German Village for Infamy Infamy

I have just completed the build of a small German village for use with my ancient Germans in the forthcoming "Infamy Infamy" rules by Too Fat lardies.

All the buildings, except the watchtower which is an MDF kit from Blotz, were built from scratch by following Richard Clarke's video on Lard TV.

Cruel Seas with added fog of war

So, once again the intrepid gamers of Stevenage, Hitchin and several points North forgot about Coronavirus to blow each other to bits in the North Sea.

The game was a bit of an experiment. Would Warlord’s “Cruel Seas” work over Zoom? We were to find out.

The scenario was simple.

A German merchantman was carrying  a consignment of “heavy water” with its close protection  E-Boat Escort off the coast of Norway. A British MTB flotilla had slipped through the outer German naval force and was closing in on its prey.

The Germans entered the table with an E-Boat leading , the merchantman literally following in its wake and the second boat holding station to starboard.

The over-officered British came on with Rob’s Fairmile D sweeping round to attack from the side whilst Dave and Chris’ Vospers started a head-on attack.....or that’s what Rob’s plan seemed to be.

It all started to go wrong for the RN when the Fairmile sustained catastrophic damage from Greg’s E-Boat. It sank soon after.

Malcolm’s E-Boat miraculously survived a barrage of gunfire but was taking heavy damage from Dave and Chris. Dave manoeuvred and launched two torpedoes but Phil’s merchantmen got within the minimum arming range and also avoided them.

Malcolm’s boat sank, and then Dave’s Vosper fell to Greg’s avenging gunfire.

That left Chris....

He tried hard to run pursued by a merchantman and Greg. At last the dice fell Greg’s way and he was able to “cross the T” and rake Chris’ Vosper with everything he had.

The resultant explosion lit up the darkening skies.

Victory for the 3rd Reich and more vital resources for their nuclear bomb programme.

So, a seemingly successful outing for Cruel Seas. I only used the most basic rules. Next time I will add some more of the advanced rules.

Simon

Roman Deployment Points

I have recently painted up a couple of deployment points for my Early Imperial Roman force for the forthcoming "Infamy Infamy" rules from the Too Fat Lardies.

I have a third deployment point in development that is awaiting the arrival of some figures.

Deus Vult

And thus, in Anno Domini 1097 the host of the Lord met the Infidel on the field or battle…..somewhere in eastern Anatolia.

The Seljuks lined up with strong wings and a primarily light centre. Interesting. The Crusaders massed their knights on their right and left flanks, leaving the infantry to plod along in the centre under their less imaginative leader.

Phil’s Seljuk right manoeuvred deftly around the more ponderous Crusader units and was soon through the Crusader line. Rob pushed the Seljuk centre forward, but his missile fire had little effect. Malcolm advanced steadily with the mixed cavalry force of the Seljuk left. Suddenly the Crusader knights broke into a charge and hit the Seljuk cavalry. A few units evaded but one cavalry unit died. Shame it was the General who with a save of one and wound of ten went straight to Paradise. The Crusaders didn’t care as they took 4 Victory medals.  Phil took one Crusader camp and was positioning to force another unit through the gap when a chit pull of a one brought his adventure to a grinding halt.

Rob continued with missile fire in the centre .A few hits were scored but easily saved . The carnage continued on the Seljuk left. More units died as they failed to evade and were no match  for the seasoned lance armed Knights. Eventually the whole Seljuk left had either died or left the table.  With one victory medal to play for Chris made his solitary contribution  to the game by killing a Seljuk light unit with his bowmen.

Everyone admitted that life is tough for the Seljuks. A 6 x 4” table gives little room for manoeuvre with a light cavalry army, albeit Phil did show that they can “have their moment”.

Simon

A Quiet Night In

So, once again elements of Black Wolf met in secret….and on a Friday…..to get their weekly fix.

After what was deemed a successful debut last week, Williams/Threlfall productions once again put on a game of TTS using Zoom.  This time set in the 5th century AD, with Phil and the   Eastern Romans taking on Dave and the Sassanids, “somewhere East of Antioch”.

