Club Night - Early Saxon Kingdoms vs Early Saxon Kingdoms

Both Tom and I are going to the 'Cold Steel' event at Gripping Beast on the 15th January and we are both very rusty with WAB.


We decided to try out a game tonight with 1500pts of Age of Arthur Early Saxon Kingdoms each.


My List was:
1 - Cyning - 195pts
Sword, Javelins, Saxon Buckler, Army General. Veteran, Javelin Hurling 
1 - Atheling - 85pts
Sword, Javelins, Saxon Buckler
1 - Thane - 75pts
Sword, Javelins, Saxon Buckler, Army Standard
1 - Scop - 65pts
Sword, Javelins, Saxon Buckler
1 - Wiglera - 70pts
Sword, Pagan Priest
19 - Gedriht - 300pts
Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins, Saxon Buckler, Leader, Musician, Standard.
24 - Duguth - 207pts
Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins, Saxon Buckler, Leader, Musician, Standard.
23 - Duguth - 199pts
Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins, Saxon Buckler, Leader, Musician, Standard.
24 - Geoguth - 183pts
Sword, Throwing Spear, Javelins, Saxon Buckler, Leader, Musician, Standard.
10 - Skirmishers - 40pts
Sword, Javelins
10 - Skirmishers - 40pts
Sword, Slings
10 - Skirmishers - 40pts
Sword, Shortbow


Toms force was very similar, apart from, his general had the Fearsome Blow ability and he had forgone the skirmishers with Javelins in order to give his Gedriht Light Armour and an additional figure.


We deployed pretty much opposite each other my Geoguth going on a right flank envelopment and his Geoguth going on his right flank envelopment (with the similarities in armies and deployment you can guess we have played this battle a few times)


Tom won the dice off and elected to go first sounding a general advance. In my first turn, this is where it all went wrong for me, my Gedriht and Geoguth failed their Warband tests and surged forwards into charge range of his corresponding troops, Tom got the charge and although the melees were protracted it was pretty much his way all along with him maintaining the momentum.


Usually, I like to use my additional skirmishing troops to harry Tom's blocks and charge on my own terms as he has the slight edge in combat.


By the end of the game I had only accounted for his unit of 23 Duguth led by an Atheling and my entire army was either slain or fleeing the table.


Ho hum!


I had taken the camera to get loads of shots of the game, unfortunately, I took a photo of a unit of Geoguth led by a Wiglera while waiting for Tom to arrive and then forgot to take any others.

Wiglera leading 23 Geoguth

Refight of Quatre Bras (16 June 1815)

As it is the Christmas break we always have a days gaming at the club. This year we decided to re-fight Quatre Bras using Black Powder.


The Battle of Quatre Bras took place on the 16th June 1815 as part of the Waterloo campaign, a full description can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Quatre_Bras


The French were from the collection of James, Trev and myself, the allies were from the collection of Adie, Trev and Quinton* 


We played on two 12ft by 4ft table to give a 12ft by 8ft playing area, using the Black Powder rules with Adie developing the orders of battle and scenario rules.


Matt, James, Alan and I played the French, Adie, Quinton and Trev played the Allies.


Despite a sluggish start from the French the Allied forces were hard pressed but still held on to Quatre Bras at the end of the game but had taken severe losses and were being outflanked on their left. Of note, Picton fell in a hard fight propping up the allied left flank and Ney succumbed to a ball from a Dutch-Belgian Jaeger early in the battle.


I was in command of Bachelus' Division and made a swift advance through the village of Thyle to fall on the left flank of the 7th Coalition forces. 

Bachelus 5th Division advance up the right flank while fighting resounds in the corn fields.

Foys, Division make hard work of clearing the Dutch-Belian militia from the cornfields. 

95th Rifles move along the Thyle road to block the French flanking manouver

5th Division cross the stream near Thyle to assault the allied left flank.

95th Rifles are hard pressed in the woods.

Bests' Hanovarian brigade is sent to support the 95th Rifles

Despite some initial good showing the Hanoverian's are no match for 5th Division 

5th Division then fall upon Kempts' Brigade

View along the battlefield

Close up of the action on the French right flank

Overall a great game.


*some of Quintons Austrians did double duty as Dutch-Belgian Landwehr.

Club Night - Napoleonics; Austrains vs French

I did not know if I would be able to make the club tonight, but around mid-day it seemed that I would be able to make it, so arrange a quick pick up game of Napoleonics with Quinton.

