Monday 18 March 2024

Skirmishing with my old toy soldiers.

 

Taking a breather from some very intense games of "ASL" I got out some of my oldest toys and have been playing some "One Hour Skirmish Wargames".


The soldiers are my Airfix and Britains Deetail 1/32nd which I have had since I was about eight years old. Veterans for sure!.

I have put labels under their stands with names on, I mainly used names from "Combat Commander" leaders. The narrative of the game means more somehow when the wee men have names.

I am having a lot of fun with these rules, I kept all the distances the same but I use a bigger 5 inch grenade template for the larger figures.

I staged a few photos for this post, this isn't actual gameplay.

I have a bunch of Russians to play with as well, I made the signage on the buildings detachable so I can go from the Western Front to the Eastern Front in a jiffy.

I'm planning another game tonight in which a cut off US officer needs rescuing from a village swarming with Germans. It should be fun!.

A nice change of pace, "One Hour Skirmish Wargames" gets a recommendation from me!.

Friday 23 February 2024

PANZER: Brits in action.

 Another game of PANZER on the LHY maps...

Brits attacking a German held village.


The Brits fire smoke at a brace of Tigers.


Germans holding the chateau.


Moving up.


PaK 40's lurking in the woods.


The RAF take out the flakwagen.

The German ambushers come under fire.

Despite the covering smoke a pair of Fireflies get brewed up.


The first German infantry platoon is defeated.


A Tiger immobilised.


The Tigers get attacked from behind by the speedy Cromwell tanks.

The Typhoon takes out the immobilised Tiger, BOOM!.

It's a bit of a ding-dong.


The Germans are just hanging on.


After a hard fight the village is taken!.


The German command and mortar section scarper from the chateau.


The dead pile!.

Another canny game, PANZER is a highly regarded game here in Chateau L'Idelle.


Wednesday 21 February 2024

PANZER maps

  I am a big fan of GMT's PANZER and recently got hold of the third expansion for PANZER which brings the British and US to the game.

Great stuff!.

Great, except for the maps. PANZER map hexes are too small for the vehicle counters being the same width at one inch, this means that the corners of the vehicles protrude into the next hex.

The PANZER maps are functional rather than artistic and that is OK with me but I don't like the hedgerow maps representing bocage, I don't like them at all!. 


I also am lucky enough to own and enjoy  GMT's The Last Hundred Yards which has 1 and 1/4 inch maps so I though I would give them a try for PANZER.

LHY on the left PANZER on the right.

What a difference!.










The game is much easier to play on the larger hexes especially when you are using information counters alongside the unit counters. The game is much nicer to look at too.

Champion!.

Friday 16 February 2024

ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER

 ASL is the best wargame I've ever played. I managed to get hold of some second hand bargains recently...

A £15 1st edition rulebook.

And a £35 1st edition Beyond Valor.

"The Guards Counterattack", a nostalgic moment for me as it is 40 odd years since I played it with the original Squad Leader.




Happy days.

Thursday 6 July 2023

Baroque - English Civil War.

 Well I'm still battling away with me ECW toys. After many good games with "Furioso" rules I found the rule set I originally fancied on Ebay at a good price.

These rules are entitled "Baroque" and are published by Dadi&Piombo. I decided to half my unit size to suit the rules on my small table.


The rules play well with commands activating by initiative as the opposing units may react to the activating sides actions. It is all very to and fro.

There is a very good blogpost featuring Baroque here... link It is well worth a peep for anyone interested, I have found it very useful.


I discovered that I needed a couple of camps to be protected so I set to and made some today.


I've spent some time improving my terrain a bit too, I've invested in some new trees, painted my fields and had a right good time of it.






I love learning a new rules set and I reckon Baroque is well worth learning.