Vikings versus Andalusians

After the success of last week's game I decided to see if I could field a 28mm Basic Impetus army using my Saga Vikings.

And I could!  

It looks a bit like a DBA army (must check what the DBA Viking army elements are).

I had to make up special movement trays for my figures and need to redo most of the flocking (which you will see is pretty sparse if you expand the pictures).

Simon's Andalusians are arrayed in front of my army.  

He is short a unit of slingers and a unit of light cavalry. 

 End of Turn 2, from the Viking left as they start to advance.

Raiders are on the left (bottom of photo), Irish on the right.

 Turn 3 from the Viking right this time, 

where the Andalusian medium cavalry are rapidly advancing.

 Turn 4 as seen from the Andalusian side.

 The Christian Knights make a magnificent charge.

 End of Turn 5 and the knights finally stopped chewing up the Vikings before them,

Poor cohesion roles and an inability to inflict casualties 

had the two remaining Viking units down to 1 VBU each.

 There was a brief pause...

 End of Turn 6.

The Vikings have charged in the centre.

On the Viking right there is only the general's unit left facing the victorious knights.  

 End of Turn 7 and the knights are in check.

On the Viking left contact is about to be made, 

while fighting continues in the centre.

 End of Turn 8 and it is a standoff on the Viking right.

 While on their left the Vikings have routed all before them, except the Andalusian commander.

 End of Turn 9 and it is getting tricky for the Vikings.

 End of Turn 10.

The victorious Vikings on the left (on the right of the above photo)

 are now hurrying to rescue the right.

 End of Turn 11.

The fighting has been very ineffective.

 And with Turn 12 the fighting continues to be of no consequence.

 End of Turn 13, unlucky for some...

The Viking right could not hold out.  

The Viking commander goes down fighting.

The Vikings suffered badly with initial high cohesion roles that saw them take a lot of casualties.  They then made an amazing stand by rolling low for cohesion and eventually dying through accumulated disorder losses.  Unfortunately their left wing troops couldn't get back into action, which is fair enough given the Andalusians were missing two units.

France 40 - Take Two - Part One

Richard and I started a repeat of the GMT France 40 game.  I went French.  The Scenario is The Sickle Cut - Guderian's Drive to the Sea.

 May 13, tanks are heard rumbling in the woods.

May 14, the German attack is confirmed.

The river line has been breached in two places

 May 15, the Allies pull back, attempting to form a new line.

 May 16, Rommel looks like he has broken through.

British troops are being rushed to plug the gap.

 May 17, and the Hitler Halt is invoked.

Namur is abandoned.

 May 18, and the delay has allowed the Allies to close the gap.

 May 19, but the Germans keep pushing.

All their armoured divisions are now committed to creating a breakthrough.

 May 20, if only the Allies could mount a counterattack...

 At this stage it looks like we will be going into extended time.

The big picture.  This is a game of punch and block.

Musee de l'Armee

I have seen Marshall Davouts uniform and many of Napoleon's hats.  How cool is that.

I probably should have called this post the Tomb of the Emperor (in suitable French of course), as these photos were all taken by my partner and she photographed, mostly, what she found interesting.

Under the gaze of Napoleon.

With good fortune, an exhibit on Napoleonic Strategy was underway during our visit.  There were some fun interactive battle displays and by the time we finished Karen was becoming quite an expert, under my tutelage of course.

Almoravids versus Andalusians

Simon organised this game based on his 28mm figure collection to provide two armies for Basic Impetus.  I took the Almoravids (List 18.5) to fight his Andalusians (List 18.2).  Rather topical as I'm currently reading an old book about the Arabs which mentioned the Almoravids.

I apologise in advance for the poor quality of some of the photos.  I am trying out my new phone's camera.

 Andalusians on the left, Almoravids on the right.

 End of Turn 1 and I had advanced, hoping to bring the enemy in range of my bow fire.

 Turn 2 and the Andalusians are trying to get round my flanks.

 My skirmishers evade on my right, 

but one of my light cavalry units on the left was routed by missile fire.

 However next turn the remaining light cavalry get revenge,

but it didn't last...

 The enemy cavalry were dented, but not seriously weakened (as it turned out).

On the other flank the combat had resulted in mutual destruction.

 By Turn 5 I had again advanced and was feeling confident.

 The Black Berbers were destroyed by the Mercenary Christian knights fighting for the Andalusians.

The other Andalusian cavalry was ignoring my light cavalry and threatening my centre's flank.

 Ouch!

 Things are looking bad at this stage.

End of game.

I was left with one light cavalry unit that was not guarding my left flank, an infantry unit in the centre that was retreating and a lone unit of archers way out on my right flank.  Disaster!

Carcassonne

I never thought I would get to see this fabled place, but it was remarkably accessible, despite the strikes currently prevalent in France.  The strikes meant we weren't able to walk the castle walls.  But what we could access was fabulous.

The French do tourism well, by which I mean there is a level of taste and subtlety such that the attraction is not overwhelmed by the desire to make a dollar.  The French seem to respect their history, which is good as the certainly have a lot of it.

Medieval tax avoidance.

Tax was paid on a building's footprint.

The yellow paint is recent and supposedly temporary.

Something that has been missing from every other castle I have visited,

the wooden fighting tops.

The interior passage of one of the wooden fighting tops along the wall.

One interesting comment was that the castle was built or rather an early objective was to keep the Spanish out, but now they are welcomed to Carcassonne as tourists.

An added advantage of this visit is the hope I now have that I can get Karen to play the Carcassonne boardgame (at least once).