O.S. Oh Dear !

 

Yesterday I waxed  lyrical on the Spencer Smith F.P.W. French Lancers , today because it's raining I started to glue up the other unit I have - Prussian Hussars . These come in 5 pieces !!! . I'm not sure for the reason for this - maybe the legs/saddle are generic and used for other figures ? .

 

 

The legs go together quite well but the torso does not fit very well and required a lot of filing to get it to fit .

 

 

The finished figure - nice enough but what a pain to put together - only another 11 to do ! . Oh for the one piece casting of yore .

 

P.S .

 

 

Finally finished ! - Phew that took some doing !, looking good though !

 

 

 

O.S. F.P.W. French Lancers.

 

I should really be doing something constructive in the garden but my Hay Fever is bothering me so I have retreated inside and decided to glue up the next unit of my O.S.  Franco-Prussian War project. These are French Lancers and thoughtfully Spencer Smith provide brass wire for lances and even cut out pennons .

 

 

I normally hate figures that have to be glued together , but these fit very well with decent sized holes for the arms to fit into.

 

 

The swords come separate as well , but again fit beautifully.

 

 

The figures fit the horses as well ! - wonders will never cease !.

 

 

The two completed Officer figures - very cute !

 

 

The unit ready to be sprayed black , I resisted the temptation to glue the lances in before painting - have done this sort of thing before and have found it easier to fit them after painting . A good job done - Hmm better get on with the hoovering before my wife comes home.  

 

 

 

 

 

A Trip to the Dark Side.

 

Okay so I'm jumping on the 'band wagon' but having read several reviews and seen some of the demo films about it on 'You Tube' I took the plunge and bought a couple of the starter sets of X-Wing - Oh and a playing mat - and some asteroids - you need asteroids don't you !.

 

 

The Rebel X wing fighter with control dial to plot your movement . They come prepainted so you can be playing in minutes , the rules are a refined version of the popular WW1  air-war rules .

 

 

The opposition a Imperial TIE fighter - Boo Hiss !.

 

 

Having plotted your move on the dial you then use a template to move the space ship, here a bank to the right.

 

 

The baddy turns to the left , the counter is a 'action counter' that enables the ship to respond to firing etc - here it is an evade one.

 

 

He opens fire at long range !.

 

 

Dice are rolled - Red for the attack , Green for the defence. The Green evade symbols counteract the one hit on the Red dice - blank being a miss.

 

 

The Rebel ship fires now and is easily evaded .

 

 

The thing that makes it work so well for me playing solo most of the time is a system of solo rules for X-Wing from -

 

 

 

http://www.tynesidewargames.co.uk/xwingrules.html

 

Very clever and well thought out they give you at times a very tough opponent , the above template is used to find out in which segment your nearest enemy is and a dice roll gets you a course to plot and a suitable action counter .

 

 

And of course you HAVE to have one of these !, the only down side is you end up making the all the swooshing and laser sounds to yourself - and embarrassingly to your wife as she peers into the gaming room to see what's going on !. May the Force be with you !.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sword and the Flame in North Africa (Finale).

 

The Arab cavalry charge the French right flank unit - and die in vast numbers !

 

 

The Tirailleurs drive the Arabs from the village - their officer is wounded at the moment of  triumph .

 

 

The French set up their artillery .

 

 

The Arab cavalry is driven off .

 

 

The artillery range in on the Arab flanking force !

 

 

To compound their misery the Arabs draw a chance card and halt having thrown a '4' .

 

 

The Arab infantry rally after being driven out of the village and charge to retake it .

 

 

After a fierce melee they rout !

 

 

Another unit charges into the village and is mown down by disciplined volley's - the French at this point in the game threw exceptionally well !

 

 

With most of the Arab forces in retreat one of the cavalry units lost its leader and went berserk ! charging the French battery .

 

 

The lone surviving Arab managed to wipe out the Artillery crew and wound the CinC  (throwing +2 on dice) .

 

 

This hero then charged at a infantry unit and was cut down by their volley . A interesting game - the poor Arabs had some bad luck - their reinforcements did not arrive , the had little ammo and the French could not roll a dice wrong !. This has inspired me to get back into wargaming the Foreign Legion again , I must  point people to the following website- brilliant !-

 

 

 

http://www.warflag.com/shadow/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sword and the Flame in North Africa.

 

Its several years since I visited the Sahara - in miniature of course ! so I got out my copy of TSATF  and set up a game for something a bit different.

