Monday, 28 February 2011

Games Night - a night of firsts.

Managed to get 2 games in tonight, unfortunately the camera decided not to work. First off was my first game of Pocket Battles: Celts vs Romans.



In this game I was thoroughly trounced by Jim, firstly my right flank which was protected by a chariot was destroyed and then my left flank was devastated, 3 X Noble Horse succumbed to the roman cataphract which completed Jim's victory points - bah! A good game that's easy to learn, less than 5 minutes but will probably take ages to master. I've placed an order for a set to have a game with the kids.

The second game was a WW2 squad level game (currently forgotten the name of rules). I played the German Panzer Grenadiers tasked with capturing a building in British held territory. The game started well with my sniper wounding a Bren equipped Tommy positioned on the edge of a wood, and my squad of infantry moving across a ploughed field towards the objective covered by a MG42 located at the edge of some woods. It all started to go wrong when I ordered the 2nd MG42 and his loader to a wall to the south east of the objective - I was hoping to cover the approaches from the wood in the NE where the sniper had wounded the Bren toting Tommy. He was spotted moving across the field and targeted by a mortar which instantly killed the loader and wounded the Gunner. The sniper then wounded another infantry man but in doing so revealed his position to the squads Sergeant who immediately redirected fire and dispatched the brave sniper.

Map produced with AutoRealm http://www.autorealm.org/ 



The troops continued to cross the ploughed field unobserved whilst the poor old MG 42er came under more mortar fire as well as sniper fire - unbeknownst to my valiant troops the sniper was hiding in the very building we had to occupy - and enemy fire from the woods in the NE. One of the Panzer Grenadiers crossing the field broke cover and made a dash for the building which instantly attracted fire from troops hidden in woods to the NW of the objective, the MG 42 on the edge of the wood returned fire but was wounded and pinned by a heavy barrage of return fire. However the covering fire enabled the grenadier to reach the objective and lob a grenade in through the window. The sniper hidden in the building managed to escape before the grenade went off. Unfortunately this dash for glory inspired the rest of the squad to follow suit which ended with sergeant and another grenadier being killed. The grenadiers stormed the building but were immediately counter attacked by the British who threw grenades into the building wounding 1. With the death of the sergeant and the overwhelming numbers arrayed against my boys and the lateness of the hour I decided to wave the white flag.

A good nights gaming - just wish the camera had worked.

Saturday, 26 February 2011

Here we go...

As a returning gamer after a 'few' years absence I've been lurking around the game blogging community for about 12 months, looking at what folks are up to, how much the scene has changed, and especially how bad I paint compared to everyone else .

In this time I've started 5 projects and finished none...! Looking around I've noticed that a fair few use the blog as a means for measuring their progress against a set goal. I intend to set my gaming agenda for the year and the requirements and publish a schedule. Hopefully the public statement of intent should shame me into getting things done.

The other reason for the post is to keep a diary of games I've played over the year. I recently joined a local wargames club and have played several games already and some of the details are already becoming blurred.

The games I intend to create elements for are :

Rapid Fire : US 101st airborne & German opposition.
Fields of Glory : Storm of Arrows army.
Esprit De Corp : Little Inkerman using Irregular 2mm (Scenario from Miniature Wargames)

I've also started some 15mm zombies (a fun buy from eBay) with some special ops as opponents for my own rules.

British Colonial & Zulu - figures from Black Tree & Wargames Factory, need to find some rules for these though.

Well that's the overview just need to work out the detail...