In The Style Of El Alamein

We played a game of Blitzkrieg Commander last night, using 15mm figures and a scenario based on, I think, part of El Alamein. Dug-in Italians, supported by German armour faced an attack from Australians. There was flat desert and tanks aplenty.

My tanks attempt to move into position, but failed command rolls meant that this took some time.

The Commonwealth forces get themselves organisied. Their command rolls were worse than mine, including a number of early blunders.

Australian infantry advances.

My tanks form up behind the cover of a railway line.

One of our more unusual vehicles - an amphibious ... thing.

The British armour pushes towards our lines.

The Germans still attempting to get into position. This tank company had lost a couple of elements to artillery fire.

Some Shermans strayed too close the the active Italian anti-tank guns.

The Italian positions. They suffered a couple of heavy artillery barrages, but just ended up suppressed. They also fought off several air attacks.

At last - the Germans get a proper defence line together. Just as the Commonwealth forces pull back from that particular axis of advance.

Geoff's face says it all; the Australian infantry is wiped out by an artillery barrage. From their own artillery.

At that point, with most of their infantry gone, and the Germans and Italians still in strong positions, the Commonwealth players conceded. Our defence lines were strong, and some good artillery barrages would have been required early on to weaken us. As it was poor command rolls on the part of the Australians kept us safe. The battle was won by the side that made the fewer poor command rolls, in fact.

Thanks to Ralph for putting together the scenario, and to various people for providing figures and terrain.

By the way, we discovered that if you order the print copy of BKCII from Lulu, what you get is a copy of BKCI. At least that's what had happened to two players.

MOAB Loot

I realised that I haven't shown you the few bits of loot I picked up at MOAB this year.

Aside from the Army Painter starter set I won in the HOTT tournament I picked up a couple of bags of random plastic bits from the bring and buy. I can't remember what was in each bag now, but they were a mix of various Clix and Clix-type figures.

My reason for picking up the bags in the first place were these three giant stompy robots, perfect for 'Giant Monster Rampage'. To be honest the two aren't quite humanoid enough for me, and may go under the knife, if only for parts ...

.. but this one is just what I've been looking for. Here he is with one of my Bandai Godzilla figures.

There were some smaller support troops with them. Probably too big for giant monster games (although the power-armour figures might make nice light mechs), but they may find homes in a Epic 40K HOTT army.

Here's some of the mixed figures, mostly from fantasy or horror games, although there's a Marvel Heroclix Man-Thing in there as well.

Some more odd 'things'.

And some very odd things.

Finally - this. What is this all about?

I also picked up another stompy robot - A Dystopian Wars Prussian robot. Again, it scales perfectly with Godzilla. Godzilla vs  Giant Teutonic Steampunk robot - what's not to like?

Epic Scale HOTT

No, not HOTT with Epic 40K figures (although you know that's a regular thing here). This is HOTT with 15mm figures based on the frontages for 25mm - a 60mm wide base. More width and depth means more figures on the base. And they look amazing.

That's what Geoff and I played last night; a 72AP game with Da Vinci Italians facing a Greek Mythological army. This isn't a long report, as I didn't take photos following the curse of the game. I had the Italians, and Geoff took the Greeks. We bashed away at each other for quite a while,  trying to make a breakthrough and cursed on one flank by a mutual lack of PIPs. Then our respective Spear lines met in the centre. Geoff slipped a Flyer into the rear of my CinC to block his retreat, and that was it - my losses were greater than his, so it was the end of the game.

Here's some pictures.

The armies setup up and ready to go.

My right flank - Knights, light cavalry and tanks.

Spears in the centre.

My airforce - two Flyers support and Airboat. Lack of PIPs kept them inactive for most of the game.

The tanks and Knights move up.

Geoff's largest Leonardo tank is a work of art.

Update: I forgot to mention that all of the figures are Geoff's

Epona's Great Big Grassy Mound

Sometimes you hang onto random things you buy at wargames shows just because you know that one day you'll use them ...

I have no idea who makes this small resin hill with a white horse carved into it, but it's now part of my course- and lap-tracking tool for Celtic chariot racing. The small object on the bottom left is a 6mm horseman (whose base needs doing) which will act to indicate where on the track the chariots are. On the right-hand side you can see dots I can use to record the lap (One, Two and Three). The hill was mounted on a balsa base textured with sand, and then painted in various shades of green after having the corners rounded off. I scraped the markings into the sand and then painted them, and the horse, in my best white paint. Easy.

