DBMM Sassanid versus Late Roman

Another Dbmm game at Stephens as practice for him for local Celtic Cup competition on Sunday (which I cant attend due to working- boo hoo).
He is (possibly) using his Late Romans so I fielded my Sassanid Persian for a contemporary match-up. Two quite evenly matched armies these in Dbmm.
A really good game helped by my Irregulars getting fairly good Pip dice rolls for once and the Roman Regulars fairly poor rolls.
Terrain pretty much perfect for the Romans mind you and so I decided to flank march on my right with my Hun Ally command.
They threw a six first turn so arrived on second ! not my usual fate with flank attacks.
They caused Romans several problems but were broken by tough Roman Auxilia.
However on opposite flank I managed to break the Moorish allied command (another bunch of mainly Light Horse).
The B@~+$"d Roman artillery mounted on wagons (of which there were 4) did not cause many casualties (1 KnX) but did disrupt my lines badly meaning I could not get a solid charge at his Legionnaries.
A dust up between my AuxS and more Roman AuxS (with advantage of hill) saw my chaps cut down almost to a man.
I had in one turn two enemy Generals hard flanked and failed to kill either !!
We had to end as midnight came upon us (too much pre-game waffling) and game undecided but looking like Romans might gain upper hand.
After so many games of Dbmm we amazed ourselves by discovering a rule we had been doing wrong all along regarding Pip costs of moving Inept troops less than full move straight ahead.
We always costed a single element move short as 2 pips but somehow realised that the +1 only counts for Groups moves in this instance.

Some fairly ropey iPhone pics as not great lighting

Sassanid deployment

Romans opposite

Romans on one hill.....................

And on another..............

The valley defenders with those annoying ArtF

Persian Cataphracts line up in centre

Persian left with couple of Pachyderms

Right wing supports Cataphracts

Moorish allies of the Romans

Asavaran (Clibinarii) lined up

Cataphracts being disorganized by Artillery

Struggle for hill

Moors about to get clobbered

Huns arrive

And get right into trouble

 

No Peace Without Spain 1709 turn ends

Another year of this engrossing game on Vassal between Norman and myself is completed.

Year of to rather a nasty start with draw of Famine event meaning we are both reduced to 4 instead of 5 action cards this turn. I drew 4 x 2 actions.

Fairly uneventful year compared to previous with the curtailed Campaigning season. 

Bourbons being in strong position mainly beefed up their army Corps. 

Only in Spain did they manouvre with an army moving to Madrid to thwart my plans there.

For my part (ie Allies) I too restored a few Corps. 

I did lay siege to Ostend with Galway managing to bypass Fortified Lines.

I also moved to besiege Naples which turned out rather risky as the Army involved had no line of communication to home so suffered a -2 siege modifier ! 

Of course Galway failed at Ostend whilst Naples fell to besiegers gaining me 2VPs hurrah !

1710 turn about to begin and first year that Peace Negotiations between Britain and France can occur at year end so will be interesting to see how this transpires.  

Overall situation at end of 1709 (no real change except the fall of Naples to Allies)

Years end in Austria and Northern Italy

Flanders stalemated again

Bourbons consolidate in Spain

Two new games from EBay

Managed to obtain two more board wargames I have been looking for on EBay today.
Looking forward to their arrival hopefully later this week.

Been considering a Panzer Grenadier series game and whilst this one described as not best to start series with I got it at decent price (£25) and subject matter appeals greatly

Again one I have been looking for as it gets decent reviews (seems bit of under appreciated gem) and again the 'Gotterdamerung' subject matter appeals

Much more of this I am going to have to put myself out on street corners as well as the wife !! :-)

WW2 Barbarossa To Berlin some playtime

Managed a few turns solo with this game this afternoon (as off for Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee). Interesting game with lots of possible actions each turn for each side (1 Action phase each in turn 1 6 per turn thereafter) depending on card types in hand (although you can get one operation free ie without use of card for OPs value).
As expected events first turns are mainly in Russia as German OP Barbarossa gets into full swing.
I did later have some fun in N.Africa as a card allowed use of PzArmeeAfrika but it is really a sideshow (as it should be).
Leningrad fell and area around Smolensk fairly wide open as Soviets lost loads of SCUs (Small Combat Units ie Armies) but strong further South around Kiev and Odessa and indeed around Moscow as they put all reinforcement efforts into their LCUs (Large Combat Units ie Fronts).
As 1941 ended the Winter 42 slowed Germans further (this was when Rommel got active) and FDR Declared War meaning US will enter the theatre mid-1942.
Combat, Movement and use of cards for Operations, Strategic Moves and Replacements are all fairly straightforward.
The main complexity comes with remembering several special rules or exemptions (although there are chits/charts to help).
Several cards are contingent on other having already been played and hard on first play through to know if best to hold these cards to allow such an events sequence or whether to use them as Action type cards. Enjoyable solo but unsurprisingly I think it would be really good 2-player (I have a chap from Consimworld hopefully lined up for a Vassal game in near future).

The Nazi incursion into Russia

The sideshow that is North African theatre

World At War Blood and Bridges gameplay

Played World At War Blood And Bridges with my Dad tonight managing to play four small scenarios to completion a fine indication of the quick play nature and ease of understanding of this game and WAW system !
Several difference to the WWII White Star Rising version of course mainly due to Modern (1985) setting. Shooting fairly deadly affair especially from MBTs and Helicopters.
Big difference is the fact that NATO formations can get 2 activations per turn as 2 Formation Chits in mix compared to standard 1 of the Soviets.
This gives them a lot of flexibility despite usually being outnumbered and is certainly in keeping with what is usually perceived to be the way such a Third World War would have played out, or at least its certainly how we in West hoped it would be, thankfully we never got to find out !!

Great fun and we are looking forward to playing more scenarios at later date.
My Dad was quite nostalgic using the Chieftain Mk5 units as he had been a driver of these in old Queens Royal Irish Hussars back early 1970s messing about at Sennelager near Paderborn as part of BAOR.

Chieftains on the Warpath scn

First Contact scn

Field Of Glory Renaissance game

Played a FOGRen game today using my Imperialists against Stephen's Ottoman Turks.
Great game that turned into a bit of a bloodbath with both of us failing Death Rolls left right and centre. Turkish cannon gave a unit of Cuirassier and one Tercio a real pasting.
I flank marched with two units of Reiters but they took rather too long to appear.
My Great General (Pappenheim) lead a single unit of Cuirassier on my left fending of shooting and charges by three units of Turk Cavalry and Spahis light horse.
However a charge by a Tercio and my Tratischer unit failed to break a unit of Jannisaries (awesome shooting) and Turk foot and when this Tercio broke the game was lost.
Great stuff with a complex but playable set of rules.

I still find it strange how much like FOGRen compared to the Ancients version which I try to like but find largely blah..................

Imperial starting posistions

Turks finishing their deployment

Turk foot

Turkish artillery redoubt

Imperial left

Imperial left

Early Tercios advance

 

Turkish centre

Turkish right

Pappenheim hemmed in !

Failed Tercio charge 

Tercio routs past cannon line

Belated arrival of Reiters on Turkish left

Pappenheim and Cuirassier up close and personal

Hard to believe they fought their way out of this unscathed