 

 

It is a dawn raid on a Arab village by a French column comprising of 3 companies of Senegalese Tirailleurs and a Mountain Gun -facing them 2 Arab foot units and 3 mounted units (generated by a dice throw).

 

 

The French force advances in the early dawn .

 

 

They are ready for the attack !.

 

 

Help is on the way !

 

 

The Tirailleurs come under fire from the village .

 

 

The Mountain Gun moves up in support .

 

 

The French open fire !.

 

 

An event card is drawn - the fight hots up ! Too be continued ......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rule Amendments to Featherstone's Horse & Musket Rules

Been fiddling about using Featherstone's H & M rules and have come up with some slight changes to them to fit my armies and table. I allow Infantry to fire in 2 ranks but half the casualties caused - he only fires one rank - but as his figures are unbased they do not take up as much room as mine do .  It is harder to hit with Artillery - I have deducted 1 from the score to hit so a 6 is needed at long range (3' to 4') not the 5or6 he uses etc. The Artillery when it has hit throws 2 dice for casualties, at over 2' I have halved the score. He allows guns to fire a second time if they miss the first shot - I allow them to dice a third time if they miss the first 2 shots (the guns have 10 ammo counters one of which is used up each time it shoots- when all gone need to leave the table to resupply)  . Troops in open order get an extra 1 to their saving throw . I use a 'First Contact' Morale roll to reflect the brittle quality of the troops in the early months of the ACW ,  when a unit receives its first casualty of the game throw a D6 = 4-5-6 OK, 3-2 retire one move (6") facing the enemy , 1 Routs (12") facing away from the enemy and needs to be rallied. You can add +1 to dice for General present or Elites or deduct -1 for raw troops. Moral is tested when a unit receives 20% and each 10% there after when it has received 50% it will not advance - throw a D6 pluses/minuses as above 5-6 OK ,3-4 retire 1 move (6") 2-1 routs (12")  . All the other rules same as in the book , these rules are still in the testing stage and my next game will be played using them.

 

Union gun fires on Rebel infantry crossing a bridge .

 

 

Move counter and 'Chance' cards.

 

 

An Indulgence

Have add a link to a new blog I have set up to record my retirement . Nothing to do with wargaming but it records my day to day doings out and about with explorations by bicycle and on foot in my local area. There will be lots of pretty pictures (well hopefully), some flora and fauna and observations on local archaeology and landscapes . My constant battle with Horticulture will also be commented on (without strong language hopefully) and maybe comments on what I'm reading at the moment or even excursions to the cinema !. All blogging is an indulgence and this one even more so ! . Apologies before I start , pop across sometime and have a peek !.

The Author at Play.

 

The writer relaxes in his gaming room only to be interrupted by his spouse !

Back of Beyond Game.

 

I've had these rules for over a year and have never got around to trying them out , so when 'S' was coming around for a game it seemed a good opportunity to give them a run.

 

 

'S' brought along his Afghans who would be masquerading as Bukharin tribesmen and some Turks to help them out - I fielded a Bolshevik force of varying quality. 'S'  set up his tribesmen in the village and his Turkish troops would come on as reinforcements. My mission was to attack the village.

 

 

The village defenders .

 

 

My Naval troops move forward ! . I'm afraid I did not keep a blow by blow record of the encounter as things got hectic and we were learning the rules .

 

 

'S's reinforcements move onto the table .

 

 

The high point of the game (for me anyway !) as my forces storm into the village.

 

 

Oh Dear !!!!!!!

 

 

The result ! - don't have poor quality troops caught in the open by M/G's and dug in infantry !

 

 

The survivors take cover ! and are suppressed (hence the marker).

 

 

On the other flank my M/G  takes revenge ! (ammo box marker means they are running short of ammo - -1 to firing !)

 

 

By the end we were both paranoid about  M/G's and here 'S' s troops cower behind cover frightened about coming out ! . My troops started to run short of ammo towards the end of the game (when you fire if you roll more '1's than '6's you run short of ammo - do it twice and you've none left) and my casualties meant I had to take a Army morale test each move having failed this two goes running I had to retire off the table - Victory to 'S' !. The rules seem simple enough - D6 orientated and give a quick game - we rarely had to look at the rule book after the first few moves and each unit is randomly activated using a card system which adds tension to the game . We both learned lessons and think we will be giving these rules another try .