To The Strongest with Romans and Gauls

On Tuesday evening James W, Steve M, Martin, Greg and myself had our first game of To The Strongest for quite some time. It was our first try with the new V1.1 rules and they seemed to work out rather well.

We pitted a Marian Roman list (from the rule book) against a fairly vanilla Gallic force.

Steve and James took the Gauls while Martin and Greg took the Romans.

In a disastrous start the Gallic cavalry general fell dead from the first combat of the game. As the game progressed the two units of Roman Veterans proved their worth holding out for a out for a long time, not taking a single hit against the increasingly depleted Gauls.

Gallic pressure eventually started to tell though and in quick succession the Romans lost a unit each of Cavalry, Legionaries and Auxillia.

However, things went downhill quickly for the Gauls who in short order lost three of their large warbands, the Gallic centre was devoid of troops as can be seen in the image below. The Romans still had five Victory Medals left while the Gauls a solitary marker!

Finally, a unit of Gallic cavalry succumbed and it was all over for them. Victory to the Romans.

You'll note from the pictures that we have gone back to playing cards, it feels better and somehow is more fun than the chits.

All the Gauls and about a quarter of the Romans are my work while the remainder of the Romans are Martins.

Trying out some ideas for Partizan

With the help of Dave, James and I  are running a WWI game at Partizan at the end of the month featuring the attack on the Bois Des Caures during the opening stages of the Verdun Campaign.

Now there are no lists for the earlier war period so we decided on the following.

The Germans get a Leutenant (Senior Leader) and four sections each of a Gefreiter (Junior Leader), eight Riflemen and two Bombers.

Based on the devastating preliminary bombardment the French platoon consists of:

• Leiutenant (Senior Leader)
• Four sections each of 2D6 Riflemen: then, for each four Riflemen replace one with a Bomber also, if a double is rolled one Rifleman is armed with a VB launcher.
• However, to represent the resilience shown by the Chasseurs at Bois Des Caures the French subtract 2 from every roll on the 'Bad Things Happen' table.

To enhance the photographs, James had painted a rather lovely backdrop to save you all seeing that horrible wallpaper from the White Hart.

Rather splendid back-drop

James had also painted quite a bit of his terrain including the Ameera bunker that we used and some wrecked trees.

Backdrop in action! Plus some new shattered trees

We decided to represent the final drive on Driants headquarters. The French had a concrete bunker and three other emplacements, the Germans would win by taking the bunker. James Morris took the French and would be assisted by James Woodward while I handled the Germans on my own.

I started the Patrol phase with a very aggressive D6 free moves and pushed quickly towards my left flank effectively cutting the French off from their two positions on that side. The bunker had a single firing slit facing that way and hopefully I would be able to rush it without too much incoming fire.

The patrol phase

We finished with our Jump-off points has marked here. I had 11 points to spend on supports purchasing a pre-game bombardment, Maxim 08 machine-gun, off-table machine-gun, sniper and a flame-thrower. The off-table target is shown on the the image as a cross, hopefully this would make the defenders think twice about using that jump-off point to deploy troops in the communication trench attached to the bunker.

Jump off points and off-table machine-gun target point.

James spent his 5 points on a sniper and a Hotchkiss machine-gun.

I took the first turn and deployed my first section on the jump-off to the left of the bunker and my sniper in the centre of the table. James countered with his own sniper then deployed his Hotchkiss in a position to the right of the bunker and put it on overwatch.

Using the cover presented by the raised position to the left of the bunker I moved that section along out of sight and joined it with another and my flame-thrower. James was unable to target my troops as his own bunker blocked his fire.

German troops us the dead ground to advance on the weak flank of the command bunker

James deployed a section in the bunker, but the single firing slit on that side made the fire on my main assault quite desultory. Another section of Poilu was deployed behind the bunker, seeing his chance the Leutenant deployed and ordered a charge into the Frenchman preceded by a barrage of grenades. The Frenchmen were wiped out to a man and we were now starting to surround the bunker. The supporting Rifle section and the flame-thrower closed in on the troops cowering inside.

Granaten!

Seizing their chance my leading section having wiped out the Frenchmen before them tried to seize the communication trench from the bunker but were cut down by accurate fire from the Hotchkiss.

Cut down to a man by the Hotchkiss.

I then deployed another section of riflemen and my MG08 in the centre to pour fire into the Hotchkiss which was soon down to a single crewman and its Sergeant bravely keeping the gun in action. Things were looking bad for the French though. The flame-thrower closed on the bunkers firing slit and let rip with two quick bursts of flame. The bunker defenders, their sergeant dead, routed and my section flanked the bunker and I ended turn and hence the game. A good victory for the Bosch, mainly won in the Patrol phase when I managed to get so close to the bunker and also compounded by James not putting his Hotchkiss in the bunker.

About to get warm!

Fortunately, the roof comes off

The random Frenchmen worked quite well, James deployed three section getting a 7 with a wounded junior leader, an eight with a junior leader and a three with a junior leader. The -2 on 'bad things happen' rolls meant that the French almost had to be killed to a man so it felt about right for representing the defenders of the Boise Des Caures.

