A Sandbox

Myself and Andy T had a long-planned meet up today. We were deciding between either CWC2 or Maurice and decided to go for the latter as it would be an opportunity for me to bring out the American War of Independence US forces that I've been painting up as a side project and for Andy to run out his freshly painted 42nd Highland Regiment, along with some Hessians and regular British line infantry. We kept things simple and went for a Rugged set up from the battlefield cards.  The forces of King George on the left, the combined militias, Continental Infantry and both sides had a smattering of allied forces of various Iroquois irregulars.  Rebel forces 6 Regular Infantry (including 1 Conscript quality and 2 upgraded to Elite) 2 Regular Cavalry 4 Guns 1 Irregular Infantry (allied Native Americans) 2 Notables were drawn at random prior to the game. Both were of a social rank that required them to be attached to the cavalry. National Advantages were also purchased includi...

I fully plan on finishing the Khemed Invasion campaign this half term week, but various family commitments have so far got in the way. However, one of my long term gaming projects is to resolve a Khemed game in microcosm by fighting it in 20mm on a tactical level. To that end, I've managed to get some painting done.  First up, a squad of 3 USMC fire teams. They need a squad leader, which is tonight's job. I'll add another 2 squads plus a platoon leader and various heavy weapons.  I've also painted up an AAVP7 and Humvee, from Butler Printed Models, courtesy of an order that Andy T made and which I picked up at the Cold War Commanders game at The Unit.  Opposition will be regular troops in the form of the Khemed army plus the Russian mercenaries of Paladin.  I need an easy set of rules, I've got a copy of Force on Force, which I believe is meant to be good for regular v regular forces. I've also got Skirmish Sangin, but not sure if that...

A great weekend of gaming was enjoyed at Richard P's The Unit, in Stone this weekend. AAR's elsewhere will doubtless cover the weekends events with more detail, my twopenn'orth will cover my own corner of the battlefield. This was the first real crack at CWC2 that I've had and we all seemed to have lots of questions over the weekend. Doubtless some clarifications and House Rules will smooth over some issues, but with the size of the forces involved and good gaming attitudes all round, both tables seemed to crack on through a decent number of turns without too much of the endless waiting for mega-forces being inched forwards.  In general, I was quite pleased with the Irish Brigade's performance - their attached French armour suffered at the hands of a number of T55 battalions on the Saturday and after a ridge line became a line of flaming wrecks, the steadfast survivors trundled up, took up firing positions and went the same way as their Fréres in Arms. A...

My usual opponent Andrew came over to Sheffield this morning and thanks to a north-facing room and a fan, we were able to play a reasonably comfortable game of Maurice.  the field of battle. Today is the Feast of St. Hippolytus. There is a church dedicated to him near Gelsenkirchen in Westphalia, hence the name. Possession of the farm was decided as the objective .  The French forces began in column and used their Cadence National Advantage to move swiftly and deploy into line. The Chasseur des Fischer on their left flank were observers for the entire game... Two line regiments traded blows with Buckeburg Carabiniers in the woods. Their mounted comrades which had taken up station to the left of the woods had been despatched quite quickly by the French artillery firing with great accuracy.  in the centre, the main battle lines drew closer and exchanged punishing volleys that seesawed with no great advantage for a while. On th...

I recently bought Programmed Wargames Scenarios by Charles S Grant and wanted to give it a go. I've had the One Hour Wargames Rules by Neil Thomas for a while now and thought the two would make a good match.  I chose scenario 1, Hill Defence and busted out my 7 Years War stuff, based for Maurice. The French would be the Blue Force and programmed to defend, while Red Force would be the British. I don't have any British light infantry based as skirmishers, but I do have some Baccus Woodland Indians/Native Americans. So this would be a battle in the Americas, somewhere in Canada/13 colonies. I didn't have any Personalities to affect the forces and the victory conditions are a bit vague in the scenarios book. I decided that I would play an hour and at the end of the hour that would signal nightfall and the British would need to be in command of the hill line.  This was also a chance to try the hills set I bought from Kallistra at Partizan last week . The...

This battle that took place in Area 15 on the campaign map.. Success here would allow the Marines to strike into the rear areas on the map, needed for success in the campaign. I decided that the Americans would need to cross the board with their whole force to score a victory. The table set up had a number of compounds and trees that provided a lot of cover for an ambush force. I chose 3 random locations and then assigned the 3 on table Khemed units to them using a d6. They would start hidden until theyoved or fired.  I also used this Solo AI that I found online. Khemed forces would base their actions on this.  Below is the board. The US forces would need to travel the length of the road, heading north and exit off the board.  The D6s show where the Khemed forces would be hidden. The FAO was on the hill to the left.  US forces CO HQ FAC 2 Abrams 2 Abrams 3 infantry, 1 81mm mortar, 1 AAVP7 1 infantry, 1 truck Air support- AC130 Spooky Khemed fo...

Full write up will come shortly. This small encounter saw a formidable force of 4 Abrams tanks plus some infantry needing to cross through an area covered in compounds and cover. Perfect ambush territory.  There were 3 Khemed units waiting, their hidden locations marked by the D6s, each unit was randomly assigned to the location. The Marines had some air support in the shape of a Spooky gunship orbiting above.