The Last Stand Colonial Game

I recently bought some buildings, a pack of 5 for about £12, and assembled them.  Also, having just painted a heap of colonial figures, I thought a small game was the order of the day.

The scenario is that an Anglo-Sudanese force has occupied a town near the River Nile.  The occupants of the town had been attacking shipping on the river and extorting  money from the boat owners. The British force had achieved its objective, occupied the town and was awaiting a boat to come and pick them up  Unfortunately the river levels had dropped and the boat was grounded several miles down stream. Meanwhile, the tribes of the River Valley had come together and had decided to attack the British in the town.  Seriously out numbered and with nowhere to go the British force must hold on until relief arrives.  The Anglo-Sudanese force consists of three companies each from the Loamshire Regiment, The McVities Highlanders and the 1st Juba Rifles. In support they have a light field gun and a gatling gun team. The force is commanded by Colonel  F R Smyth -Jones.

Here is the town with its defenders:

The combined River Valley tribes have the town surrounded. On a nearby jebel, amongst the rocks are some Sudanese riflemen, along with a muzzle loading cannon.  Behind the Jebel are three units of cavalry, Sudanese tribesmen and Eastern Fanatics:

At the other end of town a large group of Hadendowah tribesmen have congregated, 

 

and amongst some rocks rifle armed hillmen have been sniping into the town causing some casualties amongst the Juba Regiment.

The tribesmen do not wait long before beginning their attack, as the Fanatics swing around the Jebel and charge towads the Loamshires, who fire volleys from the sangar and buildings:

Almost simultaneously the Hadendowah charge towards the other end of the town under a hail of fire from the Juba Regiment and the Gatling gun:

After taking many casualties the Hadendowah take one of the buildings and overun the gatling gun as well as a company of Highlanders who had mounted a counter attack, but the Hadendowah are now a spent force:

All the time artillery and rifle fire rain down from the Jebel, which gradually eliminates the light gun crew. With the British gun destroyed the Fanatics renew their attacks against the Loamshires, who are reinforced by some Highlanders.

The Loamshires sangar falls:

To make matters worse, the cavalry begin to sweep around the flanks and the Sudanese tribesmen begin their adavance:
 

At the other end of the town the Juba Regiment continues to take casualties from the Hillmen, and skirmishes with the remaining Hadendowah, who have occupied one of the buildings.

The cavalry charge the highlanders behind the defences:

But are mown down:

Whilst this is going on the Sudanese tribesmen storm forwards into a hail of bullets and suffer badly:

But the Fanatics finally overwhelm the other Loamshires company and take the building and a second wave of cavalry smash through the highlanders and enter the main street:

Now the remaining Loamshires company is overun and the last Highlander company is attacked by the Sudanese tribes men from the front and cavalry from the rear:

The Hillmen sweep into the other end of town, driving out the few remaining Juba Regiment, while Colonel Smyth-Jones, along with his artillery commander fall with revolvers in hand.

The battle is over and the Anglo-Sudanaese force is destroyed. The relief never arrived and the town falls back into the hands of the River Valley people.

 

New Gaming Mat - Cigar Box

 A few weeks ago I ordered a new gaming mat from a US based company, Cigar Box.  I had almost forgotten about it when the postie delivered it to my door. It has an overprinted terrain map, which is in turn over printed with a three inch hex grid.

On first inspection I did not warm to it, but I set it up on my table and added some very basic scenery, which in my mind represents a part of Normandy.  I have added some tank models and some infantry stands to see what it would look like and how well they would fit.  I have to say that now that I have seen it set up it looks OK.

The three inch grid gives me scope for more figures to be used on the table, as opposed to my existing four and five inch hex mats.

Here are some pictures, the figures are Airfix and the vehicles are Roco Minitanks:

 

The Portable Wargame - First Try

I have accumulated several of the Portable Wargame books by Bob Cordrey and whilst I have borrowed some of the ideas and mechanisms, I have not actually played a full WW2 game using the rules.  I liked the idea of a WW2 scenario, but I did not want to spend an age setting it up, basing figures etc etc. I also did not want to be bothered with keeping tabs on casualties and I wanted a solo game.

The solo game is well catered for in the books, using playing cards to determine initiative.  To cope with casualties I decided that one stand would equal one Strength Point (SP) and I was keen to make my units look like units, rather than single models on a base. I used the mechanisms laid down in 'Developing the Portable Wargame', particulalrly liking the pinning rule.  I took from Hexblitz the idea of having three states of activity, that is, moving, static or in defence. This is good for keeping track of which units are un/limbering up, or in defended positions, without the need for model defences.