German sniper

As you can see we are steadily improving the terrain and the painting that James did makes a great backdrop to our photographs.

 Here are some more shots of the game.

Leutenant urges the troops on 

The Germans advance on the bunker

Posting the flame-thrower in the firing slit.

Final poitions

You low down stinking varmints

On Tuesday evening Quinton organised a rather spiffing game of Gunfighter for himself, Greg, Steve and myself.

Each player controlled one gunfighter accompanied by a couple of lowly flunkies. Myself and Greg would be one faction while Steve and Quinton the others.

Quint bought loads of lovely terrain and figures along, but Greg and I chose to use our own figures, for me, it's the first time  these Black Scorpion models I painted have seen any action.

Steve and James faced off alongside the gallows while Quinton and myself rushed to help our buddies.

Greg and Steve spent most of the game blazing away at each other without any effect until they started targeting each others flunkies then there was soon some blood on the dirt. Things changed a little when Greg lassoed Steves character but he soon broke loose.

A lucky shot disarmed Quintons character but he disregarded this set back and charged headlong into me, we spent the remainder of the game grappling outside the livery stables.

Looking back at the rules we made a few mistakes but it was great fun.

Now to start on some Frenchmen

On ongoing plans for the year ahead should see us putting on quite a few WWI games pitting my Germans against the French.

Myself and Dave now both have good sized forces for the Germans, but we were somewhat lacking in Frenchmen with James just having a slightly reinforced platoon. That changed at Salute when Dave and I each purchased a good sized force of French each from the Woodbine Design Company range from those spiffing fellows at Gripping Beast.

Since getting home last weekend I cleaned up all the figures and stuck on the separate heads, mainly Adrian helmets, but a smattering of kepis, bare heads and bandaged heads.

The figures were then stuck on to Renedra bases, 25mm for the rank and file and 30mm for the Officers and NCOs before being taken out to the garage for a coat of Halfords grey primer.

Looking for s suitable colour for my Horizon Blue I settled on a Bondi Blue from a Saga paint set that I had (that seems to since  have been discontinued). All the other colours used were from the Vallejo Model Colour range.

From the grey primer the models were given pretty much an entire coat of Bondi Blue. The helmets were then painted German Grey as were a few pairs of puttees, some puttees were painted Neutral Grey while to represent Chasseurs some trousers and puttees were painted Dark Prussian Blue.

Some water bottles and their straps were left Bondi Blue while some were done Stone Grey and some more German Camo Beige. Likewise, some haversacks were done in Beige Brown, some in Stone Grey and some in German Camo Beige.

The rifle butts were painted in Beige Brown while the rifle sling, belts and pouches were painted in Chocolate Brown.

The faces were done in Medium Fleshtone, some hair and mustaches in Black and some in Beige Brown. Finally the shoes and rifle fittings were painted in Black and the bayonets in Gunmetal Grey.

Once dried the figures were given a coat of Vallejo Sepia Wash and left to dry overnight.

Starting with the Bondi Blue, this was watered down to a very thin consistency and re-applied then a little Pale Grey was added and an high-light applied. I then went over the German Grey again then added a little Neutral Grey for a highlight. The Neutral Grey puttees were redone and again a little Pale Grey was added for a highlight.

The Stone Grey and German Camo Beige were re-applied and then a little Pale Sand added. The Beige Brown was again re-applied then a little Dark Sand added while the Chocolate Brown was highlighted by adding a bit of Beige Brown.

The Dark Prussian Blue was repainted then a small amount of Intense Blue added for an highlight.

Flesh was re-applied and a touch of Ivory added for a highlight. The Black boots and hair were highlighted with Black Grey while the weapon fittings were highlighted with a mix of Gunmetal Grey & Black. The bayonet was repainted Gunmetal Grey.

I don't know if I am entirely happy with the horizon blue, it seems paler than that James used and also seems to have a hint of lilac. However, checking some photographs online plus a few books I have, even though we have different shades we both seem to have a good match for some of the images.

I have run out of the barbed wire and will have to add some to the posts at a later date.

Here is the matrix of colours and highlights:

