Commands & Colors - finale

Finished (in super quick time) the last C&C scenario Cirta with Mike the final scenario in our basic game campaign.

Roman victory in short order (5 turns) with only my left flank units being used and those being enough to takeout the Numidians facing them.

And so ends a hugely enjoyable series of games using Vassal.

C&C Napoleonics (as well suited to Pbem) a real contender for next game we try but maybe something else ?

  

Commands & Colors - last scenario Cirta 203 BC

Just finished Iliturgi scenario with Mike on Vassal and Romans thoroughly thumped with Elephants stomping a unit of Legionaries and killing attached General to secure victory for Carthage.

So now its on to the last scenario of our Punic Wars campaign with Cirta 203BC 

L'Art De La Guerre - Minoans and Uyghurs get an outing

At Stephens today and due to minimal preparation time we went with trusty old LADG.

We both felt it had been ages since we used Chariot based armies and so first game I fielded my Minoans facing a Hittite force.

This was a great game that was very bloody with Hittites gaining the win.

I did manage to lose a General (Lch Impact Armoured Elite a unique type) in a single round of combat after suffering 3 hits and General dying on required roll of 1 !!

Second game I used Ugyhurs (Central Asian Turks) with Tibetan Allies and Stephen used T'Ang Chinese.

This was more of a blood bath for my lot as a deluge of ones saw numerous hits from shooting (nearly everything in T'Ang shoots) blunting my hitting power.

Combats were more even but my center imploded and things went south fast.

L'Art De La Guerre two more games (Galatian and Viking)

Two more games of LADG today but not the Medieval period this time 

Stephen has a newly painted Polybian Roman army so I gave this an outing using my Galatians.

And then I used Vikings against Carolingian.

Vikings take on Charlemagne

Celts battle Rome

 

Commands & Colors - one more down and two to go

Another C&C scenario completed with Mike via Vassal and a very narrow win for Rome at Cissa. 

The last unit loss could easily have been Romes. 

Now its onto Iliturgi 215BC the penultimate scenario of our campaign (I only have one other C3i scenario)

Great stuff with this easy to play and fun system on Vassal

The end at Cissa

A tough looking task for Romans at Iliturgi

Commands & Colors - on and on we go

Vassal PBEM scenario Agathocles Tower with Mike completed with a narrow Roman win, had my last combats not worked highly likely any Battle Back would have lost my last unit rather than Mike.

Thus onto next C3i scenario I have this one being Cissa 218BC which has rather more terrain than most

L'Art De La Guerre - last two practice games and a personal wargaming nostalgia trip

Stephen off to Cork competition this weekend so final practice session for his Ottoman Turkish army.

I used Catalan and Order of St John against him today so lots of chances to practice evading, shuffling, shooting and generally annoying the enemy that his army relies upon.

Hopefully he good enough practice to do well (he usually does) 

 

Bit of nostalgia now as I came across several images related to old memories from days as a nipper and early wargaming influences.

Action Man (GI Joe) a very early military influence, I had one that 'talked' and had realistic gripping hands no less.

In addition to basic figures one could obtain several specialist uniforms and I had these two as well as several others

Had this beastie 

An early literary influence I got this on 5th birthday

Whilst contemporaries were buying various 'pop' albums this was my first ever LP 

I had of course watched dozens of war films but these two really helped get me into proper wargaming having seen them in cinema and thereafter trying to recreate such imagery in miniature or with board wargames

This led to devouring numerous war related reference books and novels (Sven Hassel) of which this was one of the first

An early Christmas toy that I soon (circa 1969) had to use only inside as 'Troubles' started here in Ulster and deemed too dangerous for young lads to have any gun type toy out in public

I had a ton of these transfer sets all war themed (still some knocking around)

Always lusted over various of these sets which were advertised in US Comics but never took plunge

I had both of these metal Dinky items (still have the cap-bomb that Stuka could drop)

Box set from local model shop from which I still have several of the terrain pieces

Hours spent pouring through this if only to enjoy art illustrations and planning purchases of boxes of 'Midgies' i.e. 20mm figures and kits. Turns out I still have this along with one for Revell and several for Taimya kits.

A very popular kit (still have this) useful for several periods

More Airfix goodness (think just about everyone I knew had this set)

Another Dinky set I also had a 25pdr and a Centurion

One of the cheap as chips low detail models Airfix produced which bulked out many a collection

Another popular kit that has given sterling service still to this day

Another 'play' set a lot of us had

A selection of the intoxicating Airfix box art, what red blooded youth could resist !?

Couple of later Airfix box sets

A big influence in late 1970s was this glossy gem

Which led to reading lots of stuff from these great old school (although they did not seem so at time) wargame types

Charles Grant

Don Featherstone

Peter Gilder in the excellent Battleground TV show. 

Sadly I only got to see a couple of these (no video recording in those days) and especially miffed not getting to see the WW2 episode with Gavin Lyall !!

My first two sets of wargame rules, I played OP Warboard a lot in early wargaming days

In tandem with getting into WW2 miniature wargaming in a big way I also started with board Wargames of which these two beauties were my first purchases around 1977.

First of metal figures I became aware of and kernel of interest in other periods besides WW2

Another very early influence, several early Taimya models built by my Dad whilst a Squaddie in West Germany, photo is from 1972 (I lived in BAOR Paderborn W.Germany for a year)

 

Up in loft other day for better half and found these (which started this nostalgia trip) and I think these are Dragon Models 1/6th figures that my son had when he were but a lad (20+ years ago), several figures but these two only ones I could find almost complete kit for.

A good deal fancier than my Action Men of yore.