One vehicle missing from my Gaslands inventory was a bus. I found a reasonably priced Airport Coach in our local ASDA and started to plan the build. I envisaged a political “Battlebus” that I would turn into a real battle bus. From the deep memory bank I remembered Clint Eastwood in “Gauntlet” where he drives a witness to court in a coach equipped with an improvised armoured driving position. He wins through but the coach is riddled with bullets so it had to feature that. I wanted a massive engine to power it and found the ideal unit in Hot Wheels “Te’ed off”. The coach came apart easily, I cut up the interior to fit the engine and armoured the seat, then drilled bullet holes in the windscreen and side windows. I then put it all together painted it red and scuffed up the paint with a pan scourer, then added the slogans on the sides. I built it for a friend to introduce him to the game. There’s plenty of scope to add more equipment. There’s two hatches, I could use to hide weapons, a minigun perhaps but the standard bus build is quite well armed, I could fit a turret on the roof or a ram to the front.
John Lambert gives us some background on his new fleet of spaceships…
Having enjoyed Gaslands, I was intrigued to learn that the Author, Mike Hutchinson’s next venture was going to be a journey into space, entitled A Billion Suns. I signed up to be a playtester and purchased some excellent American Republic spaceships from Brigade Models. Here’s the result:
What about the game?
I’d never been wowed by Space games that resembled a Naval game and this has many interesting ideas that I really like. Players act as CEOs whose game objective is to fulfil a contract. These are either Commercial or Military in nature and it looks like there will be 12 of each. Each player has an Admiral’s Helm which the player uses to boost his ships capabilities for the turn (seize initiative, speed, firepower, defence shields) and a profit and loss tracker. There are no fleet lists, players have to judge what to buy to fulfil the contract but will only win if they are in profit at the end of the game. Deployment is by jump point. These are placed by the player and ships enter and leave the table via these jump points. It allows for playing between two tables, which sounds great for multi player games as fleets can jump onto a different table! Gravitational effects are governed by Ship size and Planetoid size. We hope to get another game in at the second meeting in April.
Here are a few shots from games we ran at Salute on Saturday. We were kept busy running games back to back for most of the day, each game taking 20-30 minutes, as our participants flew their Corsairs to stem the tide of the Salvadorean invasion..
My first figures finished this year (where has the time gone?). Eight French Hussars and four Mexican cavalry from the Maximillian Adventure (1860’s French in Mexico). Figures from Wargames Foundry.
Undercoated with Humbrol grey primer, then block painted with Vallejo or Army Painter acrylics and washed with Army Painter shades.
My Maximillian Adventure collection started over 10 years ago with the 2007/2008 MWS show Game, Non Son Hombres Son Demonios!, the Battle of Camerone:
It has grown over the last 10 years, adding villagers, more troops, cavalry and artillery to both sides.
These will be used with various rule sets, originally we used some simple participation rules (available at the above website), we played some gamers at the Society using Stargrunt (with adaptions), recently we’ve been playing The Men Who Would Be Kings, but I think we’ll be trying Rebels and Patriots soon.
Alan K updates us on the club’s two visits to the the Skirmish wargames show in 2018.
As I was putting together the forces for our game at the next Skirmish show (the Second Battle of El Teb, 29 February 1884) I realised that I hadn’t written anything about our two visits last year.
For the first show we had decided on a 28mm Vietnam scenario based on a hastily mounted search and rescue operation for a downed helicopter crew. But as we watched the weather forecast steadily worsen (an interesting contrast to this year) with snow expected it was touch and go whether we might attend at all. In the end we decided to brave it and the snow turned out not to be anywhere near as bad as we had feared. Unfortunately it did have rather a chilling effect (sorry about that) on both the traders and visitors.
In any event, we arrived well in time and set up the game with the crashed chopper over to one side and the landing zone (LZ) over toward the other. The players took control of the small US unit designated to search this area and were duly landed at the LZ. The Viet Cong (VC) and other random encounters were all handled by the FNG rules from Two Hour Wargames.
Between the LZ and the main search area was a fast flowing stream crossed by a single ford on the main route to the nearby village. The players seemed reluctant to use the ford and so decided to cross the stream. Unfortunately the first man lost his footing and if it had not been for some quick reactions on behalf of his squad mates he might have drowned. Of course all the commotion attracted the attention of a lone VC who began taking pot shots from cover at the US troops in the open.