Phil was able to use his Strategem to push forward the Roman centre composed of  legionaries to anchor itself with the impassible oasis on its left flank.  Nice move!  The Sassanids first move stalled completely in a blizzard on “1s”. Greg looked on smugly.  Greg pushed the Roman left quite aggressively at Chris who decided to do not a lot. The Sassanid centre pushed on and unleashed a barrage of archery fire at the Legions. The result; a few disorders. Malcolm advanced the Sassanid left towards Phil who responded with a Roman cavalry charge. Phil’s expensive cataphracts were the first to die, followed by a Legionary unit. The destruction of  Sassanid light cavalry was no recompense. Things weren’t looking good for the Romans.

In the centre one of Dave’s units broke through and headed towards the Roman camp.  With so few Victory Medals available various Roman units retired to try and halt it. The Roman line comprising the Roman centre and right was looking decidedly shakey. On the Roman left Greg started to push Chris back eventually pinning one of his cavalry units on the baseline.

Miracles do happen. After all, this was Christianity vs Zoroastrian pagans.  Dave found if difficult to manoeuvre his cavalry for an attack on the camp, the Roman centre and left held and even killed Sassanid cavalry including a General. Or thought they had until Dave played his “Patroclus” stratagem and saved the General who joined the Elephants.

However, the Victory Medal count still favoured the Sassanids as the game neared a conclusion. Then Greg’s light cavalry seized the Persian camp….and 3 coins. With the Romans down to one coin, and the Sassanids three it became brutal. The death of a Sassanid light cavalry unit and with many units disordered it   effectively meant “next kill wins”.  Cue Phil and Rob’s final counter-attack in the centre and victory to the Romans.

A hard-fought game. Once again the Roman legionaries proved very tough and the Sassanids a tricky army to handle. With cavalry double-armed with lance and bow it is easy to just charge in. It wasn’t until late in the game, and with many units disordered  that the Sassanids started to use the heavy cavalry’s archery as it meant no “strike back” plus the chances of a bowshot hit or a disordered melee are the same.

I am leaving my table plus this basic set-up for the next game which will feature my 1st Crusaders vs either the Seljuk Turks or  Fatimid Arabs. Inshallah!

Simon

To the Srongest in the Digital Age

So, what went on last night in leafy Hertfordshire, and the bleak and blasted outstation in Cambridgeshire.

I’ll tell you....despite Coronavirus and lockdown, TTS happened. And mighty fine it was to!

Thanks to “Zoom” and Phil’s impeccable planning, 5 players huddled over their laptop screens whilst I ( aka the “Supreme Being” .....or maybe Mars, the Roman god of war would have been more appropriate), moved the table-top Miniatures and pulled all the chits to see who lived and who died....

From memory, Greg lived up to his reputation drawing two “1s” in quick succession.  The Romans steadily advanced...well their left flank and centre did. The right flank cowered behind a hill.

Desultory skirmishing on the flanks proved fairly indecisive for much of the game. Rob’s impetuous cavalry charge left his command leaderless for some time. Chris continued to bide his time “in reserve” on the Roman right.


The main event saw carnage in the centre.  The Romans pulled good chits....the Celts were having a bad day of it. Being disordered makes hitting and killing very difficult.Finally the Romans broke through in the centre and following Dave’s plea for action, Chris decided to attack, in a similar fashion to Italy attacking France in June 1940. A similar result. Dead Auxilia.

Despite the losses the Celts did kill legionaries, albeit the latter are “well ‘ard”. However the battle was over when veteran legionaries smashed into Phil’s already doubly-disordered fanatics. Carnage.

I think it worked admirably. We started at 18.56, four minutes ahead of schedule. One coffee/tea break at 19.55 ( including clapping the NHS), and it was all over circa 21.15. No arguments, a few issues with sound quality/Dave’s Scottish accent but pretty good. Unless you were Greg where “normal service was resumed”.


Simon