We would be using Black Powder with roughly equal forces, I used:

G de D Durette - Staff Rating 8; Low Agression

1st Brigade
M de C Pegot - Staff Rating 8; High Independence
1/8 Ligne, 2/8 Ligne, 1/29 Ligne, 2/29 Ligne, 6/9 Field Artillery, 6/9 Field Artillery

2nd Brigade
M de C Brue - Staff Rating 8
1/85 Ligne, 2/85 Ligne, 1/95 Ligne, 2/29 Ligne, 6/10 Field Artillery

3rd Brigade
M de C Schmidtt - Staff Rating 8; Low Agression
1/13 Legere, 2/13 Legere, 1/17 Ligne, 6/10 Field Artillery

Cavalry Brigade
M de C Dubois - Staff Rating 8; Low Agression, Low Independence

Debois gets his orders

As you can see when rolling up the characteristics for the generals, I got a lot of lows, especially badly hitting the cavalry.

Quinton fielded (from memory)

1st (Grenadier) Brigade - Staff Rating 8
Two battalions of Hungarian Grenadiers, Two battalions of German Grenadiers, one Battalion gun, one Hussars

2nd (German) Brigade - Staff Rating 7; Low Decisiveness
Four battalions of German Fusiliers, one Battalion gun, one Lancers

3rd (Light) Brigade - Staff Rating 8
Two battalions of Hungarian Grenadiers, one battalion of Jaegers, one battalion of Grenz, one Hussars

There was a large ridge line down the center of the table, whoever controlled this would be at an advantage.

We both drew maps for deployment, I deployed 1st & 2nd brigades on my right supported by the heavy cavalry, the small third brigade was deployed in my center with it's left flank anchored on some woods. Opposite my main attack, Quinton deployed just his Grenadiers, with both the Light and German Brigades facing off against my small third brigade.

The French Right

The Austrian deploy

Quinton elected to go first and his Grenadiers were soon climbing the lower slop of the heights, supported by the Lights.

Grenadiers start to scale the heights

However in a pattern much seen during the game, the German brigade rolled three moves, but due to indecisiveness re-rolled and fluffed their order.

My first brigade soon made an advance of their own on the open right flank, the second brigade failed to make the same ground that the Austrian had with the third brigade still anchoring the left flank on the wood. My cavalry took the high ground on the extreme right.

The French push the right and refuse the left

As the battle developed the German brigade had very little effect, three times rolling three moves and then failing the re-roll, by the end of the game the infantry from that brigade had only moved a couple of times. The Austrians rushed all their light horse to their left flank to try to prevent the envelopment that was taking place.

The French envelop the Austrian right.

Austrian Light Horse rush to intervene

The Austrian Light Brigade shattered the French 3rd Infantry Brigade early on, but with the dilatory performance of the German Infantry Brigade are unable to make good their advantage.

The Grenz finish off the 3rd Brigade

The French Cavalry finally smash the Hussars and Lancers protecting the Austrian left

Victorious French Cavalry

The Second Infantry Brigade pins the Grenadiers and Lights while the First Infantry Brigade mop up.

Some other shots from the battle

Another shot of the photogenic Dubois

Hussars on the Austrian left

Austrians climbing the hill

The French advance

French infantry try to push the Grenadiers off the hill

3rd Brigade under pressure

Vive La France

20th August 1940 - 4th Campaign Game

Inbound over the English Channel  a raid of nine Ju88 bombers at 12,000ft escorted by four Bf110 at 16000ft.

“A” flight climb up to 13,000ft, Squadron Leader Cartier instructs both sections to engage the bomber first before the Nazi fighters can intercept. Some terrible initial shooting by both Red and Yellow sections leads to their formations being broken and then them being engaged by the Messerschmitt’s.

Flight Leader Heinz Todt causes the first casualty of the engagement, his 20mm cannon shells rip into the Hurricane of P/O Kneale and his plane disintegrates in a ball of fire.

Kneale goes down in flames

The remains of Red Section rip into the bombers, Cartier latches onto the leader of one of the bomber sections and fires several controlled bursts into the plane which soon drops out of formation losing height. Cartier follows the plane down, but takes concentrated fire from the desperate rear gunner.  With flames streaming from the starboard engine the Ju88 crashes into the sea with no chutes seen. P/O Orwell’s guns jam and he takes little part in the action before breaking off.

