Some photos of the games I took part in, during my last two visits to the Scruton meet ups.
Who: North Riding Wargames Group
Where: Scruton, North Yorkshire
When: Sunday 28th July
Attendance: 11 gamers and 1 visitor. A new club record!
Games: 4
. To the Strongest! (Ancients 15mm). Batavian Revolt AD69
. For King & Parliament (English Civil War 15mm)
. Honours of War (Seven Years War 10mm)
. 7 Days to the River Rhine (Cold War 15mm)
The Cold War game photo's provided by DaveD (Deedles).
To The Strongest
Who: The Old Guard gaming group North Riding Wargames Group
Where: Scruton, North Yorkshire
When: Sunday 28th April
Players: Dave and Roy
The Battle of Pea Ridge (ACW)
Friday, March 7, 1862
This would see me playing a one on one game for this first time in (possibly) twenty years; I think the last game I played, not as part of a team or against multiple opponents, would have been Warhammer 40,000 at Richmond Wargames Club (North Yorkshire) in the last of it's four incarnations, at Zetland Estate's community room - that was way back in 2004 or 2005!
The rules used were Altar of Freedom. The miniatures were all 10mm sized, and the rules' measurements altered to use these large sized figures (6mm is the assumed miniature size). The game scenario is Very Small.
I'd chosen to play as the Confederate forces which, although quite restricted due to scenario limitations to recreate historic problems, allowed me to concentrate on only a small command with only one set goal - move forward and defeat the Union troops. The main issue, however was, the possibility of becoming stalled by a small Union force blocking the road south and the fact that all Confederate troops couldn't recover fatigue in the game (to recreate the exhaustion and low supplies, the rampant straggling and desertion, that hampered the Confederate force historically).
Most of the CSA force started the game on table, using the eastern road around 'Big Mountain'; here, I deployed the large, though heavily fatigued Missouri State Guard to lead the advance against the small Union division that blocked the way. Followed up by a slightly less fatigued division of troops, in the hope they could make use of the planned Missouri State Guards gains and deploy to meet the main Union force marching towards the sound of the guns.
That was the plan... Unfortunately, the plan went out the window pretty much straight away.
My dice rolls weren't great for the Missouri State Guard, which they needed to have been to try and balance the negative modifiers that the large Confederate division was hampered with. The Union force stayed in place, was not pushed back from blocking the way south, and created a dark blue wall that the Rebel grey would have to meet head on.
This was to be the case throughout the game. I could not catch a break when it came to combat dice rolls, with the negative modifiers hindering any attempts to make a grand push against the smaller Union force.
At the end of the second turn, the troops of McCulloch's division arrived - which was a mix of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, who were blessed with +3 positive modifiers to combat - from the western side of 'Big Mountain', on completely the wrong side of the battlefield, and were met by another small Union force blocking the way. My plan for this small division had been to move rapidly towards the Union deployment zone, using the Confederate cavalry to capture the Union camps and win for me three easy victory points. But, as what was becoming the norm in the game, my combat dice rolls proved to be a severe problem for me.
Just to balance the scales of luck however, whereas I couldn't win a combat to save my life it seemed, I was rallying broken brigades 85% of the time and able to throw them straight back into the game. I have to admit that I found this very amusing! And kept vocally remarking "these Confederates aren't for giving up!" The Missouri State Guard in particular just kept rallying and going straight back into combat - It meant the game lasted two turns longer than I was expecting, in fact, as at one point it was looking like an early defeat for me. But I managed to push the game into a fine balance, that could have seen victory going to either side.
Amusing as it was, seeing my luck displayed in this 'never say die' attitude regarding the rallying of broken infantry brigades, the Confederates on the tabletop who were stuck in combat were still unable to make gains against the Union forces opposing them.
The units broken for both sides started to mount; both armies had a break point of four. Turn six (of eight) saw the Confederate's having suffered 3 losses, compared to the Union's 2 losses. And McCulloch's Confederate cavalry was beginning to see some luck with my dice rolls, getting the better of the Union troops opposing them, and slowly making their way closer to the Union's unguarded headquarters.
But it wasn't to be. Turn seven saw the Confederate's reach their army break point, with the loss of a battery of artillery. Game over.
But, just to see what could have happened, since I had another infantry brigade waiting to test for rallying, I rolled the dice and saw it come up a success. That would have been my fifth unit to have rallied, if I could have only survived turn seven and we'd played on into the last turn.
All in all, it was a good game.
The small size of the armies meant you had to really think about what you wanted to do, and, with the penalties hampering the 'exhausted' Confederates, along with some oddball personality traits for the Confederate army general, saw me really having to think just how to get the best out of my troops.
But it wasn't just me having to think about what to do. My successes with rallying and sticking in the fight saw my opponent having to think about things too, especially when it was looking like a Confederate victory could be more of a possibility than it had been looking a couple of turns previously.
The Battle of Pea Ridge is an interesting scenario for such a small game, I found.
Edit: I remembered, earlier today, that I have played a few one on one games after 2004 - 2005. I played a couple of games of Frostgrave in 2015, and played X-Wing three times in 2017.
