Death in the sand

Friday nights game was a shameful total defeat. In some ways it was very realistic in that 4 British officers (me, Shaun, Tom and Paul), thought we'd march a troop each, in column, towards a British outpost, casually dealing with any Arab-types we saw along the way. Then we subsequently got slaughtered by inferior armed, poorly trained enemies.

The rules set used was "A Good Dusting". We used the solo play so that we could all be British officers. The Arabs were concealed by using the vegetation markers to randomly place possible unit locations. These were randomly revealed by a combination of dice rolls and proximity of the British units. Considering the random nature, it was surprising that the Arab tactics were perfect. They even let 2 units of the column pass before flank attacking, and also attacked simultaneously.  

So here's the abridged version of events, and because I'm still lost for words over what happened, its mainly told in pictures.....

The objective.

The route. Come on from the near end. March to the objective at the far end.

The column got half way to the objective, before Arab tribe units appeared on 3 sides.

Considering all Arab unit placement and start times were random, it was a perfectly co-ordinated group ambush!

No time to form a square. The Highlanders and the Sussex form back-to-back. The Marines and the red jackets formed??

The Highlanders and the Sussex firing lines inflict minimal casualties as the Arabs move in.

The Marines cover the Arab left flank attack, while the red jackets cover the right flank.

The red jackets only got a single volley off, inflicting minimal casualties, before the Arabs got into hand-to-hand combat.

Back-to-back, there is nowhere to retreat. The Highlanders and the Sussex are overwhelmed.

 

Coming over a nearby hill, meant the Arabs were only ever in the Marines line of fire for 1 volley.

The Marines broke and fled. Sadly the Arabs could run faster....no survivors.

The dismounted officer rallies the last troop section to try to use bayonets to repel a 2 sided attack.

The remaining Arabs, plus a newly arrived superior Mahdi group, swarm around even deeper.

The horrific, bloody end. 

Little Heroes

The Heroes

Last night I played a 20mm scale WW2 game with some regular gaming friends (Paul, Shaun and Tom). Myself and Shaun commanded a German infantry force against a Russian infantry force commanded by Tom and Paul. The objective of the battle was to take and hold a large church on part of a large island land mass. This involved a race to get to the objective (cut off by a wide river), and battling for key positions including 2 bridges and any building near those bridges. There were no tanks, but there was heavy artillery guided by forward line spotters.

The objective

Rare Praetorian Guardsmen for sale

The blister pack for sale

A painted Praetorian from my collection

On Ebay I currently have a rare unopened blister pack of  2 40K Praetorian Guardsmen. This blister pack came from the Praetorian box set that was a limited edition release in the 1990's.

Its nice to have a whole regiment of them, but that would cost a fortune these days. However, they look great as part of a command squad along the lines of chosen men or hand picked elites who accompany the senior officer etc. The 2 figures have great poses. One has the rifle ready for close combat with a fairly serious bayonet fixed. The other has grenade launcher. Both have parade dress tunics with epaulettes and "tassels".....and of course the pith helmets!

Happy bidding.

20mm Scale - Less is more

I've finally succumbed and started to play 20mm scale WW2 wargames. It's probably the correct decision for some types of games, especially the larger tank battles. I'll still prefer 28mm for the infantry close-quarters and skirmish games. I also love the amount of detail that can be painted in 28mm scale.

Rare Limited Edition Cadian Standard Bearer for sale

I currently have a very rare Limited edition Cadian standard bearer listed on Ebay (link in top right of this page while auction is active). this miniature is brand new, and is taken from an army box set I purchased in 2003. Pictured below are the item for sale (left) and a painted example (right).