After dealing with this initial threat the Americans advanced and began to make their way slowly through the long grass towards the jungle encountering more VC emerging from cover or well concealed spider holes and always keeping an eye out for booby traps! The US forces made slow progress taking a few casualties before being assaulted by a larger VC force. Having seen them off they finally located the chopper crew and withdrew to the LZ for a dust off.
Our second visit to Skirmish later in the year was another 28mm affair but this time winding back to the Great War. In this case our game was set early in the war, featuring a certain Erwin Rommel and taken directly from his own account of the action in his book Infantry Attacks. In his own, admittedly potentially self-aggrandising narrative, after advancing west from Hill 325, Lt. Rommel stopped his platoon in cover in a field and took a scouting group ahead. Making use of cover and the foggy conditions, they passed one farm and found their way close to the Mussy-la-Ville road. As the scouting team approached they spotted a couple of French squads relaxing along the road. Rommel decided to attack rather than wait to bring up the rest of his platoon. Surprised by Rommel’s bold attack the French put up little resistance and then surrendered.
In our scenario the player who took Rommel was somewhat less bold and when he encounter the French decided to fall back and gather his platoon before attacking. Unfortunately for him that meant another French squad had arrived before the Germans returned and they had more of a fight on their hands!
I finally managed to get my first Wars of the Roses units done. Here we have the Men at Arms getting ready to go up against fellow club member Stephen. For my units in this army I wanted a real mixed up, unevenly distributed look. I’ve never liked the standard number of figures evenly spaced DBA style units. Despite 35 years in this hobby this is my first historical army and I’m clearly not a purist! But I’ve done some research, read several books and listened to a podcast on the history of England during this period, so I’m definitely putting the effort in.To get a good mix for the units I used miniatures from Peter Pig, Lancashire Games and Essex Miniatures (plus some others I’ve forgotten). I even chose some miniatures from the early 15th century to represent a few of the less wealthy lords and knights, still using their grandfathers armour. Another thing I decided to do was not to chose a side in the conflict. It was clearly a messy affair with allegiances changing as the conflict went on (or even during a battle!). Add that to the fact the armies had identical troop types I went for removable flags for the units and commanders. In the first picture the units are representing Sir Thomas Neville but after a quick swap they are now in the service of Lord Dudley.I think this system will work quite well and I intend on making a collection of flags, so regardless of who my opponent turns up supporting, I’ll be able to pick an opposing lord!
Our new show game for 2019 had it’s first outing at Cavalier 2019.
The Salvadorean Invasion!
This is set in the war that briefly erupted between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969. This was the last occasion in which piston-engined fighters engaged in air-to-air combat.
Honduran Corsairs approach
This is a participation game with the players taking on the role of Corsair pilots in the Honduran Air Force.
Salvadorean Mustangs on Combat Air Patrol
The players have to launch ground attacks on the invading Salvadorean Army column to halt their advance, whilst warding off the attention of patrolling Mustangs of the Salvadorean Air Force.
Honduran Corsairs approach the target
Congratulations to club member Dave Sime who put together the game, which scooped the Best Participation Game prize at the show.
Honduran Corsairs come in low to strafe over the Salvadorean invasion columnCorsairs and Mustangs go head to head above the Salvadorean column
Stephen brings us up-to-date as the the club’s year-long SAGA campaign comes to a close…
War is finally over. The ravens have glutted themselves.
During 2018 we held a Saga ‘Age Of Wolf’ campaign and we now have a winner.
The background behind the campaign was that it was set in north England (sort of around the Chester area) in 1070AD. The armies we had were Normans, Norse Gaels, two Anglo-Danes, Welsh, and Vikings.
Before we come to who finally came out on top we thought we’d give you some stories from the players (or is the warlords?) on their best moments and reflections on the year’s campaigning.
The Saga of Iomhar MacAuley (and his father Olaf)
The first game against Andy was pivotal as my Warlord was killed (a 1/20 chance) losing the Who’s Next challenge, the best ability on the battleboard. In subsequent battles he would never be able to lead from the front. The best battle was against Jeremey’s Anglo Danish where a huge dane-axe melee took place on a river crossing resulting in the complete destruction of a unit of 8 Norse Gael Warriors against 6 Anglo Dane Hearthguard in one combat. This allowed a challenge on his weakened warlord which was won by the Norse Gaels and the Anglo Danish Warlord was killed outright.