Whilst at Pendraken Miniatures the other day, one of the Confederate players purchased some SciFi Tripods.
"Titanic escorted by Rodney trying to escape from the invasion only to be ambushed at sea"
As you can see, Bren has made a cracking good job on them.
[Of note: Bren has extended the Tripod legs - (Bren explains the process) "The legs are extended with wooden dowls and the joints are thick paper, lots of pva and superglue gel. I concaved the end of the dowels to make it fit and have more contact, would have been a pain* to do with metal I think." - increasing the height of the model and creating a 'knee-joint' on the alien machines.]
*Bren's original choice of word has been substituted with a U-rated alternative, less this blog post be rated as PG-13.
The accompanying ship models are 1/700, HMS Rodney and RMS Titanic.
Soviet Armoured Reserve (mobilised War Reserves stock) T-34-85 Model 1953
Pendaken 10mm T-34 (single) fuel drums fitted to rear of Zvezda 1/100 T-34-85, as smoke canisters. Cut down pieces of gun barrels from spare tank models, as snorkels for deep wading. Bit of a bodge representation, rather than 100% accurate.
Still to do, sculpt a 'canvas cover over the gun mantlet' and create a 'night driving lamp'.
Planning to use them in games of 7 Days To The River Rhine (7DTTRR), where they'll be outmatched by near-enough everything they go up against. But, there'll be six of them and two SU-100 tank destroyers (using Homebrew rules/points of 20 points each for a SU-100). So those eight Soviet WW2 relics will only cost 148 points in the game, whereas a top-of-the-line NATO tank is in the cost region of 80 to 90 points each. The WW2 relics will struggle head on against two Abrams, Challengers, or Leopard 2s, but you get five or more of them hitting a NATO tank's flank armour and the odds are not bad.
Altar of Freedom ACW, 10mm.
What follows is a brief report of the game's morning turns, written up for the benefit of the Pendraken Miniature's Forum - as the miniatures used were all Pendraken Miniatures 10mm ACW.
[][][]
- Additional photo's from Deedle's collection, information provided by [forum member] Roy - one of the Union commanders on the day.
6AM north end of the battlefield, Mercerville and the Potomac River to the right-hand corner of the shot.
Pleasonton's (Union cavalry) Division is on the outskirts of Mercerville, Meade's Pennsylvania Reserves (Union I Corps) are just next to the tributary stream, then it's Franklin's Corps (Union VI Corps) on the road bisecting Hooker's (Union I) Corps. This was the set up for the Union main attack thrust south towards the cornfields.
Looking along the Antietam Creek, it's Porter's Corps (Union V Corps) at the bridge just north of Pry's farm and the ford. In the game, this corps made a successful demonstration over the Antietam Creek and proved the victors against a couple of brigades of Confederate infantry.
Of note, however, is the fact that the Union player's forgot all about the existence of the ford over the Antietam Creek, until far too late. A brigade of Sumner's Corps (Union II Corps) were mobilised around Noon (game turn time) and this was to be a feint, along with the demonstration by Porter's Corps that was already over the Antietam Creek.
6AM looking south to north of the battlefield. The troops closest to the camera are Burnside's Corps (Union IX Corps), and then, next to them in the woods, is Mansfield's Corps (Union XII Corps).
In the game, the Union commanders, again, went with a limited demonstration attack with these southern Union forces - but it came at a bloody price. Burnside's brigades were repulsed twice while attempting to cross the bridge, eventually Mansfield was ordered forward with William's Division (of Union XII Corps) to relieve Burnside's fatigued troops. The southern end of the battlefield would be in Confederate control throughout the game.
(possibly) 10AM game turn: [forum member Roy's denim-clad legs show the height difference between him and forum member Skywalker - the Union commanders for the game. Forum member Deedles - one of the Confederate commander's - is talking the photo] looking south to north.
Burnside's (Union IX Corps) makes its second attempt on the southern-most bridge across Antietam Creek, with William's brigade of (Union XII Corps) waiting to either push forward to claim land across the bridge or relieve a stalled attack. At the central bridge towards the west of Porterstown, Sumner leads Sedgewick's Division across the Antietam Creek, these being the second brigade of his (Union II Corps) - in the game Sumner was an immense presense, leading from the front and steadying his boys in the point-blank fighting. By Noon (game turn time) Sumner and Sedgewick's brigade were forced back over the bridge, but this was to be the Union commanders plan, anyway, as Sumner's (Union II Corps) was, again, only a demonstration attack, holding Confederate troops away from the main thrust of the attack by Hooker's and Franklin's Union corps from the north.
The North Riding Wargames Club meet on the last Sunday of each month, at Scruton North Yorkshire. Regular Saturday games are also planned, to be played at Pendraken' games room.
Still waiting for my order so I can play SciFi with Bryan's figures. Been just under a month since ordering. Used to be told to wait 28 days, so I'm not concerned. I'll give the company a 'poke' next week and see what's what.
In the mean time.
10mm Pendraken Miniatures T-54B conversion WIP. Day 1.
Some photos of the games I took part in, during my last two visits to the Scruton meet ups. September 2024 saw me commanding the Union forc...
