Wednesday 31 July 2013

War & Conquest tournament at Attack 2013


A little belatedly, due to work!! Here is a brief write up for the War & Conquest tournament at Attack 2013.

The background is that unfortunately there were only going to be 3 of us in the event and then it dropped to 2 as Matt had to go to the dentist after cracking a tooth (owww)!!

So this meant it was me vs Phil for the weekend. Or Caesarean Romans vs the German unwashed hordes.

Now the memory is poor so Phil I do apologise for any inaccuracies.

Saturday


Game 1

It was summer deployment, I think it was one side deploys first(which was Phil), variable game length, my objective was Raid and I think Phil's was Take and Hold.

The objectives were drawn after deployment and Phil's baggage was at the opposite corner from my deployment so I wrote off that objective and went for the kill.

I realised that the Germans numbers could be a problem so I deployed at one end, used my Cav to protect one flank, the table edge to protect the other and steam rolled the legionaries up the table.


As can be seen below, after charging across the river and seeing off the German Cav and the German Generals Warband things now looked dicey for Phil.



Both the Warband units engaged above soon broke and Phil resigned, 1-0.

Game 2

Rob decided that as I had captured the locals village in the first game they should have a chance to win it back, so we swopped sides.

This game was Autumn deployment, unit by unit, player calls time, my objective was pitched battle and I can't remember Phil's

We rolled to see which way the deployment zones ran, I got lucky as my wide edge was away from the village which meant I could use the same tactic of refusing a flank as last time. This game I used the small elite unit of veteran legionaries to pivot on, shielding their flank with skirmishers and difficult terrain.



This gave me local superiority and had similar results to the previous game.



I do have to mention, when Phil required intervention from the dice gods they abandoned him, which smoothed the passage to victory! 2-0.

Sunday

It was decided for Sunday, to allow Colin (a good friend who has never tried W&C) to play we would have one game of 3000pts. Phil kindly leant me some Early Imperial Romans to flesh out my forces while some traitor legionaries reinforced the Germans, Civil War!!!!

This time we had Winter deployment, alternate unit deployment, variable game length, Colin and myself drew Test of Strength and Phil drew Take and Hold.

Rob Broom had suggested that I take pictures from the mezzanine which was a great idea so you will get a better battle narrative (right up to the end when I got too excited and didn't take any pics of the last 2 turns)!

Out numbered again I decided to school Colin in the tactics of the previous 2 games. The deployment zones again suited this. The vets would be in the village stopping any intrusions into our deployment zone and securing the right flank. The left would pivot on the vets, wheel round, roll up the table and get into the German zone and complete our objective.

Deployment



Turn 1

Opposite wings of both armies advanced, our blue unit of Legionaries struggled to clear the river.



Turn 2

I think we won the strategic initiative, our middle unit of Legionaries engaged Phil's traitor unit and did much better that we expected, routed and ran down the traitors in one round of combat!!



The only down side to this was that the unit was now isolated.

The warband on Phil's right now charged our auxiliaries, which just held and his legionaries in the centre turned to hopefully get a flank charge in Turn 3.......


Turn 3

Phil needed to get strategic initiative, he added a Strategy Point, rolled .............. and got double 1 !!!!!!! I have to say this did sum up his weekend.

As it happened it didn't matter, we turned our legionaries to face, managed to get the blue legionaries out of the river and then our right flank got charged. our isolated legionaries got smashed by Phil's (revenge), but the two other blocks held against the warbands.

We got lucky on our left as the Auxiliaries not only held but drew the combat!!


Turn 4


It now all went wrong for Phil. We again won the initiative, the warband on the right disintegrated after being charged in the flank and both the engaged warbands on the left lost and broke. Our Cav on the right did lose against Phil's auxiliaries be they were left all alone and with that Phil threw in the towel. 3-0

This is the bit when I forgot to take anymore pics until I got my prize for beating poor Phil three games on the trot!


After playing, Colin loved the system and is looking to get an early Imperial Roman army in January when he has finished his 28mm and 15mm WW2 projects.

I have to say thank to Rob for organising a great weekend which was worth the travel from Cornwall. To Colin for being a good Legate and of course to Phil who kept cheery and sportsman like even to the end of game 3 after complete desertion by the Dice Gods!!!

Monday 3 June 2013

War & Conquest 2000 pt Caesarian Roman Army

I have signed up for the War & Conquest tournament at Attack held at Devizes between the 20th and 21st of July http://www.ddwg.org.uk/

I started 2 years ago creating a Caesarean Roman army for War & Conquest. I sided towards this set of rules after much deliberation and trial and error. I had played Warhammer for years and was looking to do some kind of ancient historical gaming at 25-28mm. Initially I tried Fields of Glory, which, although great in 15mm I felt it lost its manoeuvrable feel in 28mm.

After much searching including Warhammer Ancient Battles I found Rob Brooms  excellent War & Conquest.

Even though it feels familiar it plays distinctly differently to Warhammer so I didn't feel as though I was playing the same game,  just using historical figures instead.

Unfortunately even after all this time I still haven't finished my 2000pt army. I last used it at one of Robs excellent games days at Iron Acton where I shamefully had to borrow some figs so that I didn't have to play with any unpainted models!!!

So here we are to date:


My List comprises of:

1 Imperator 170 pts, not painted yet

1 Legate 140 pts, he is finished but I still need to add a couple of figs and then base him.


1 Legionary Unit of 24 men 336 pts, all done.

1 Legionary Unit of 24 men plus Senior Centurion 396 pts, all done.


1 Veteran Legionary Unit of 18 men plus Senior Centurion, plus Aquilifer 498 pts, all done.
 



1 Gallic Cavalry Unit 10 men 170 pts, all done (the above shields are LBMS transfers but I painted the Cav shields free hand).


1 Spanish Light cavalry Unit 8 men 128 pts, 2 still based for FoG, the rest need painting.


1 Cretan archer Unit 10 men 110 pts, half done.


and 1 Spanish Skirmish Infantry Unit 10 men, mostly done, 2 need javelins and another to paint.



Still a fair bit to do, so lets see if I can surprise myself and finish it for next month!!





Wednesday 29 May 2013

First attempt

Hi this is my first attempt at blogging. Matt is to blame as I think his is really good and it's inspired me to do one.

Here is some pictures of a demo game I ran at PAW 2013 with 'Big' Ron and Dave. We had a good weekend although finishing the bocage in time was a mare! The Mrs who is not into gaming and modelling was even gluing clump foliage on while I was at work :)

It was cold in the hall to start with!

The game was Bolt Action, set in Normandy 1944 at the east side of the bridgehead. British Paras and regular troops were facing off against the Germans.

Rons' lovely painted paras and his own work on the Grand Manner glider.


The Brits have just flame throwered the lovely church from Total Battle Miniatures, driving the German defenders out!


Colin who was supposed to also play painted these fantastic warlord games Germans, unfortunately he had D&V all weekend and couldn't make it.


Tension mounts on the second day!! Roads are also from Total Battle Miniatures.




Pak 40 set to ambush some Carriers in the distance.

It was a great weekend and it allowed us to introduce Bolt Action to some new people and generally talk a load of B.... which we love to meet up and do.