Fred’s 2025 Painting and Gaming Diary

[fred.]

As I had a sudden burst of activity in posting on last year's diary towards the end of the year, let's go for this agin. For the umpteenth year - I feel the need to go back and check how long this log has been going on. 

2024 ended with a lot of Eisenhower being played, had quite a bit of Legions Imperialis through out, and a fair bit of Warmaster XL at the start. 

The first two are likely to keep making appearances. 

Midguard will likely get a spin as a fantasy rule set. 

I finally gave into the AWI temptation right at the end of 2024 (in the spend £150 to save £1.20 a pack rationale!!!). So that will be a big chunk on painting effort. I have a few bits of armies to finish painting so they should definitely get done (WWI British, Epic Squats, Ogres, Lizardmen). Then there are lots of other armies sitting in pristine metal in drawers that ought to get some paint, but not sure which one. Off the top of my head there are, Ratmen, Orcs (so many Orcs), Barons War, Conquisadors and Meso-Americans, Late Medieval Polish, Landsneckts (who are part done), more Mongols, LoA, Renaissance, extra Afrika Korps infantry (who could actually be useful to get done) more late WWI British and Germans. 

Eek!

[fred.]

A bit of looking back indicates that these diaries have been going since 2012. Wow! 

I had an enjoyable re-read of 2022s games - and the intro for 2022 mentioned both Orc and Late Roman armies that had been in the stash since 2012   And I forgot the Late Romans in my list of armies above. What chance is there of them getting painted this year?

First game of the year (and first for a while with Xmas interrupting gaming) was another game of Eisenhower - the same western desert scenario as about a month ago, but with different players. 



The Germans are on the let, British on the right, objectives are the green squiggles. The British commander, has chosen to deploy his Infantry Division in the swamps - even though this isn't terrain that gives Infantry a combat advantage, and he has split his Veteran 7th Armoured division at the far end of the table with its Crusaders in the open desert, and its infantry in the mountains. 

Troops are deployed before the objectives are placed (though the broad area for the objectives is known) Attacker places one, then the defender, then the attacker the last one.



The German attack is making good ground in the centre, and on the far side the Germans out numbering the spread out British infantry 2 : 1 have gained the objective in the hills.



German attack continues, the British reinforcements (2nd NZ Div) have arrived to shore up the line. In Eisenhower objectives that are taken by the attacker, are then moved 1 box by the defender. Which keeps forcing the attacker forward. Around the central objective 7th Armoured's Crusaders are performing sterling defence vs Ariete. 



Change of camera angle, I had to take over the British at this point, as the British player had to pop home to deal with a family 'emergency' that turned out to be nothing much. 

I was attempting to consolidate my forces in the middle, but the Germans kept throwing in repeated attacks. The attackers get 4 stockpiles in a standard scenario (compared to 2 for the defender) and the best use for these is to be able to recover Exhausted units (yellow tokens) back to Worn. So whilst the British were getting a lot of German units to Exhausted, I didn't have enough troops to attack them again to remove them before they could recover in the night phase. Also as the defender you are trying to maintain the prepared status of units as this means your units fight first in a combat, hopefully downgrading the attackers. 

I say hopefully as in one combat I did take all the attackers to exhausted, so they needed 6s to hit, which they then promptly rolled 5 of!



The end of the game - end of day 5 I think - the Germans finally got ahead on VPs and where then able to call an end to the game (the attacker can choose to end the game after day 4). 

A closer game on points than the fighting shows - perhaps as the British took the first turn 3-0 and most others where 2-1 to the Germans so it took them some time to clawback the first turn disadvantage. 

Played out very differently to the first play of this scenario - which is no bad thing!

A couple of historical scenarios (Nijmegen and Bastogne) have been posted by Sam Mustafa so they might be up next to give my US Airborne a run out.

[hammurabi70]

Interesting AAR.

A closer game on points than the fighting shows - perhaps as the British took the first turn 3-0 and most others where 2-1 to the Germans so it took them some time to clawback the first turn disadvantage.

This we find a major problem with this ruleset; the attacker seldom makes effective progress for the first few days and that gives a huge disadvantage for the rest of the game.  We have concluded that the objectives and victory system needs a major overhaul but have yet to resolve what that should be.

[fred.]

Interesting- this is probably the first time we've spotted this. And I only spotted it when writing up. 

The momentum does go to the attacker over turns as they can replenish more units. 

I do wonder if not scoring on turn 1 might be sensible - but this is a game where the setup means you are right into the combat straight away. 

[fred.]

Been away with work in Vietnam for 10 days or so - which whilst great, does interrupt gaming!

But a Pendraken parcel was waiting for me on my return - it was very compact, but very heavy! Mainly AWI figures bought at the end of December before the price increase. More on these later!

