of figures and vehicles – mostly repurposed toys – aimed at playing Star Wars games in 15mm (many of them have turned up in WIP Wednesday posts).

The Christmas meeting seemed like the ideal time to give them their debut, so I put together a simple scenario. I’d been unsure about what rules to use – I had a copy of the classic West End Games Star Wars miniatures rules as one option and another idea was to modify Games Workshop’s Middle Earth rules since they deal with heroes very effectively (using the magic rules to represent The Force). But I had an idea when I lined up some figures during painting – all of the figures were in squads of ten, which happens to be the same size as a crew in Stargrave. We’ve played a number of games since those were released, including during lockdowns when the club was unable to meet, so everyone was familiar with them which made them the ideal choice.

Figures
All of the figures in this game were from Highlander Studios in the US. For the five players we had two squads of Rebel troopers, two of Imperial stormtroopers and one of Jawas. There were also a few figures from the hero packs, including the droids and a couple of smugglers. The Jawas’ Ronto beast was a Galoob action fleet toy.

Buildings and Scenery
All of the buildings were put together by Phil from the Brigade Models 15mm Desert and Advanced Buildings ranges. The various walls and clutter around the buildings were also by Brigade. Some of the scatter terrain came from Debris of War. The desert mat came from Tiny Wargames.

Vehicles
The vehicles are sourced from a variety of toys and model kits. The Imperial stormtroopers flew in on a Galoob shuttle while the Rebels used a Revell U-Wing. The droids’ escape pod was also from Galoob, along with the skiff. The Falcon was another toy, it’s actually the wrong version (it’s from Solo and has the square radar) but I wasn’t too fussed about that, after all it looks like what it’s supposed to be, besides being much cheaper than any alternative I could find ! Luke’s landspeeder was a diecast model sourced from eBay, unfortunately I can’t remember the brand name. All of them came pre-painted, so were just given a wash of thinned black-brown acrylic mixed with Johnson’s floor polish, followed by a coat of Army Painter spray varnish – it’s amazing how this simple technique turns a toy into a scale model.

Scenario

Click for a larger version

The game is set at the start of the original Star Wars:A New Hope movie. R2-D2 and C-3PO have been ejected in an escape pod over Tatooine to keep them out of Imperial clutches, but here the story changes slightly. The Tantive IV has somehow evaded capture and has now despatched a shuttle full of Rebel troopers in a desperate bid to recover them. The Imperial Star Destroyer also spotted the pod, and sent down their own landing party to investigate. Both craft came down a short distance apart on the outskirts of Mos Eisley.

The game was intended for five players – two Rebels, two Imperials and myself playing the Jawas while also acting as a vaguely impartial umpire.

The players needed to search the buildings to find the droids – but there were other things in the buildings besides Artoo and Threepio. Each building had a random set of inhabitants, including Rebel sympathisers, Imperial loyalists and a pair of smugglers – plus the droids of course. Although I randomly rolled each time one of the buildings was searched, things were ‘fixed’ so that the droids would be in the last building to be searched.

The Rebels came out of the traps much more quickly than the stormtroopers – their lightly armoured figures moved slightly faster – and began searching the first buildings straightaway. They uncovered a pair of Imperial loyalists in the first building but made short work of them. However, nearby firing upset the Ronto which stampeded, and one Rebel squad ended up in a firefight with some Jawas (which inevitably ended badly for the locals).

The Imperials slow-but-steady approach saw them unearthing some Rebel sympathisers, whose appearance was brief as they disappeared under a hail of fire. The two forces were by now engaging each other, and the slightly better armour and longer-ranged weapons of the Stormtroopers began to be significant. They unearthed a pair of Sabacc-playing smugglers – Han and Chewie made a dash for the Falcon (obviously wishing to avoid any ‘Imperial entanglements’) but Han was immediately gunned down as they tried to cross the square. Chewie’s bowcaster dealt out some measure of revenge, but eventually the Wookie went down too.

By now the Rebels were searching the last building, and found the two droids. All they had to do was return them to their U-Wing and get off planet. However, they had taken more losses than the Imperials in getting to this point and numbers began to tell. One by one the Rebels were picked off by the steadily advancing line of Stormtroopers, until there was one Rebel trooper left. He got the droids virtually to the U-Wing’s ramp but fell at the final hurdle, allowing the Empire to snatch victory at the last.

Society Meeting 23rd April

The society meeting on St Georges Day did fittingly manage to include a dragon!

Andy ran a game of Dragon Rampant with the players hunting for treasure and ultimately a dragon rather than just engaging in battle.

There were also two games of Field of Glory at the meeting.

Skirmishers get into action in an ancient game of FoG in 15mm.

Not sure of the period for the other game but it was played in 6mm.

The last game being played was another play through of Galleys and Galleons.

Ships sailing along the coast, some of which have taken damage.

The entire seascape for the battle.