Sailing home after a successful raid on the Anglo Danish recruits of Irish axemen from Donegal paid visit to our Hall and after much drinking and feasting agreed to join in our expedition the following summer to raid the Anglo Danish lands again. We were surprised to find an Anglo Danish army lying in wait with additional mercenaries and witchcraft prevented us gaining their Sacred Ground. Sensing that greater battles lay ahead, we left and whilst the Anglo Danes celebrated for many nights, it was an empty victory. Their lands had been stripped bare.
I sought vengeance for my father’s death in turn 1 and raided more Anglo Danish lands. We intercepted them escorting trade, yet more witchcraft confirmed the presence of a large body of Anglo Dane huscarls from their Allies. We heard news that a Norman force was setting sail from the south and rumours of a Viking raid from the North. The Huscarls were nearly all slain but we left without booty to face the greater threats from North and South.
Returning quickly home, we were able to intercept the Normans at a ford near the border of our lands. We learned that these Norman’s do not fight like real men and our valiant men were cut down in wave after wave of cowardly arrows. It will be a long hard winter waiting for the Vikings, we pray for storms to scatter their ships.
The Saga Of Andraes Willhelmson
It has been a mixed year for Andraes Vilhelmsson; many men have come to pledge their service, his family has expanded through marriage, his fame has grown and a firm friendship forged with Uhtred Beornson.
The year has seen battles with the Welsh, the Norse Gaels, Vikings and the Normans. The high points have been consistent victories over the Norse Gaels of Olaf Tidbit, and after Olaf‘s death at Andraes’s men’s hands, Olaf’s son Iomhair MacAulay. Andreas’s struggle against the invading Normans has not gone well, with three battles lost to Gislebert. Andreas crossed axes with Owain the Cantankerous Welshmen twice, with the Welshman besting Andraes on both occasions and he has also suffered a raid by the sea wolves.
Andraes’s Wealth and Reputation have increased, and he is now considered an Atheling; but his lands have been beset by many raids, a campaign by the Welsh and diverse floods and famine. Andreas himself has been grievously wounded in two of these battles.
Andraes will spend the winter recovering from his wounds, and will set forth again next year determined to keep the invaders at bay.
The Saga of Antoine de Gislebert
I started the campaign season with what looks like an unorthodox warband, but my randomly generated special ability (scout), meant that all my levies generated Saga dice. For the Normans this played into our hands.
Motivation of land would also help as the higher this went the more levy units I could have. Initially this was a problem in that I had to generate money to buy land as campaigning with mounted knights and levy is very difficult, so I tended to raid my opponents.
KODAK Digital Still Camera
Campaign season 4 wasn’t looking good…. I had already lost a raid against the Welsh when we were in turn raided by the Anglo Danes. I took a chance and played the 4 point encounter with myself, 1 unit of warriors with x-bows and 3 units of levy bowmen. If I got into close combat it wasn’t going to be pretty for the levy, but luckily I only lost my warrior unit and ultimately won the game. 3VPs
Campaign season 5, I ended up defending this season. This would have generated no VPs except the Anglo Dane’s were up for revenge and raided trying to stop a baggage train. Although some of the baggage was looted, the game finished as a draw. 1 VP
Campaign season 6 was the turning point. Raided by another Anglo Dane warband, we fought challenge scenario…wrongly. We played it differently to the official errata and I should have lost, but my opponent stated that we keep the original result, as the battle would have undoubtedly been fought differently. I rounded off the campaign with a resounding victory against the Norse Gaels. 4 VPs
The Saga of Owain the Wolftamer
I started cautiously and decided to play a devious game. I was lucky at the start because I gained three wealth and my aim was to acquire wealth! Which meant I started as a aetheling with the post-battle benefits that brings.
It was at the Cavalier show in Tonbridge that things started to get political. I overheard Jeremey and Andy (the two anglo-dane players) having a sneaky discussion about forming an alliance. And I could have sworn that I heard them plotting to attack Tony’s Normans. So I decided to deflect attention away from myself and emailed the other players letting them know of such skullduggery.
And I had been partly correct.
Next turn Andy and Jeremey did indeed declare an alliance. But they attacked me!
This meant I had to face two opponents, on the same day, both with reinforced armies. I wasn’t confident.
