The African Campaign - 1973 Style

Yesterday Richard and I decided on playing a game that would be less taxing on the brain.

I had never played this game in its heyday, being always a bit of an SPI devote or more likely captive.  This might have been the second time I've played it (I would have to check), but it felt warmly familiar.  It gave a great and tense game having a very cruel CRT.  By April 1942 however the Axis had reached their high water mark and it would have been all downhill after the failure of their last desperate attacks.  My Commonwealth forces had been worn thin, but there was more on the way. 

Great game!

Alexander Empire versus Classical Indian

This week it was the turn of my Hellenistic forces to take on Dave's Indians.  400 points Impetus Second Edition.

 I had the advantage with the deployment.

 In turn one I made a double advance with all except my right wing cavalry.

Unfortunately I forgot to move my elephants.

 Turn two saw the loss of one of my light horse,

but the successful, if inconclusive, engagement of my pikes with the enemy.

 The enemy elephants waiting their turn.

 Turn three and the pike units engaged, but were repulsed by, the enemy elephants.

 The enemy elephants' counterattack is held up by some extremely brave Persian slingers.

 The enemy subgeneral gets upgraded and rashly advances.

 Turn four and I have swung round the enemy right flank,

while my right still holds, although thining fast.

More importantly the fighting in the centre is starting to go my way.

 Top down look at the action in the centre.

I used only one tactical card while Dave seemed to have an endless supply,

and he used them to good effect.

Turn five and the enemy army is totally broken, 

with their CinC killed as well.

My army performed well, although at times just couldn't get the hits.  Dave's shooting was significantly below par, but his use of Tactical Cards kept his army fighting.

Tea Time

When Richard told me about these Peter Pig figures I knew I had to have them.  It has just taken a good while for me to paint them up and base them.  Not sure what purpose they will serve, but they look good.

A mighty brew!

England makes my tea!

Commonwealth Odds and Sods

These bases were cobbled together from some leftover figures and the engineers pack.

 Apologies for the poor photography.

 Not sure the dry yellow flock adds much, 

but I wanted a bit more texture to the bases

(and the flock has come up greener than the offwhite I was expecting).

 Engineers

Plenty of activity happening here, but with the odd guy looking on.

World in Flames - 2

Last night we finished the September/October 1939 turn.

A combination of Nazi aggression against the Low Countries

and defiance by the Poles gave me the chance to demand Bessarabia.

The US flagged chits are actually denote a random garrison factor 

deployed between the expanding USSR and Greater Germany.

The build up continues on the border with Iran,

with the arrival of General Zhukov.

But the stakes are high in China.

Wet weather postponed Japanese attacks, but there are clear skies ahead.

Nikephorian Byzantines versus Scythians

Last night at the club, my Byzantines faced Andrew's Skythians.  It would be interesting.  Only challenge was my mind was still caught up with Basic Impetus and it was only Andrew's third game with Second Edition, but at least he had read the rules and that corrected numerous errors on my part.

 Standard deployment.  

The Scythian horse archers are either 3 or 4 strong and that is what the counters denote.
(Thanks Dave for lending me the camp, I'd left my sheep at home.)

 Turn 1 and action is immediate, with arrows flying everywhere.

 Turn 2 and the casualties start to mount (or I guess dismount in terms of the cavalry units).

Note my cavalry is perfectly ready to charge.

 It only gets better when the enemy commander is downgraded to poor.

 Turn 3.

I was one step ahead of myself, now my cavalry is ready to charge!

(The enemy needed to come a bit closer)

Turn 4.

The perfect charge was a fiasco, but we came good in the subsequent fighting.

My cavalry command ultimately broke, but it took out the main Scythian command, 

including killing its now doubly poor commander.

Two things to check:  

1. Does use of the Die Hard tactical card negate the need to do a Cohesion Test?

2. For a Unit with VBU=3 what is the Worn and Exhausted levels? (I assume 2 and 1, but the chart has 2 and 2 ...)

A look in the Impetus 2 Rules thread found this answer: A unit of VBU 3 is exhausted when it takes one loss. http://impetus.darkbb.com/t1261-worn-or-exhausted?highlight=VBU+3+worn

Semovente 47/32

I've always wanted a model of one of these since I read a an article in Military Modelling magazine back in the 1970s.  It was how to scratchbuild one in 1/76th scale.  Sensibly I never attempted it.

"Ciao mamma!"

  But of course in 15mm just don't get one, 

you get two.

I find the early war armour much more interesting than the late war, modern stuff.