Fred’s 2022 Painting and Gaming Diary

[fred.]

I have a  couple of bags of pirates in the queue.
Please to see yours Fred, a nice inspiration/reference.

Yes, I got the pirates a while ago, and they have been languishing in the big box of Renaissance figures. They are very nice sculpts and paint up very well. I went for a big variation in skin tones on these ones - I'll get a better picture when they are based, rather than hiding on the back row.

[fred.]

O Group - 1940 - Arras

We have been playing O group fairly regularly the last few weeks - and I've not been doing too well at writing up games and posting them!

This week it was a scenario based on the British counter attack into the flank of 7th Pz Div near Arras. It is an interesting scenario - were the British start at full strength, with 2 Matalida IIs, 4 Matalida Is and 2 companies of infantry. 

The German defenders (red) are 3 companies of infantry and 2 x Pak 36 3.7cm AT guns. With some armour and better AT support available as reinforcements from turn 4. Neither side has an artillery support. 



As the defender, I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do early on. As I couldn't do much against the infantry tanks with their heavy armour. I pushed an infantry platoon into the farm on the far left and hid in woods mainly! 

The British (blue) pushed their armour forward in the middle, and the right they hadn't deployed too far towards the camera - I assume a deliberate concentration of force. And then that company was hesitant 3 out of 4 turns (this is a statistical fluke as you roll 9 order dice, if you get 3+ 1s, then a company is hesitant, and then you roll to see which of the 3 is hesitant). 

This meant I tried pushing forward a bit on that flank - but in the end my platoon was caught in the open and pinned. My mortars were unavailable on the 4 turns I tried to call them - poor dice as it as a 7+ on 2d6 to call them in - this is a scenario rule to reflect the chaotic nature of this encounter battle). The British mortars were far more available - but fortunately not too effective. 

The British attacked my platoon in the farm, pinning them, then on a second assault with Matalida Is in support caused loads of casualties and took the farm. 

In the centre I deployed a Pak 36, but its shooting dice where awful - when they needed to be very good to overcome the gun / armour differential. 

We are only part way into the game - and are going to pick up it again next week.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Looking good so far

[fred.]

Basing 

For some reason basing always takes me a long time to get to. But then really doesn't take that long to do. 

Flocked about 35 bases and got sand on another 15 this evening 


Ashigaru shot and Volunteers for Irregular Wars



British Para combat patrols for O group and French HMGs



Pirates, more Volunteers and Japanese peasant bows. At the back some WWI German casualty markers. 

[mmcv]

Looking good

[petercooman]

Great stuff!

Liked the kill team stuff! i'm sitting with octarius in the backlog, and am awaiting delivery of calnath and nachmund, so definately up my alley at the moment!

[fred.]

Cheers Peter

We enjoyed Kill Team a lot. Good rules, small forces. Lots of fun. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

All looking good Forbes

[fred.]

Thanks Will

Got the final 15 or so bases flocked this evening



Pirates in front, Volunteers at the back



Japanese peasant bowmen


Also had 3 bases of French HMGs, but they evaded the camera 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

V cool Forbes

[Techno 3]

Ditto ! 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Nice stuff

[fred.]

Thanks chaps - remembered to use a light onto the front of the figures - makes the photos rather better!

[paulr]

It does indeed

[fred.]

Battle of Edgehill

As I had some time off work, and had a day free from family commitments, it was a chance to get in a big game! We decided to go with ECW as we hadn't had these figures out for a while, and the For King and Parliament Rules. We used the Battle of Edgehill scenario from Big Red Bat Games - but had to cut it down a bit, as it is huge in size, 27x12 boxes. Even going with 12cm squares, I could only get 20x10 on my 8' x 4' table. So we lost the dragoons on the flanks, and one brigade from the middle of the battlefield. 

This was a good job as we only just had enough figures as it was - and this was figures from 4 people, even though only 2 of us where playing today. 

Here is a view of deployments down the table, Royalists on the left, Parliament on the right



Same time, but a view from behind Parliaments lines


Royalist cavalry don't hang around (at least on this flank) and get stuck in - although not very effectually. 



A couple of turns in, and a general Royalist advance has happened


Mid-game - the cavalry on the far left have pretty much wiped each other out - one unit of Parliamentarian horse has pursued through and is threatening the Royalist guns. In the centre the foot are engaged all along the line, with both sides accumulating disorder



Towards the end - the Parliamentarians have turned the left flank of the foot battle. On both flanks the cavalry have pretty much fought each other out. On the far right (out of picture) my two small units of cuirassier have made a nuisance of themselves finishing off damaged units



In the end a Parliamentarian victory - but very close - we were both down to our last 5-6 victory tokens, from a starting point of around 40. But I managed to rout the last couple of units I needed to break the Royalist army. 

I took a good 5-6 hours to play out - not least as we had both forgotten huge amounts of the rules and had to keep checking things. Not helped by half-remembering rules (which were sometimes from other games) which meant we had to check things again. 

Great to get a big game in, and a face-to-face one!