The Rites Of Spring

So what better way to celebrate Spring than a chariot race? Charioteers from six British tribes have travelled to to Salisbury Plain to honour the new season. Here they are, lined up and ready to go.

This was my first six chariot race using 'Charioteer!' from Two Hour Wargames. I took a white chariot, and went for a Savvy of 3, Speed of 4 and Strength of 2. My plan, such as it was, was to sit at the back for the first lap, perhaps moving up to a strong fifth or fourth if I could, then shift up a couple of positions in the second lap, aiming to be third by the start of the final lap. With a good speed I could run well on the straights, and just hoped to survive the corners. By the end of the second lap I hoped that the field would have thinned out a little as well; by then at least one chariot would have been forced out of the race.

The other chariots were mostly on a par with mine, aside from the Blue and Yellow ones, who both rolled well, and were both skilled and fast.

The race began, and we entered the first straight. Green took the lead, followed by Yellow, Blue, Red, Grey and with me bringing up the rear.

Immediately Yellow challenged for the lead, but Green jostled him away

Red slipped up into third place, past Blue ...

... and I decided that fifth place was where I wanted to be, and overtook Grey. This was the position at the end of the first section.

Along the first straight we went. I chose not to challenge this time, sit behind the chariot in front and build up bonus dice. Once again Yellow attempted to pass Green, but Green blocked him. However he got greedy, and attempted to whip Yellow back into place. The exchange startled Green's horse-team, and Green slipped back into second place.

Blue overtook Red, whilst Grey tried to overtake me on the inside, but failed.

The position at the end of the second section of track. All of the chariots bar mine seemed to be burning bonus dice. I felt confident that as long as I could hold position I could win this.

We sped into the first curve, and Grey tried to pass me again, using his whip. A bad move - I rolled well, and took it from him, forcing his chariot back and causing him to lose speed.

Blue passed Green on the corner, leaving this as the position as we entered the second straight of the lap.

There were a lot of passing attempts down the straight, but the positions didn't change. And all of the chariots were still racing.

We hit the second lap, and still the positions didn't change. This was now when I needed to start moving up the field a little. In the first straight section of the second lap I tried to overtake Red and move into fourth place.

Red kept fighting me off, doing it in both straight sections. My plan was not going well. The other chariots stayed in the same positions.

Into the second corner of the second lap, and I was still in fifth place. Grey sped up on the inside, and suddenly I was last again.

Meanwhile Blue took the lead, when Yellow's horses were startled and he lost ground.

Into the second straight of the second lap, and I managed to get past Grey to move into fifth position again. I had a lot of work to do, though.

The third and final lap! On the curve I decided to gamble and swung out to overtake Red ...

... successfully! Fourth place!

Along the first straight and I tried to pass Green, but couldn't. Yellow took the lead again, but now the three chariots in front were low on bonus dice, and I wasn't.

Further along the straight, and Green tried to pass Blue, but was bashed back.

This was enough for me. As Green fell back I surged forward, overtaking him to move into third place.

This was the position as we rounded the final corner and headed into the home straight. Blue and Yellow were both strong chariots, but in fact the special events were starting to take their toll on their horse teams, who were tiring.

I wasn't strong on the corners, though, and Green took advantage of this to retake third place.

Grey tried to overtake Red, but was badly repulsed in a whipping attack, and left at only 1 Speed.

The home straight, and I needed to be bold. I had two sections in which to move up three positions if I wanted to win. I resolved to take second place by the end of the first one.

Green was easily passed. Blue would be trickier though, as it was my second challenge of the turn, and I was passing wide.

I did it! And still had a bonus dice to spare. One section of track remained, and I was in second place. Victory was in sight.

There was more bashing and whipping at the back, but still no chariots had been lost.

The run for the finish ...

... and most of the chariots decided to sit tight behind the one in front.

Blue was sat behind me. Close behind. Too close. As I prepared to make my move, we collided ...

... and I was out, my chariot flipping right down the track to finish in front of Grey. Grey avoided the wreckage.

My charioteer was killed instantly.

Yellow sped across the line unopposed, followed by Blue.

I could have won! I could have been a contender! If only that pesky Blue chariot had been more careful.

It was interesting playing a game with that many chariots, although the die rolls gave a fairly unaggressive game with a low casualty rate. I was rather hoping that at least one opposing chariot would have been wiped out before the last lap, making my job easier. I didn't expect the only casualty to be me.

The spectators are from Irregular Miniatures, by the way - camp and market scenes.