For a board, I used a piece of 4 x 3 hardboard, painted green, with some roads and rivers painted on and a three inch grid drawn onto it.  Hills were 3 x 3 inch blocks of balsa.  For buildings I used Monopoly playing pieces. For troops I went to the nice Ian Kay at Irregular Miniatures and bought some 2mm armies. These are very cheap and arrived in about 48 hours.  I soon had the tiny tanks stuck onto 30mm MDF discs, with one disc representing one SP:

Within a couple of days, I had a board, two armies, one German and one Russian and it was time to try the rules. For my first battle I was going to have a small depleted German force defending a ridge line, to protect two river crossings. The Germans had two infantry battalions, a depleted assault gun battalion (Stug IIIs), two 88mm battalions, an SP howitzer regiment and in reserve a depleted tank battalion (Pz IVs).  The German end of the board was laid out thus:

The Stug battalion deployed forward into the village:

I am not going to give a blow by blow account, suffice it to say that the Russian, armour heavy steam roller rumbled forwards, initially taking a hit from the Stugs in the village, losing some heavy tanks and becoming pinned:

The Russians had a good run of card draws for initiative and soon the supporting Russian T-34 regiment, ousted the Stug Battlion in a flank attack, and a Russian Rifle regiment moved up through the woods to assault the main ridge:

The infantry attack was initially thwarted and the german reserve depleted Panzer IV battalion pushed the Russians out of the village:

With the Germans back in control of the village, the Russian commander decided to push his armour round to his right flank and attacked the German left. At first the 88s gave the Russian tanks a hammering, but were eventually overwhelmed and driven off the ridge:

The Russian attack built up, taking out the remaining Stug company, destroying the 88s and then pinning and subsequently forcing the German infantry (131 Regiment) off the ridge:

By now the Germans were close to their exhaustion point as the action shifted to the opposite flank. Here a second Russian rifle regiment swept around the defending 77 Regiment, with heavy artillery support.

With some rotten dice throws the Germans became pinned, and then were force to retreat off the ridge, taking more casualties. The Germans were finished, being pushed up against the river and reaching their exhaustion point. This was the board at the close of the game:

Overall I enjoyed this simple and fast game. I made a few mistakes along the way as I learned the rules. One thing I will do is write the rules out on a crib sheet as referring to the books each time was a pain.

2mm figures worked very well on the three inch grid and combat resolution was simple, allowing the game to move along at a pace.  I need to go back and study the rules. At one point it states that infantry cannot attck armoured vehicles, but I allowed mine to take on tanks when they were in an adjacent square - maybe I got that wrong.  I will give it another go soon.

Russian Lifeguard Cossacks

A few months ago I received a surprise package from Alan of ABC Wargamers. Contained within was a variety of Minifigs cavalry, both S Range and current range. One group of figures consisted of these rather splendid Miniature Figurines Russian Cossacks, painted as a guard unit. There are seven figures in the group and the painting is very nice indeed. 

The figures appeared to have dulled over the years and so I set about freshening them up and adding a little more detail. The results were very pleasing:

 Here they are carrying out their duties as escort to the Russian General Staff:

Ros 25mm Prussian Infantry

Continuing to work through the refurbishment of some of my older figures, these Ros Prussians date back to 1975 and were getting a bit worn and shabby:

Only another 200 to go!

Minifigs French Dragoons

Another project completed.  This is the last of my outstanding projects that have been lying dormant in my painting queue.

These figures are 25mm Miniature Figurines French Line Dragoons:

More Greeks

Over the last few days I have been refurbishing several batches of Greeks and Persians. These are 25mm figures by Garrison:

More French Gunners

The second set of gunners that have been sitting patiently for around ten years to be finished is this group of Minifigs Guard Horse Artillery. At long last they are completed and ready to take to the field:

Minifigs 25mm French Napoleonic Line Artillery

I actually started painting these figures in 2011 and almost completed them, but for some reason they were set aside, along with some guard horse artillery. I have dug them out many times over the years intent on completing them, added a bit of detail, but they were always set aside for more important projects. Well, last night I finally finished them and they are ready to join the the rest of their colleagues:

Airfix WW1 French Infantry

Having enjoyed a couple of WW1 games set in the early war years, I thought it might be interesting to have some actions involving French troops. Unfortunately the Airfix WW1 French, unlike the British and German offerings, are dressed in the later uniform wearing a helmet.  I clearly needed some in the older red breeches and kepi style.

I could have opted for figures from Hat or Caesar, who both do early French, but I was keen to use Airfix if possible.  So, I set about lopping off heads and attaching new ones sourced from ACW figures.

Here are the results:

I quite like the results and I reckon they will look OK on the table

I have ordered a few pieces from Irregular Miniatures and some Hat artillery figures.