Sharnydubs

The most recent outing for the League of Gentlemen Wargamers (LOGW) was to the sunny Heugh Hotel in Stonehaven where we embarked upon a weekend of mayhem and slaughter. The game was based on the Solway Crafts sourcebook  ”A Very British Civil War” and used the Triumph and Tragedy ruleset.

The game in progress

Organised superbly by Colin Jack and ably assisted by Dave O’Brien the game was set along the border between Scotland and North England.  In this alternative history the forces were broadly drawn into three separate factions; the Scots, the Anglican League (the Church allied with the Communists) and lastly the Royalists. Not that these factions actually meant much, alliances were illusory with most players out to get anyone they could profit from. For my own part I played the Bishop of Newcastle, a humble cleric and in theory a buddy of the Bishop of Carlisle.  I commanded a mixture of landed gentry, disaffected regular troops and various socialist and workers militias.

The Bishop of Newcastle at Buckfast Abbey

My leader , the Bishop was a healer but also hugely unpopular with his men resulting in some abysmal attempts at trying to rally them after losing their early battles. My early ally, Captain Haddock and his Red Brethren of Grimsby Fishermen soon decided to turn their back on the church and the usual backstabbing began. If you like a game which is a mixture of diplomacy, creativity, minimal firepower and crazy troop types then this could be the alternative history for you.

Colin explaining the rules

Canadian communists arriving at the airport

Royalist moves

The Anglican League respond

If you can't get over the bridge, just head up the river!

Charles and Adrian working out their devious plans!

We missed two of our regular crowd this weekend, Angus Konstam and Dave Imrie but hope they’ll be back to join us for our next weekender in June.

This was the first Iron Brigade game set in the ACW for some time. The scenario was taken from Barry Hilton’s Beyond the Lily Banners ruleset and adapted by Kevin for the ACW.

Union command overseeing the bridge repairs

Background

General Robert E Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia have swept away the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Major General George B McClellan in a series of battles around the confederate capitol of Richmond thereby saving the Confederacy from imminent defeat in what would later be called the Seven Days Campaign.

Scenario

Following the Battle of Malvern Hill on 1st July 1862 the Union Army is in full retreat and heading for the safety of Harrisons Landing on the James River. As Brigadier General Nicholson,  I was in hot pursuit of the retreating Yankees commanding an infantry brigade comprising

18th Georgia

1st Texas

4th Texas

5th Texas

6th North Carolina

Stauntons Battery

2nd Virginia Cavalry

All of my troops were either experienced or veteran quality and as a Gallant Commander I had attrition marks to allocate when needed to my troops. My Brigade Commander was ranked as competent. 

Objective

In the early morning mist the 2nd Virginia Cavalry have spotted a Yankee supply column waiting on the Corn Pepper Turnpike for engineers to repair a bridge across Freemans Creek. The Federals have a gun battery (the 4th US – 3 guns) and the 20th Indiana on the opposite side of the creek and 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry deployed around a farm covering the column.

Repairing the bridge over Freemans Creek

The Confederates appear to greatly outnumber the enemy and with their dander up have 24 turns in which to stop the supply wagons from crossing the creek.

The Game

With the 2nd Virginia Cavalry already on the table I decided to send them round the back of the farm to get to the wagons as quickly as possible. Keeping out of range of the Yankee artillery the 18th Georgia and 1st Texas attempted an assault on the dismounted 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry at the farm. After taking a few casualties from rifle fire, Kevin mounted up and headed to the aid of the now isolated wagons. With the bridge still damaged none of the wagons could yet make it across Freemans Creek  so it was easy pickings for the Rebs.

Meanwhile Stauntons Battery who had taken up position near the big wood were surprised by  a full brigade of experienced infantry. The 20th Indiana, 87th New York and 105th New York emerged from the woods but were unable to inflict any damage on the unlimbering artillery. For much of the rest of the game the action in and around the woods continued until the eventual capture and surrender of the Union infantry and their wounded commander.

With the bridge still under repair the 2nd Virginia cavalry and 5th Texas managed to successfully redirect two of the four wagons to their lines. The 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry fought bravely but their raw status put them at a severe disadvantage to the 2nd Virginia Cavalry and they eventually crumbled. As they dispersed the Union artillery had a clear shot at the pursuing Rebel cavalry and although they caused some damage it was not enough to rout the Rebels.

The bridge was eventually repaired and the two remaining wagons made it safely to the other side of the James river but by this stage it was all but too late for the Federals. With the loss of one cavalry and three infantry regiments a rebel victory was the order of the day. A great game finished in 18 turns over about two hours.

Confederate band

Taking the wagons

Rebel infantry preparing to attack

Parker Brothers produced the excellent boardgame “Escape from Colditz” back in the 1960’s / 1970’s. It’s one of the few “popular” boardgames I played in my youth which I still own. Probably only available now through Ebay it has an excellent game board of Colditz Castle and an innovative playing system using a combination of cards and counters.