Cartier and Gatewood account for a Ju88 each

Pilot Officer Gatewood puts in a fantastic display, engaging one flight of bombers, one Ju88 is easily dispatched with severe damage, although three chutes are seen emerging, the next plane in formation takes sever damage and heads for home with the gunners gondola dripping with blood. With only a few seconds of ammo remaining he engages another Ju88 first causing damage to the port engine he surgically takes out the starboard engine and the plane crashes into the sea. Two bombers shot down and one aborted, a fantastic display of skill.

Gatewood in among the Ju88

Pilot Officer Jacobs has less fortune, unable to get a clear shot on the bombers he is regularly the target of concentrated fire from the Messerschmitt’s, but lucky as ever he takes light damage and as usual causes little in return.

Sergeant Kirchner receives his first blooding, although heavily engaged with the Messerschmitt’s he throws his aircraft around with a level of skill expected by a more experienced pilot, unfortunately as he is breaking off his aircraft suffers critical damage, but he coolly bails out into the Channel to be picked up by a naval launch, I think we will hear more of this fellow.
A flight of three Hurricanes from 96 Squadron also joined the fray, accounting for another Ju88 but losing one of their number.
With serious damage to his engine and low oil pressure Cartiers bird pancakes on landing, wrecking the plane and breaking his left leg, he will be out of action for about a month.
Not a good day for 68 Squadron, although four of the nine bombers were destroyed and one turned back, one pilot was killed, one was seriously injured and three more precious Hurricanes destroyed.

Gatewood bags another

The game was played out at Maelstrom Games yesterday evening. I played the Hun, Greg, Ben and Steve played the RAF.

Next week - another game of Saga.

20th August 1940 - 4rd Campaign Game

Back from a long weekend break with Victoria I have just rolled up the fourth game in our Bag the Hun Finest Hour campaign 

While "B" flight is heavily engaged with the Bf110 Schwadron, "A" flight is scrambled to intercept an inbound bombing raid. Over the English Channel heading inbound to Ventnor.
“A” Flight
Red Section

Red 1 S/Ldr Cartier

Red 2 P/O Kneale

Red 3 P/0 Orwell – Die Hard

Yellow Section
Yellow 1 P/0 Gatewood - Jonah

Yellow 2 P/0 Jacobs

Yellow 3 Sgt. Kirchner

The Luftwaffe formation consists of 9 Ju88 escorted by one schwarm of Bf110 

This will be played out tomorrow night at Maelstrom Games

Saga Louts

Myself, Padge, Greg & Ben played a game of Saga tonight.

Greg and Ben played the Anglo-Danish, Padge and I played the Vikings. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures, but here are some of the Dark Age Saxons that I used as the Anglo-Danish and to make up the numbers with the Vikings:

The Anglo-Danish used one Warlord, two units of four Huscarls, three units of eight Ceorls and a unit of twelve Geburs, the Vikings used a Warlord, two units of six Hirdmen, two units of eight Bondi and a unit of twelve Thralls.

I had played twice before but none of the others had any experience, so very much a learning exercise for us all.

We played the Clash of Warlords scenario and after six turns victory was awarded to the Anglo-Danish, they had remaining their Warlord, one unit of one Huscarl, one unit of five Ceorls, one unit of five Geburs whereas the Vikings only had the Warlord and ten Thralls left.

It's a great game and I'd recommend you give it a try.

Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Dragoons

Fresh from a spray of Testors Dullcote a dozen French Napoleonic Dragoons.

20th August 1940 - 3rd Campaign Game

We played the third game in our Bag the Hun Finest Hour campaign at Maelstrom Games

Ady took the part of the RAF and I played the perfidious Hun.


“B” Flight
Blue Section

Blue 1 -  F/0 Boggs - Jnr Ace
Blue 2 -  Sgt Carradine - Jnr Ace ( Glory Hunter )
Blue 3 -  P/0 Devlin - Jnr Ace

Green Section

Green 1 -  F/O Clarke - Veteran
Green 2 -  P/O Murphy - Regular
Green 3 -  P/O Hood - Sprog

Both A and B flight are scrabled to intercept different contacts. A flight is unable to make a contact, but B flight bounces three schwarm of Bf110.

