Red Alert - The other side

 Over the weekend I managed to finish painting and basing the second faction.  To stand out from the blue fleet, I have gone again for a gunmetal base coat, but this time added red and grey highlights.

Here is the second fleet:

Here you can see the six battleships at the front, the command ship with its escort fighters, six cruisers, 12 destroyers and three clusters of fighters.

I also painted three more blue faction battleships.  This completes all of the capital ships and most of the support vessels.  There are a few more odds and ends to do, but I now have enough for the opening scenarios of the game.

Red Alert - Setting Up

 Inspired by a post on David Crook's Wargaming Odyssey blog, I decided to dig out my unopened Red Alert board game.  It was one of those ideas from a few years back that never came to pass.  I have another set that has been painted, but not by me, so I thought it would be fun to paint some spaceships and set up a basic game.

The models that come with the game are quite nicely made and come in a basic green or red plastic for the warring factions.

I experimented with various colours and in the end I decided to give all the ships a coat of shiny gunmetal and then add colours for each faction.

This is the result of my initial effort.  My green ships are now blue and sand colour:

I have started work on the other faction and set the game board up for the first scenario in the rule book.

The Battle of Dunkeld 21st August 1689

Bob Black visited at the weekend and we decided to play a scenario from the Command And Colors game, Jacobite Rising.  Bob had recently played the first scenario, Killicrankie, so it made sense to attempt the second, which turned out to be Dunkeld.  I planned to use my 54mm collection and having recently purchased some small houses, I went about setting up the game.  Some buildings were knocked up from foam board too.

After the action at Killiecrankie, Jacobite forces realised that the city of Dunkeld was held by a single unit, The Earl of Angus's Regiment, The Cameronians. The Jacobites, having numerical superiority decided to attack from the hills surrounding the town.

Essentially the battle would consist of Government forces holding the town while being assaulted by the Highlanders.  This is the starting point of the battle.  The Highlanders occupy the hills at the top of the table, with Government troops in the buildings.  The 'cathedral' forms a strongpoint:

With the roofs removed the redcoats can be seen:

Highlanders move towards the town:

The redcoats take up firing positions, but initially plan to sit tight:

The first attack came from the Jacobite right; their plan becoming clear to attack each building with overwhelming force and this happened against two buildings that stand proud of the main position. Two Jacobite units storm one of the houses:

More Jacobites come charging down the road. 

The Government troops cause some casualties but are forced out of the first house, and make a stand on the road

Several Jacobites fall and the Government forces regain control of the building:

The pressure builds and soon troops in both of the forward buildings are forced out:

The Government troops cling on, holding back the Jacobite charges, but are taking casualties all the time:

In order to restore the situation more troops are ordered forward to push the Jacobites back:

Fierce fighting occurs in the narrow streets.

The government troops regain one of the buildings mow down some of the Jacobites with musket fire:

The threat of Jacobite cavalry, however, forces the redcoats to scuttle back to the protection of the houses

With most of the Government troops in buildings the cavalry are not effective and take casualties while negotiating the narrow streets:

And are beaten off:

Having been slowed down in the centre, the Jacobites tried an assault from their left, with their infantry bursting out of the trees:

Although they manage to score some hits, the return fire is devastating and the remnants of this failed attack pull back:

While all this was going on over on the flank, in the centre the Jacobites manage to evict the redcoats from another building:

Now, technically the capture of the second building should be a win for the Jacobites, however, they have lost over half of their men and the Government troops still hold more of the town.  As per the real battle we mutually agreed that this was really a draw and that the Jacobites had no real hope of taking any more buildings.  Thus we ended the battle at this point and adjourned for tea!

This turned out to be a more exciting game than I expected.  The close combat amongst the buildings saw the fortunes of each side swing back and forth.  The spectacle of shiny 54mm troops added to the fun.