• Coats: basecoat: Bondi Blue, first highlight: Bondi Blue, second highlight: Bondi Blue & Pale Grey
• Most trousers: basecoat: Bondi Blue, first highlight: Bondi Blue, second highlight: Bondi Blue & Pale Grey
• Some trousers: basecoat: Dark Prussian Blue, first highlight: Dark Prussian Blue, second highlight: Dark Prussian Blue & Intense Blue
• Some puttees: Bondi Blue, first highlight: Bondi Blue, second highlight: Bondi Blue and Pale Grey
• Some puttees: basecoat: Dark Prussian Blue, first highlight: Dark Prussian Blue, second highlight: Dark Prussian Blue & Intense Blue
• Some puttees: basecoat: Neutral Grey, first highlight: Neutral Grey, second highlight: Neutral Grey & Pale Grey
• Helmets: basecoat: German Grey, first highlight: German Grey, second highlight: German Grey & Neutral Grey
• Some water bottles: basecoat: Bondi Blue, first highlight: Bondi Blue, second highlight: Bondi Blue and Pale Grey
• Some water bottles: basecoat: Stone Grey, first highlight: Stone Grey, second highlight: Stone Grey and Pale Sand
• Some water bottles: basecoat: German Camo Beige, first highlight: German Camo Beige, second highlight: German Camo Beige and Pale Sand
• Some haversacks: basecoat: Beige Brown, first highlight: Beige Brown, second highlight: Beige Brown and Dark Sand
• Some haversacks: basecoat: Stone Grey, first highlight: Stone Grey, second highlight: Stone Grey and Pale Sand
• Some haversacks: basecoat: German Camo Beige, first highlight: German Camo Beige, second highlight: German Camo Beige and Pale Sand
• Rifle butts: basecoat: Beige Brown, first highlight: Beige Brown, second highlight: Beige Brown and Dark Sand
• Rifle slings, belts & pouches:  basecoat: Chocolate Brown, first highlight: Chocolate Brown, second highlight: Chocolate Brown and Beige Brown
• Flesh: basecoat: Medium Fleshtone, first highlight: Medium Fleshtone, second highlight: Medium Fleshtone and Ivory
• Some hair: basecoat: Beige Brown, first highlight: Beige Brown, second highlight: Beige Brown and Dark Sand
• Some hair: basecoat: Black, first highlight: Black Grey
• Shoes: basecoat: Black, first highlight: Black Grey
• Weapon fittings: basecoat: Black, first highlight: Gunmetal  Grey
• Bayonets: basecoat: Gunmetal  Grey, first highlight: Gunmetal  Grey

The last few Germans (for now)

Over the Bank Holiday weekend I put the finishing touches to the last dozen Great War Miniatures WWI Germans that I purchased from those great chaps at North Star.

These were painted in the same scheme as my earlier troops, but I mixed up the colours on the haversacks slightly, doing most in German Camo Beige.

I've now got about 110 Germans painted, plenty enough for most games so it's time to make a start on those Frenchmen that I picked up at Salute - watch this space!

Here are some close-ups.

Patrolling in No Mans Land

Following on from our earlier games we played another Chain of Command game at the White Hart on Thursday evening.

This time we decided on the simple Patrol mission pitting James platoon of Frenchmen against my own of Germans, James would be assisted by Mark.

The terrain was laid out, just off centre was a ruined building on a large hill, the remainder of the table gently undulated and was heavily pock-marked with shell craters, a few areas of ruined tree stumps made up the balance.

Rolling off for force morale, the Germans came up a 10 while the French were starting on a 9. Playing out the Patrol Phase the Germans went right and the French pushed to the left so the Jump-off Points were eventually deployed as the image below.

I had two points to spend on Force Supports and picked an Adjutant and a extra Lewis Gun to add to one of my Light Machine-gun Gruppe, James spent all three points on a Hotchkiss machine-gun.

Given the large number of French support weapons I thought it would be suicidal to try and take them head-on so decided that I would create a bastion behind the large rise and let them come at me.

The Germans took the first phase and a patten developed, a six, two fives and two fours, I would not be doing anything.

The French deployed the Hotchkiss in the woods that overlooked my positions so I countered with a Light Machine-gun Gruppe and did some good damage. To prevent the Hotchkiss from being shot up by my Light Machine-gun Gruppe James also deployed a section of Grenadier-Voligeurs to stiffen that position. Two French Support Sections were deployed covering my other Jump-off points practically denying them to me.

The Light Machine-gun Gruppe was trading shots with the Hotchkiss and supporting Grenadier-Voligeurs with neither gaining the upper hand until disaster struck and my Leutenant was killed outright. I was using a different figure to my usual Leutenant so will blame it on that!

Fortunately, my poor dice rolling earlier meant that I had a Chain of Command dice to avoid the requisite test.

My poor Command Dice rolling continued apace though!

The French tri-colour always seemed to roll much better, in two consecutive phases ending the turn and also maintaining the initiative for another at one stage.

Things were looking up for the French but it was going all their way, inexplicably, one of my Rifle Gruppe was winning the fire-fight against a Support Section and eventually broke them.

Things were going the way of the French, however, I had only deployed one each of my Light Machine-gun and Rifle Gruppes so had plenty in the bag. I then made a really stupid mistake, James pushed one of his Grenadier-Voligeurs towards the ruined building in the centre so I deployed my reinforced Light Machine-gun Gruppe against them, the Frenchmen were shot up badly, but after all the Support Section overwatch fire and a couple of phases of concentrated Hotchkiss, Chauchat and VB fire my section broke an ran for the rear, only a couple of casualties but a whopping 18 Shock!

The game was pretty much up for Fritz, but I held on grimly inflicting plenty of casualties on Monsewer but I could not play for time and eventually my Force Morale collapsed.

The first German loss of our games, although it has been coming for quite some time as the recent games have become tighter and tighter. Using a full strength platoon of Frenchmen is really turning the odds in their favour.

 A few more shots from the game.