This week we played Irregular Wars - always a favourite and also handy as it is very quick to setup, which is useful after a busy week. 

I went with a Japanese themed table and offered my opponent two options, early vs Mongols, or later vs Portuguese. He chose early and took the Japanese.

The army selection in IW is based on picks, 2 compulsory and 5 optional. The optional ones may come with a variable number of units, most of the Japanese picks were in the range of 1 to 3 units,  he also had drawn a special card, that allowed 2 re-rolls on these, which allowed him to get 2 mounted Samurai. Overall the army looked fairly balanced, with good Samurai units both foot and mounted and some bulk of Ashigaru.

It's a while since I'd played the Mongols in IW. I started with drawing two terrible cards and a bad one for my 3. The terrible ones, made my leader poor (rather than +2 in melee and resolve he was -1!) and made him rash - so likely to die on a 1 or 2 if his unit suffered damage in melee. Not that this army was very melee heavy, but this made it even less likely! The third card was Rain which disrupts shooting - not something I'm likely to want to happen...

For army selection the Mongol list has multiple Horse Archer picks - along with 3 compulsory horse archer units. I had 1d6 for my first pick, and rolled 6, then 1d4 for my next, and rolled 4 - at this point I'd actually run out of horse archer bases, and could only field 12 in total - on no! I then added a rocket, a second medium cavalry unit, and 1d3 foot archers - of whom I only got 1. 

The Japenese were the attacker in this scenario, so I deployed in 3 blobs around the village nearest the camera. 



The Japanese pretty much mirrored this with their deployment. 

IW then has the ace Disease and Sickness phase - where you roll 2d6 per unit, 7+ they are fine, the lower you roll the worse it is. Both sides had a few units suffering 1 resolve loss from sickness, and a couple of units late, the only one of significance was 1 unit of Ashigaru who are barely on the table in the top left. 

The Japenese leader, was keen and pushed forward with his unit of Samurai cavalry - but not too far. So fairly average disruption from this phase. 

The Japanese advance slowly, the Mongols centre blob spread to thicken the side units. The Japenese had advanced into bow range - oops! On the left, 7 units fired at the leader, on a base 5+ to hit, with a +1 for a mounted target



7 hits out of 7 shots. One dead Samurai cavalry unit, with the leader. This is bad. Very bad in IW, as this causes resolve loss to any friendly unit who sees the loss of the leader, and puts the whole army out of command for this turn and the next. As this had happened in the shooting phase which is before the movement phase, it meant the Japenese were going to be out of command for two movement phases.

On the right I split my fire between the two horse archer Samurai and they both wavered (only having 1 resolve left).



The Japenese then had to roll a dice for each unit to see what they do when out of command - do nothing is the most likely action. The above is the aftermath of this. The wavering horse archers having taken Bushido to heart have decided to charge towards the Mongols!!

That wasn't going to end well, as the Mongols had initiative they were going second to take advantage of the chaos of out of command movement. So swarmed the two horse archers - most of the Mongol army is rubbish in melee. But in IW if you flank an enemy unit you inflict an automatic resolve loss. So I only need to charge 2 units onto each horse archer, and given the proximity and speed of my units this was easy to achieve. 



Mongols flow to the right flank.

To be continued!

[fred.]

Oops another 6 week gap in posting. Real life has been a bit too real recently. 

But games have been happening - so perhaps more photos and less words to catchup!

Dead Man's Hand - Tong vs Desperados

This was our first game of DMH - was great fun - in reading the rules afterwards we got the playing of cards at the start of the turn totally wrong!!



The card deck has custom 'picture' cards for each faction - and I was able to make great use of the Tong's special rules. Master Wu Jen and his sword were deadly! 

[fred.]

Live Free or Die AWI

Another first run out of rules - and figures!

All Pendraken figures in this game, and most freshly painted too. We didn't have enough figures for one of the official scenarios so played a smaller fan scenario - The Battle of Hubbardton. The British are advancing through the woods to take a small redoubt on the central hill. 

The terrain is generally quite hilly, but this doesn't show too well on the photos. 



The British get their skirmishers forward but their main troops are held up crossing the stream - this will be a theme of the game. 



The initial British attack has rather stalled, and their Hessain reinforcements start to arrive. 



The British skirmishers get round the back of the redoubt and to the bottom of the table - but can't push the Americans off the hill




Overall a good game, but under the time limits of the scenario a tough ask for the British. Their big units were slowed down a lot crossing the stream. We think that putting a bridge there would help the game flow more (or make it a couple of turns longer)

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great looking game
You will find most scenarios tough for the British...

[fred.]