More of Norman's Soldiers

 A few days ago Norman Paterson sent me some more pictures from his collection(s).  This time we are taken to the Napoleonic wars in Egypt, with 1/32 French infantry under attack from Mameluk cavalry.  They are all beautifully painted.  I think the infantry are Airfix and Armies in Plastic, while the cavalry are by Italeri. Enjoy:

Roman Drive into Nubia - Battle Report

 Continuing operations in southern Egypt a small Roman army heads south along the Nile valley to confront a Nubian led rebel army.  The Romans, consisting of mostly heavy infantry supported by archers and some cavalry meet a lighter force, with chariots and horse archers. Will commands the Rebels and I the Romans. The two forces confront each other on a flat, featureless area of desert:

The Roman heavy infantry are in the centre, with medium infantry and cavalry out on the flanks, with archers as skirmishers in the centre:

The rebels have a similar deployment, with medium infantry dominating the centre and horse archers and chariots out on the flanks:

The battle begins with the Roman archers firing into the Rebel centre, dropping a few infantrymen, but Will pushes his horse archers and chariots out in a flaking move, both right and left.

Roman cavalry move forward to meet the Rebels.  The Roman suffer some casualties as do the Rebels when the Roman cavalry catch the lighter cavalry, who are accompanied by a Rebel general:

A similar action occurs on the other flank, with the Romans taking some hits, but the horse archers are driven off:

The arrival of some spear armed Roman infantry checks the Rebel chariots

On the opposite flank the Roman cavalry retire, pushed back by chariots and light cavalry:

The Roman left is in peril as the cavalry are severely depleted and the medium infantry are forced back

Back on the right, the Rebel light cavalry are destroyed and their chariots run into the Roman heavy infantry that have been slowly advancing.  The chariots are destroyed

Roman infantry advance in the centre too, supported by archers, who continue to pick away at the Rebel infantry.

On the left flank Roman infantry crash into the lighter Rebels causing the Rebels to collapse.

With both Rebel flanks under severe pressure, Will moves his troops in the centre forward in an attempt to split the Roman army, however the tough Roman infantry brush off the assault and now the Rebels are in disarray. Their commander falls They have reached their exhaustion point and begin to run from the field.  The Romans have removed the threat of a rebellion in Nubia and the battle ends.

The game was played using 25mm Minifigs S Range figures.  The rules were from the Command & Colors Ancient game.  The game ran quickly and smoothly and was very enjoyable.  It was quite good having an open battle field with scope for moving troops around easily and offering cavalry and chariiots the chance to run around the flanks.

 

Battle of The Little Big Horn - Battle Report

 Yesterday Will paid a visit during which we managed to play four games.  The first was a table top version of Waddington's board game, The Battle of the Little Big Horn. The game was played using the original figures (see my previous post), which I had painted with a representation of the board set up on the gaming table.  We used hexes, rather than squares.

The troops were set up as close to the original scenario, with Custer's men in the middle amongst some defensive positions, the Indian cavalry beyond the rocks to the right and the Indian foot amongst the trees near the river and their camp.  

Here are some views of the start of the game:

The US cavalry start positions

The last time I played this game was back in the 1960/70s when I received a set for Christmas.  It took Will and I a little while to grasp all of the rules, but soon things ran quite smoothly.  I took on the role of Custer, and Will the Indians.  My plan was to advance towards the top left of the board and retreat off that way, using my firepower to eliminate the Indians in the woods.  If I could get into the trees I would be safe from the mounted braves.

However, the Indians in the wood are counted as in cover and they put up quite a fight.  Although I managed to take down a few, my own men were falling just as fast:

Movement is agonisingly slow, with a steady rate of men falling from the fire out of the trees.  In the meantime the mounted braves are moving closer and forming up for a charge.  When it came it was quite brutal, those US troops not in cover were quickly cut down.  This had the effect of breaking up the US unit into isolated packets:

My efforts to reach the trees were failing as I was losing more men than Will. I decided to pull back and see if I could kill off some of the mounted figures.  I had some success, although casualties continued to mount:

Now rather like the original battle, I was surrounded with men falling fast and the enemy closing in. The remaining troopers closed in around Custer and the flag aa a group of mounted braves charged in to attack Custer himself.

The end came quickly, Custer is cut down and the flag captured:

We both enjoyed the game, which ran at a very fast pace. The rules are simple but effective and the result was an exciting encounter.

We played the game again, swapping sides.  Will decided to attempt to move his forces to the right with the aim of gaining the rocks.  Once again the braves in the trees did quite a bit of damage, and while Custer and his men did slightly better against the mounted men, the eventual result was very similar.  The pinned down troopers were picked off by the advancing Indians on foot.  It is a hard task for the US cavalry to win this game.

Great fun!