Aerial view of the Stalag Luft POW camp

Inspired by “Escape from Colditz” and the film “The Great Escape” I have developed a 28mm miniature version entitled “Escape from Stalag Luft III” where gamers play the part of either a POW or German Kommandant. My rules use some of the boardgames mechanics e.g if you roll a 3, 7 or 11 on two dice you receive an opportunity card. These opportunity cards identify the tunnels (Tom, Dick and Harry), entitle you to various pieces of essential escape equipment (wirecutters, German passes, disguises) as well as giving you ways of foiling or distracting the guards. The German cards help them detect tunnels, bring on the Alsatian dogs, get reinforcements , bring on the Gestapo etc.

The Guards at the gate

Ebob make a great range of POW’s including some of the characters from the film. They also produce an Opel Blitz and German guards although all of my German figures are from either the Foundry or Black Tree ranges. You will have to search hard to find unarmoured figures to supplement the Ebob figures and Artizan Designs is a good place to start. The buildings I use were bought on Ebay and are all made from foamcore and balsa. My camp comprises six POW huts, four guard towers, a Kommandant’s hut , two barrack buildings, a wash-house and a cooler. I have made from scratch various other games pieces like the vaulting horse.

Our game last night saw four POW players (Kevin, Chris with escaped POW, Andrew and Nigel) take on the German Kommandant (me). I thought it was going to be game over very early on when Chris discovered the first tunnel and digging at incredible speed had a POW on the outskirts of the Camp fences. Lucky for me I had the “Alsation” card which helped me flush Chris’s POW out from the tunnel and send him to the cooler.

Chris's first escape attempt, foiled by Rolf the Alsatian

Kevin attempted a sneaky escape whilst being released from solitary but took a bullet for the trouble. Much collusion between the POW’s resulted in escape attempts at both ends of the table. Andrew successfully diverted the attention of the main gate guards with the aid of the French Resistance and then went on the run. With only a luger armed officer in pursuit he was on the verge of winning. Nigel meantime was diligently planning his escape whilst at the other end of the table Chris enacted revenge on the poor Alsation by knocking it dead and then killing the searchlights whilst sending his remaining POW off behind the barracks buildings. As he had managed to gain a Luftwaffe uniform there was little I could do to prevent his escape.

I had never really seen the attraction of aerial games until visiting Historicon a few years back when I played in a public participation game of Aerodrome®. What attracted me initially were the toys and game pieces, especially the wooden “cockpits” with their dowelling markers and empty shell cases to record bullets used and available.

It’s a really simple game to play, easy to explain to beginners and fun. The planes we use are standard 1/72 nd plastic kits available from companies like Airfix, Italeri, Esci and so on. You can play this game in any scale. The planes are attached to flight stands made from car aerials attached to perspex bases. The rules and playing aids are all available from Bob Bowling at RLBPS (see links) or you could easily make your own. The mat we use is a large 6′ x 4′ hex map also available from RLBPS.

French Spad VII narrowly escapes the German Fokker

For the last few years our family and friends have been running a small league / campaign system where you gain points and promotion based on the number of missions flown, damage done, kills, bombs dropped and lose points for every time you are shot down. The current league table at 1st January 2010 shows Dave O’Brien in the lead.

If you are interested in learning more there is a dedicated website at http://www.aerodrome-ww1aircombat.com/ with details of convention attendance (all in the USA). We (The Iron Brigade) did run this as a public participation game at TARGE a few years back and won the Best PP cup.

Original wooden cockpit design with shell casings, dowels, cotton wool and dice. All you need for each player - plus an aeroplane and stand of course!

The new wooden cockpits come complete with stands and even have a rear gunner option!

We enjoyed an Indian Mutiny game this Christmas at The Lilies.

Twelve players and one umpire taking the British, Mutineer and Princely States roles.
We used the Legends of the West / Alamo rules as adapted by our in-house amendments for the Indian Mutiny. Julia played the role of an Indian Princess, who initially sided with the British and then turncoated and joined the Mutineers after having persuaded the 1st Belooch Infantry to join the mutiny.

The Brits weathered the storm well despite their vastly inferior numbers. Andrew lost his sapper in his attempted defence of the armoury and had to hold out until the relief column arrioved. Rob held on to the Chummery with some successful artillery barrages on Frasers sepoys. Meanwhile the assault on the Residency by Euan, Krista and Sini’s troops was firmly repulsed by Ross’s 93rd Sutherland Highlanders and Dave’s limited numbers of Gurkhas and Naval Brigade. Lewis had some cavalry success against the 9th lancers but in the end the British managed to hold on and were declared victors.

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Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very Peaceful and Happy New Year.
May Santa and his little helper visit you this season !

The Siege of Hapibutpur was the name of the Iron Brigade display game at Claymore in 2008 and again at TARGE in 2009. Set in the Indian Mutiny the game was a fictitious siege along the lines of those actual conflicts at Lucknow, Cawnpore and Delhi. In part inspired by the novel the Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell, the game had as its centrepiece a model of a residency built by Gary Chalk.

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