As usual, Blue Section are first into the thick of the action, with the initial shots of the engagement Pilot Officer Devlin rips into a Messerschmitt, which disintegrates, the two Hun are seen to bail out. 

Flying Officer Boggs accounts for that bogies wing man too which explodes in a ball of flame. 

Sgt. Carradine puts in a fine display, one Messerschmitt explodes under his fire and another one takes a fatal hit on the pilot and is seen diving to earth, the gunner escapes. But, Blue section does not have it all their own way, just like the previous engagement, the German gunners are much more deadly than the pilots. F/O Boggs aircraft suffers Critical Instrument Damage and P/O Devlin fares even worse, a lucky burst severs his rudder, but he is able to bail out. Sgt. Carradine also takes serious damage from 20mm cannon fire.

Green section does not fare quite so well in the shooting stakes, a terrible mistake by Flight Lieutenant Clark results in him colliding with Pilot Officer Hood, fortunately the damage to both aircraft is light. F/Lt Clarke later atones somewhat by shooting down another Messerschmitt in a ball of flame.

Another flight of Hurricanes join the fray and account for yet another Bf110.

68 Squadron break off, low on ammo, when a schwarm of Bf109 are sighted. They really seem to have the measure of Bf110 but cannot cope with the more maneuverable Bf109s’.

Shortly after the engagement, two of the damaged Bf110 crashed making their escape, but no pilot was able to claim a probable.

Totals now, 5 Hurricanes lost, 14 Me110 and 1 Bf109 shot down.

20th August 1940 - Start of campaign day - 68 Sqdn RAF

One Hurricane is returned from the workshop and Sgt Graham returns to Middle Wallop with the sad tale of Sgt Becks demise. In further dissapointing news it is confirmed that a Hurricane that crashed in the Solent yesterday was that of Flying Officer Quinlan who subsequently drowned.


On the campaign date (20th August 1940) there are 13 Hurricanes available with a further one in the workshop undergoing repair.

The pilot roster for today is :

S/Ldr Cartier - Veteran  - Kills 3

F/Lt Clarke - Veteran - Kills 3
F/O Boggs -  Jnr Ace  - Kills 8
P/O Devlin  - Top Ace  - Kills 10
P/O Gatewood - Jnr Ace  - Kills 6 (Jonah)
P/O Grant  - Sprog - Kills 0
P/O Jacobs - Regular  - Kills 1
P/O Kneale - Regular  - Kills 0
P/O Orwell  - Regular  - Kills 0 (Die Hard)
P/O Patterson - Sprog - Kills 0 (Villainous Swine)
P/O Widmark - Sprog  - Kills 0 - Wounded on 19th August
P/O Hood - Sprog - Kills 0
P/O Murphy - Regular - Kills 0
Sgt Carradine - Jnr Ace  - Kills 9 (Glory Hunter)
Sgt Graham - Regular  - Kills 2
Sgt. Kirchner - Sprog  - Kills 0

F/O Quinlan - Veteran - Kills 3 - Killed on 19th August 1940
Sgt Beck - Jnr Ace - Kills 7 - Killed 19th August 1940

Totals now, 4 Hurricanes lost, 6 Me110 and 1 Bf109 shot down. Two pilots killed and one badly wounded.

19th August 1940 - 2nd Campaign Game

A pair of Hurricanes (Beck & Graham) from Green section bounce a  Schwarm of Bf-109E-1


Ady played the RAF and I played the Luftwaffe.

A schwarm of Bf109E1 has been strafing facilities around Portsmouth. Beck & Graham are dispatched to intercept. Although the Bf109 are low on ammunition they are led by Top Ace Gunter Schmidt. 

Green Section

Green 1 -  Sgt Beck - Junior Ace
Green 2 -  Sgt Graham - Regular


The mission starts well for the RAF, Beck and Graham scream onto the tails of the enemy fighters

Graham shoots one down and Beck badly damaging another that limps off. But, they are no match for Gunter who turns on them, initially getting on the tail of Becks Hurricane, a stream of bullets rip through Becks fuselage, killing him instantly, Graham tries to intervene but another burst from Schmidt does for his plane and he is forced to bail out.

Totals now, 4 Hurricanes lost, 6 Me110 and 1 Bf109 shot down.

19th August 1940 - 1st Campaign Game

We played our first campaign game last night at Maelstrom Games

Greg, Ben & Steve who turned up in time for the reinforcements, played the RAF. Lee played the Luftwaffe with some help from me.