Somehow, though, I managed to win both games! It was from this turn that Owain became the Wolf Tamer (he’d previously been Owain the Cantankerous because I rolled the ‘Quarrelsome’ personality trait). I gave him a warbanner, and made one up especially for the campaign (yes, I know it looks more like a pair of angel’s wings than two clipped wolf tails. I could re-paint it, I suppose…). I think this banner will be used in other games, outside of the campaign, just to remind Jeremey and Andy of their infamy and how they lost. They deserve nothing less.
This then set me up for the rest of the campaign and put me in a strong position.
KODAK Digital Still Camera
The Saga of Unhtred Beornson (and son Erik)
The campaign season ended as it had started with the spilling of Norman blood. Our Lord Uhtred Beornson rallied the land to face the first unprovoked attacks of the Norman aggressors. But the lands were ravaged and soon the vultures were gathering on our borders. Lord Uhtred mustering a force strong enough to challenge these other threats launched successive attacks against the Welsh bandits and godless Norse Gaels, but the omens were bad and despite a strong alliance with the fellow Anglo-Danes of Andraes Vilhelmsson, Lord Uhtred was slain during a bloody encounter with the Gaels. Bearing our lord’s body back to Elmslac his first born Erik Uhtredson took up his father’s axe. As the campaign season drew to a close Erik turned towards the Normans determined to seek retribution. Blades clashed, shields were splintered. Many Normans and Danes were slain, Erik fought with the ferocity of his ancestors slaying a number of Norman knights single handed. Supported by his chosen warriors, several blows were landed on the Norman Lord Gislebert, but as the sun set it wasn’t enough. Returning to their lands as the first snows of winter fell, the exhausted warriors reflected on a hard fought campaign.
To The Victor Go The Spoils
Firstly, our immense thanks go to our friends at Gripping Beast. What each player did was put a fiver in a kitty to get a prize for the winner. Winner takes all. I then contacted Gripping Beast, told them about our campaign, and asked if we could have a deal on a copy of the Saga 2 rulebook and Age Of Vikings supplement. They very generously agreed! Great stuff.
And so the winner was…Tony G with his Normans.
Yup, the result was quite a historical one: the English (Anglo-Danes) had come out poorly, with the norse still nibbling around the edges but not really having it in them to make a firm hold, whilst out on the Celtic fringes they are still independent (for the time being). Top of the heap, though, are the Normans.
And with that, we have now gone over to Saga 2. Tony won the books, and I have it on good authority that Santa may have visited others as well. As I write this, we are yet to have a game of the second edition, but there is an upcoming session in the club diary. So if you want to play a bit of Saga (or anything else) you’d be more than welcome to join us.
The Royalists started with 15 battle groups. The Scots Covenanters and Parliament had 19 battle groups. The Royalist right flank collapsed under the onslaught of Cromwell’s “Ironsides” Horse regiments which caused an Army break, after the Cavaliers accrued 16 attrition points.
A bad day for the Royalist Cause! Hopefully, there’ll be a re-fight later in the year.
Royalist foot moving up in the centre.More Cavaliers in the distance on the right wing and the Royalist baggage camp is in the foreground.Scots Covenanters with their frame guns (light artillery) standing steady in the Allied centre.The Royalist cavalry on the right wing in a tight situation with Cromwell’s “Ironsides” horse regiments supported by Parliamentarian foot.A battle group of Scots lancers. They contributed to the routing of the Cavaliers on the right wing.Royalist dragoons using the cover of enclosed fields.
The Bomber Command Force. Lancaster MkI/IIIs of A and B Flights, 460 Squadron RAAF and 4 De Havilland Mosquito Mk IV bombers of 692 Squadron
In our first session the five German players each commanded their own JagdDivision of Night Fighters, aiming to intercept the incoming bomber Command raids that night.
The NachtJagd force. From left to right – Bottom: five Messerschmitt Bf-109 G6s of JagdGeschwader 300, 301 and 302 and one 262 B-1a/U1 of NachtJagdGeschwader 11. Middle Messerschmitt Bf110s – four G4 and one F4. Top: five Junkers Ju88 C6s of NachtJagdGeschwader 1-5
The Germans were lulled into a bit of a false sense of security as they did not spot any incoming raids until turn 3. The air picture then clarified and the main force raid was identified using a northern route, with a mosquito raid to the south and two other diversionary raids emerging from the main force attack.
