2025 games count.

[Chris Pringle]

Napoleonics (Peninsular War): the battle of Ocaña (1809), using 6mm figures and BBB rules.

Apparently, the biggest army Spain fielded during the Peninsular War was that commanded by Areizaga at Ocaña. This produced a very enjoyable game for us. It's a nice asymmetric match-up of French quality against Spanish quantity: a French army is outnumbered 3:2 but has to attack, which makes for interesting tactical challenges for both sides. Photo-AAR on the BBBBlog here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/06/spains-biggest-peninsular-war-battle.html

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Fab report. Thank you.
Looks superb.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Sharp Practice 3 hours
French Vs British
Cuirassier unit and engineer wagon that I finished last both had interesting games.. Cuirassier deployed, got shot a lot by two British units, forced to withdraw four times, lost me three victory points, eventually rallies, and charged.
Cut one of the units to pieces.
Engineering wagon moved all of 4" all night. But it looked good.
Final score French 7, British 10. Losing draw

[paulr]

ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 3 players two games 2.5 hours and 3 hours

Fighting over bloody lane at Antietam, two pretty close games. The second one in particular had several wild swings and both sides just managed to claw their way back into the game a couple of times before the Confederate center finally broke

WWII Homebrew rules - 4 players 9.5 hours over 4 nights

The Germans managed to block one bridge and knocked out several British tanks but at too high a cost to their own armour. The British reserves were going to be strong enough to push through...

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

GdA Napoloionic - Rolica - which as written cant be won by the British - still a fun game.

[Chris Pringle]

Napoleonics: Peninsular War, battle of Valls (1809).
BBB rules, 6mm figures.
No Brits, but it does feature a wagon train!
Full photo-AAR here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/06/baggage-to-catalonia-battle-of-valls.html

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nick Overland ran BBB Coulmiers 1870 in 10mm.
Close run win for the French. 🥖

[Chris Pringle]

Nick Overland ran BBB Coulmiers 1870 in 10mm.
Close run win for the French. 🥖

Ooh, well done - I think that scenario's a bit skewed towards the Germans, so it's great to hear that the French won this time!

[paulr]

For King & Parliament Battle of Montgomery scenario from the rule book using the unit cards available from Simon Miller's BigRedBat Shop. The unit cards were provided by my opponent and again generated comments about 'playing cards in church'.

Three games played at a higher pace than last time, 2 players in each game.

1.	Royalist Horse had collapsed within 1 hour including set up time
2.	Royalist Horse had suffered significant loss and the Royalist attack on the Parliamentarian held hill proved too costly 1.5 hours
3.	A well-coordinated Royalist foot attack on the hill inflicted heavy loss on the Parliamentarian foot. The desperate charge by the Parliamentarian Horse was not successful. The two Parliamentarian Horse regiments that hadn't yet returned from foraging were sorely missed. 2 hours

[Chris Pringle]

Last Sunday I was introduced to Stargrave, courtesy of the good folks at Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society.
Amusing enough to play again, as and when I'm next down that way.
(Dangerous words - I have saved my hastily rolled-up squad so that they can get their experience upgrades - which may mean having to invest in a rulebook, and then figures, and ... )

[paulr]

Last night finished a four-evening saga, over two weekends, the battle of Tsushima 1905

Used our pre-dreadnought variant of General Quarters I/II, a very amusing time had by all with many of the ships being unable to hit the opponents that sailed past, let alone damage them. The Russian flagship and two other Borodino class battleships managed to get past the main Japanese fleet and headed for Vladivostok. The same could not be said for quite a few of the remainder of the Second Pacific Squadron.

Four players 10.5 hours playing time

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Last games - Lost a Battlegroup Overlord as Germans. The there was the winning demo at Phalanx, my contribution the mustang and acidity 

[Chris Pringle]

Yesterday was the BBB Bash Day convention. Full report on this excellent day will follow.

I played in one of the games: Chattanooga (ACW).
I was on the Union side. I think our plan was sound enough, working around both flanks and drawing rebel units out of their fortified positions by manoeuvre rather than frontal assault, before attacking in the centre as well.
There was one pivotal moment, an assault against one of the Confederate divisions linking Missionary Ridge with Lookout Mountain, that went in with pretty good odds but got bounced off by bad dice. Had it succeeded, we'd have been through there in time to seize a road junction objective plus help to roll up Missionary Ridge from both ends. As it was, we barely managed a draw.
Excellent scenario, full of options for both sides and replay value.

[Chris Pringle]

ACW: Shiloh. (BBB rules.)
Visited the Abingdon club and joined BBB newcomers Bob and Phil.
Classic bloody tussle in the woods.
Our Confederates stormed up the table past Shiloh Church and carried the Sunken Road and the Hornet's Nest.
We played all of Day 1.
At the end of it, the Union still held enough objectives to claim victory.
However, if we'd fought Day 2, even though the Union would get reinforcements, I think the Confederates could well have turned it around, because the Union army was so battered (5 of its 7 divisions on-table were Spent) that we could have rolled up.
With four players, we'd have been able to play Day 2 as well. As it was, good fun and left us with a what-if that makes me want to play it again.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Got behind on the count, whoops
Sabresquadron Korea

[paulr]

ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 3 players 2.5 hours, with a 4th joining for the last hour on the second evening

Fighting over the Bloody lane at Antietam again, a Confederate victory this time

For King & Parliament Two games 2 hours and 1.5 hours, two players

Used 80 point armies to check how long the games would take and if there were enough troops to be interesting games

First game was a nail-biter either unit could have won the game. The Royalist Pike & Shot charged a unit of Pike & Shot that had been pinned in hedgehog but a plucky unit of mounted Dragoons. The attack went very badly, the Royalist unit was lost, breaking the army   

Second game was much more straight forward. The Royalist Horse was broken forcing a unit of Pike & Shot into hedgehog. The Parliamentarian foot punched through the centre. Royalist army broke with no loss to Parliament       

The tests were successful, games could comfortably be played in a couple of hours and there were plenty of decisions and options for both players. A few slightly different chits in the second game could have given the Royalist a chance of victory

[mollinary]

Great to hear people still having fun with FK&P!  That includes me, by the way!

[Chris Pringle]

Six of us had a splendid time on Sunday fighting the three-day battle of Pered (1849).
I like to think of this as "Hungary's Waterloo" as there are so many parallels: basically, the Hungarians are trying to beat the Austrian army before the Russians can turn up to save them.
Full photo-AAR on the BBBBlog:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/07/decisions-decisions-players-gambles-pay.html

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Top report Chris

[hammurabi70]

Q1: Nineteen
Ancients 1
FWR 1
Napoleonic 1
ACW 1
Boer War 3
RJW 1
WWI(Air) 1
WWII 8
WWII(Air) 2

WWII(Air) is a bit unusual as we are doing the Big Week campaign with Fire in the Sky.  WWII land comprise two new rules under development: Monty / Eisenhower Unchained (E rewritten without the grid), and a card based system without dice.  Our Boer War refight has moved from Principles of War to BBB!  ACW is Altered of Freedom, a club rewrite of the original AoF rules.

Q2: Twenty-Three
Ancients 3
ACW 1
Sudan War 1
Sengoku Period 1
WWI(Air) 1
WWII 12
WWII(Air) 2
WWII (Naval) 1
Modern 1