B Flight at 8000ft is bounced by three schwarm of Bf110.

“B” Flight
Blue Section

Blue 1 -  F/0 Boggs - Jnr Ace
Blue 2 -  Sgt Carradine - Jnr Ace ( Glory Hunter )
Blue 3 -  P/0 Devlin - Jnr Ace

Green Section

Green 1 -  F/O Quinlan - Veteran
Green 2 -  Sgt Graham - Regular
Green 3 -  P/O Widmark - Sprog

“B” Flight are bounced by three Schwarm of 12 ME110 led by Top Ace Schneider including the Junior ace Hohl.
F/O Boggs opens the score shooting down Hohls' ME110 with a deadly accurate front deflection burst causing catastrophic structural damage then follows up with another ME110 kill another by finishing off the pilot. True to form, Sgt Carradine breaks formation as soon as he sees the enemy and soon claims another ME110 felled with catastrophic structural damage. P/O Devlin kills the pilot of another ME110 shooting the plane down. F/O Quinlan makes a claim on a ME110 that later crash lands over Kent. A flight of three Spitfires join the dog-fight accounting for another ME110.
Surprisingly, despite the array of cannon and machine guns pointing forwards on the ME110 most damage is caused by the single MG15 operated by the rear gunners.
F/O Quinlan suffers damage to his aircraft (fuel line and engine damage), although last seen heading back to base he does not arrive, fate unknown. P/O Widmark is wounded in the melee and crash lands his plane in a farmer’s field, the plane is a complete write-off, Widmark is pulled from the wreckage with serious wounds and will be out for two weeks.

For a total of one missing plane & pilot and one wounded pilot and crashed aircraft the RAF bag a total of 5 Huns.

Another sortie will be flown today.

A pair of Hurricanes (Beck & Graham) from Green section bounce a  Schwarm of Bf-109E-1

We'll play this out at Maelstrom Games on Thursday 3rd November.

68 Squadron RAF

I've rolled up a new squadron.

68 Sqdn RAF is part of 11 Group based out of Middle Wallop in Hampshire flying Hurricane Mk1. Led by Squadron Leader Bertie Cartier.

On the campaign start date (19th August 1940) there are 16 Hurricanes available with a further two in the workshop undergoing repair.

The pilot roster at the start of the campaign is:

S/Ldr Cartier - Veteran  - Kills 3


F/Lt Clarke - Veteran - Kills 3
F/O Boggs -  Jnr Ace  - Kills 6
F/O Quinlan - Veteran - Kills 3
P/O Devlin  - Jnr Ace  - Kills 9
P/O Gatewood - Jnr Ace  - Kills 6 (Jonah)
P/O Grant  - Sprog - Kills 0
P/O Jacobs - Regular  - Kills 1
P/O Kneale - Regular  - Kills 0
P/O Orwell  - Regular  - Kills 0 (Die Hard)
P/O Patterson - Sprog - Kills 0 (Villainous Swine)
P/O Widmark - Sprog  - Kills 0
P/O Hood - Sprog - Kills 0
P/O Murphy - Regular - Kills 0
Sgt Beck - Jnr Ace - Kills 7
Sgt Carradine - Jnr Ace  - Kills 8 (Glory Hunter)
Sgt Graham - Regular  - Kills 1
Sgt. Kirchner - Sprog  - Kills 0



The pilot names were taken from random Wikipedia articles.

The first scenario was rolled up from the TooFatLardies Finest Hour campaign pack:

B Flight patrolling at 8000ft is bounced by three schwarm of Bf110.

Image used from http://www.controltowers.co.uk/M/Middle_Wallop.htm

Bag the Hun Campaign

Bag the Hun 2 from TooFatLardies has been out for a while now and I've had them since release, but until last week have not managed to play a game. We had a great game with a section of Hurricanes attacking a bombing raid of HE111 supported by a schwarm of Bf109.

It did not go well for the RAF but it did rekindle our interest in the game. We'd had a campaign three years ago where the fictitious 95 Squadron did battle against the hordes of the Luftwaffe. More details can be found on the Dragon Slayers forum: http://www.dragon-slayers.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6785 including the exploits of Adys' favorite, Pilot Officer Jacobs.

I've kicked off a new squadron and have started a new campaign that I'll update this blog with the progress.