Junkers Ju88 C6 radar equipped night fighters of the NachtJagdGeschwader
The first unit to strike were the Ju-88 C-6 of Mike’s II Gruppe, NJG3, which had been placed on overwatch under control of the defensive radar chain in Northern Germany. They attacked as the Main Force Raid Lancasters passed over the radar line. However, this unit had been dispersed by the poor weather on take off, reducing its impact.
Lancaster MkI/IIIs of A Flight, 460 Squadron RAAF. The Lancaster had become the main type of heavy bomber in Bomber Command by 1944. “D Dog” was crewed as a Mid-Upper Air Gunner by the Society Treasurer’s father, then RAF Sergeant Ray Harris in 1945
Fighters were given only a very general indication of where the bombers were by their heavily jammed ground radar and mainly relied on their own airborne radar to find targets. However, only 2 of the players had the new sets that were free from British jamming.
In the action that followed, it was Chris that got in the first attack, badly damaging Lancaster C for Charlie in a hasty attack. However, he’d picked the wrong plane to mess with and his Ju88 was shot down by return fire from the defending gunners.
The first air to air attack. Lancaster ‘C for Charlie’ is winged, but shoots down the attacking Ju88 C6 of Chris
Next up was Bob, who homed in on Lancaster E for Easy. However, this plane’s gunners were really on alert and they opened fire first and shot the Ju88 down before it had a chance to land any hits.
The second air to air attack. Lancaster ‘E for Easy’ plays a blinder and shoots down the attacking Ju88 C6 of ‘Experten’ rated Bob
However, at last the NachtJagd managed to get off the scoreboard as John locked on to Lancaster H for How, damaging the target on his first pass. A second pass shot the Lancaster down. The gunners never saw what hit them.
The first score for the NachtJagd as ‘H for How’ is shot down by the attacking Ju88 C6 of John
With the first attack completed the players returned to the raid map. Here diversionary Mosquito raids were beginning to hit their targets in Duisburg, Witten and Hamburg. The Duisburg raiders got clean away without being intercepted. However, the only unit equipped with high-speed specialised He-219 A-2 Night Fighters, Chairman John’s I Gruppe NJG1, was now placed on overwatch in the radar line astride their return route and were vectored in to attack the Mosquitos that had raided Witten. The Ju-88s and Me-110s in the air in the area were too slow to catch the Mosquitos.
De Havilland Mosquito Mk IV bombers of 692 Squadron, part of the Light Night Striking Force. These delivered small high level raids as diversions from Main Force raids. They were unarmed and relied on their speed to escape interception.
In this second action the unarmed Mosquito Mk IVs played a cat and mouse game as the Heinkels tried to home in on their targets, relying on their speed for protection. Mike managed to get into position to make a power dive to pounce on one of the raiders, but his approach was spotted and the Mosquito attempted to shake him off with a corkscrew turn. Mike second guessed this and followed the Mosquito through the turn, then shot it down with a well-aimed burst, as it began a second corkscrew evasion.
The raid will continue at the next session in April.
At the end of session 1 the league table points scored are as follows (it is worth noting that the Germans were stupendously unlucky in their dice rolls to lose 2 Night Fighters in air to air combat):
Mike (2JD) 3 +2 for Mosquito shot down, +1 for GCI attack
Chairman John (3JD) 2 +1 for Lancaster shot down, +1 for GCI attack
Dave (1JD) 0 no gains, no losses
Chris (7JD) -1.5 +.5 for Lancaster damaged, -2 for Ju88 shot down
To get a good mix for the units I used miniatures from Peter Pig, Lancashire Games and Essex Miniatures (plus some others I’ve forgotten). I even chose some miniatures from the early 15th century to represent a few of the less wealthy lords and knights, still using their grandfathers armour.
Another thing I decided to do was not to chose a side in the conflict. It was clearly a messy affair with allegiances changing as the conflict went on (or even during a battle!). Add that to the fact the armies had identical troop types I went for removable flags for the units and commanders. In the first picture the units are representing Sir Thomas Neville but after a quick swap they are now in the service of Lord Dudley.
I think this system will work quite well and I intend on making a collection of flags, so regardless of who my opponent turns up supporting, I’ll be able to pick an opposing lord!
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