2nd Beneventum scenario completed in ongoing Vassal Punic Campaign with Mike and next scenario Castulo commenced.
2nd Beneventum was another close run contest which could easily have gone to Carthage had my Romans failed in last turn we played.
New scenario Castulo has interesting terrain set up and victory conditions (Romans lose instantly if Scipio killed but can gain Victory Banners if able to push units of enemy board edge)
No game this week (due to dental appointment) but did manage to get in a solo session with No Retreat! The Russian Front which is always entertaining.
The low unit count and moderate complexity makes this a fun game.
Germans currently threatening around Minsk and Moscow with Russkies doing their usual scrambling to hold in initial turns.
Also an ongoing Pbem game with Combat Mission Afrika Korps with John with a Tunisia scenario 'Hells Hill' with John as Huns and me as Brits
Early stages but the Sherman pictured has just managed to take out a PzIV on turret at 800m with 3 shots.
We tried a 750pt game which is largest so far and this saw 41 Dwarves facing 56 'Baddies' (I had Witch King on a horse this time and no Troll but had 4 Spectres and mass of Orcs in 4 Warbands).
Dwarves have some nice abilities making them tough, as better strength means they win drawn duels vs my lot (happened a lot), several units get re-rolls in combats (again happened a lot) and they benefit from most terrain, they also shoot as well as Elves, only real downside is they move 1" less (short legs).
Game was a pretty brutal slog as I deployed right up to table center and being orc horde went straight for enemy, indeed we played whole game in Dwarf half of table.
Dwarf shooting took out 6 of mine before units clashed and then I lost tons quickly but began inflicting losses.
My Army reached break point first and several Orcs fled (failed morale checks) but I did manage to break the Dwarf army just before mine was auto-defeated.
Not great or many pics as involved in game
Action starts in Dwarf half of table
Completed Dertosa scenario with Mike on Vassal with my Romans gaining a rather too narrow win.
Despite having a superior Command Card limit (6 vs 4) I had no 'special' type cards until last hand, whilst Mikes Carthaginians seemed to obtain every one through course of game making it difficult for Rome with myriad extra moves and attacks.
We are now onto next scenario '2nd Battle Of Beneventum 214BC'.
Starting deployments
This is a rather tough task for French as only three crossing points (two bridges and a ford) for non-skirmishers despite having greater numbers of troops.
I did launch several 'Forcing A Passage' attacks but all were initially beaten off with several of my units being routed (Stephens melee dice were pretty good) including my best unit the Baden Dragoons !
I did eventually manage to take the two bridges but Army Morale losses were such that my morale pool had dwindled and I quit the field on first eligible Army Morale roll (Russians had 5 Morale remaining out of 21 with 3 'gifted' by French from their 30)
As usual with FOB this was a slick fast playing game full of incident and key rolls, not much manouvre due to the choke points but still good stuff and completed in reasonable playing time.
Baden Dragoons routing back across bridge after nasty Russian musketry, they did rally but Infantry had taken bridge by then so took no further part in proceedings.
And a final birthday purchase (61 yikes !!!!!) arrived as well.
Will I play them who knows but nice to have a lite option for skirmish level games.
Society meeting today and I took part in a very engrossing naval game (not a genre I have played much at all) with Battle of Tsushima 1905 set up by Dave T using his very nice 1/24000th fleets.
I played as Japanese with Dave B as Russians with each ship model representing 2 real life equivalents.
Ground scale was I believe 10cm to 1 nautical mile, bit of record keeping required for each ship but nothing onerous as essentially just marking off hits/damage.
Rules were a set called Tsushima (no idea of publisher) and were pretty easy to grasp and play with each Division (2-4 ships) activating alternately with winner of turn initiative having choice to go first or second but firing first in firing phase.
Ships rated for armour in various aspects (hull, main guns and secondary guns) with varied amounts of main guns and secondary turrets to fore, aft, port and starboard with some having torpedoes.
Game sets up with Russians heading north shadowed by some Jap Cruisers and a horde of lowly Destroyers and main Jap fleet moving intercept from north.
Once units got into firing range things soon became a sort of slow moving 'dogfight' as I tried to maneuver to surround the Ivans.
Highlights were Russian shooting in general being awesome despite being inferior to Japs, Dave B just rolled a fearsome amount on 10s to hit (on D10) and I had a couple of ships with lots of holes but still afloat.
Jap shooting was less than stellar with their Battleship flotilla shooting woefully throughout even when at short range with full broadside and 'crossing-the-T' for maximum opportunity !!
However I did manage to roll two Critical Hits (out of several possible) that caused catastrophic explosions, with Ivans (I think) causing flooding and steerage damage with couple of their Critical Hits .
However even slowing a Russian tub effectively means it cannot escape (the Russian main aim) and I did send a few ships to bottom or damaged whilst suffering a couple of losses.
Another....umm......highlight was one of my Destroyers managing to hit a friendly Battleship and send itself to bottom in a sort of reverse Kamikaze.
As we wrapped things up it was decided that whilst Russians could likely exit two main ships the rest likely bottled up and so a marginal Japanese victory was declared.
Fun stuff and much kudos to Dave T for running the game.
Tough to take decent pics with phone of such tiny items which is a pity and nicely detailed and painted.
Japs disrupting the support types, note sunken marker for Russian vessel sent to find Mr Jones locker
Also as club were other games (usual proviso that I had little time to see what occurred in each)
Leslie and co played a Sudan game with very nice 10mm kit (rules unknown)
Andy ran a 28mm 'what if' 'Napoleonic game using GDA2 and Brits vs French (this was a small scale affair by Andy's usual standards)
Charlie and co had a Battle Tech game on some nicely complex terrain.