Legions Imperialis - 4 player

Continuing to catch up on games from earlier in the year. This was a large (6500 pts a side) game with 2 players on each side, with double Imperial Fists (bright yellow) vs Mechanicum (spider robots on red bases) and Space Marines. 









 

[fred.]

AWI Americans



Another 13 bases of American infantry, mainly in hunting shirts. 

Along with a few command figures for rules like Sharpe Practice, and some casualty markers. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very impressive Forbes

[fred.]

Thanks!

I'm not sure about the photo - might try to take some in natural light with the other painted bases. 

[fred.]

ITLSU 1916 near Verdun

We were able to get in the luxury of an afternoon game earlier this week, and choose to revisit WWI with Glyn's freshly painted mid/late war French.


The scenario was 'historically plausible' based on the Northern flank of the Verdun salient, with a counter attack by the French 92nd Infantry Regiment of the 26th Infantry Division, commanded by Lt Col Macker. They were attacking from Le Mort Homme hill to retake Le Bois de Corbeux and village of Cumieres, defended by German troops of the 43. Infanterie-Brigade from the 22nd Reserve Infantry Division.


The red box outlines the battlefield with the French attacking from the West to East (left to right). The terrain is very hilly.


I had a big rummage for enough bits of high density and expanded styrofoam to build the hills - which where a fair approximation


Looking W now, with the terrain in place over the hills. The key areas are labelled, the view is from the German commander's view point. Just about visible are the transparent ovals representing the blinds that units will deploy from.


Most troops deployed fairly closely to their initial blinds positions. The two German battalions in defence, with the plain brown bases, the French attackers in the distance with some greenery on their bases.

The French with a surfeit of elan decided to charge the Germans. Perhaps their commander had missed the prior two years of the war!


Looking North again, along the German defensive line - quite a few MGs situated here. With the village of Cumieres in the background, with the Brigade HQ and a couple of artillery batteries situated here.


Close-up of the French charging out of their position on top of Le Mort Homme across the shell pocked ground


Looking East from the German lines - a target rich environment!


The defenders on the slopes of the Bois des Corbeux - they were deployed in line of companies, here they are moving forward a little to get a 2 up 1 back formation.

[fred.]

Looking west, the French attack continues, on the left a battalion of Moroccans advance to get in position to lay down fire on the German defenders. In the centre the 1eme battalion's charge stall's in the face of heavy fire power (at the top of the hill is their first company, having retreated through excess shock).

On the right the 2nd battalion is using two of their companies to fire on the defenders whilst the other 2 close - this was more successful as it put a reasonable amount of suppression on the Germans.


Looking east in the bright sunshine, the attack on the Bois des Corbeaux - the foremost French company is shattered, down to 1 stand carrying 28 shock (this would cause them to retreat 18" on their next activation) - they had got to within a few inches of the defenders whose shooting is then at double effect in the 'Dead Close' range band.


The German defenders on the left starting to take some shock - but still causing devastation to the French 1eme battalion attempting to cross the open ground.  On the right one French company did get into charge range - but despite just edging the number of hand to hand combat dice, they rolled worse and where thrown back.


Looking north, German reinforcements make their way forward (these troops really weren't needed - I'd got the force ratios a bit off).

In the centre are the tatters of the French 1eme battalion, and just behind them can be seen the 4eme French battalion making its way forward.


The end. The German reinforcements positioned to drive off the Moroccans, whilst over on the far side the 4eme battalion gets into shooting range, supported by an artillery battery on Hill 265 this shooting was starting to drive back the defenders. 

[fred.]

Conclusions & Thoughts
It was good to get back to WWI and with a new army on the table as well - the rather splendid looking French. Both sides figures are Pendraken 10mm.

The French plan was massively optimistic- not sure why they didn't spend some time shooting up the defenders before charging.

The force ratios where off - we've not played ITLSU for some time, and the French battalions seemed big compared to the German ones. But defence is easy in WWI, each German formation could easily have been 2 companies rather than 3.

Battalion size - we felt the battalions where quite large at around 16-20 stands each, I think we will try 12 stand ones for the next game - feels more appropriate for mid war onwards.

ITSLU always gives a good game, and works well for the Western front rather than its native North Africa - the Storm of Dice notes in one of the Lardie supplements adds some Western front specifics, including some new cards, which worked well.

We enjoyed the game, that we are playing again, this time with a German attack, just to the south of this battlefield.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Excellent looking game and report. Nice one Forbes. 

[Martin1914]

Impressive table and figures. Great report.

[fred.]

Thanks both!

[paulr]

      

Good to hear you enjoyed the game 

Definitely plenty of French Elan on display, looking forward to the German attack

[fred.]

AWI Americans

Good painting progress on these over the last few weeks. Got them on bases with sand this morning. Leave them to dry and hopefully get them flocked by the end of the day