Blasthof Bridge with 54mm Toy Soldiers

Blasthof Bridge from Lawford and Youngs "Charge!, or how to play war games"

Featuring Kornberg and Soubises descendants meeting on the field of Mars, circa 1900.

 Kornbergs troops advance.

 Soubises men are in the sunshine.

 Kornbergs Uhlans cross the river.

 Soubise captures the bridge.

 But Kornbergs infantry and artillery await them.

 The Uhlans make it to the other side.

 A small unit if infantry are sent to ford the river too.

 But a cannon awaits them.

 The cavalry clash - Soubises men win this one!.

 The Zouaves are annihilated as they cross the bridge.

Shot to pieces Soubises force is now forced to retreat.


I used the rules from "Charge" with increased ranges and move distances and although the dynamics of the original Blasthof scenario were altered by this and the different forces used the game was enjoyable.

Memoir '44 Mediterranean Expansion

I managed to buy a copy of the Memoir '44 Mediterranean Expansion pack, ordered on Thursday afternoon from Leisure Games ( see my link ) it arrived Friday lunchtime!. Fantastic service indeed.


I've played five of the scenarios already and thoroughly enjoyed each one.

28mm Soviet Army started

Here are the first parts of my 28mm Russian World War Two army. The T-34/85 is a Corgi 1:50 diecast model and the infantry are Westwind and a single Black Tree.

These are the first things I've painted for months and isn't my best work but I reckon they will do. The infantry will be based when I get some more PVA glue.

I bought these models about five years ago and I bought a Hobbyboss T-34 to go with them a couple of years ago but when I came to build it last week I realised that a frame of parts was missing. It will maybe do for spares. I since discovered that Tamiya have just released a JS-2 in 1:48th scale so I will purchase one soon.

 The Corgi tank has had a bit of a repaint and I used the Hobbyboss decals.

Rules experiment - WW2

I've been doing some work on a rules set hoping to capture some of the spirit of Charles Grant's "Battle" and today I had a little tryout using three infantry squads and three tanks per side and possible artillery and air support.

Here are some shots of the action.

Here are a rough draft of the rules that I used. They are far from being original and the morale rules are based on Charles Grant's rules.

BATTLERS !

20TH CENTURY WARGAME RULES IN THE “OLD SCHOOL” SPIRIT


MOVEMENT:

INFANTRY - 9” VEHICLES - 18”


SHOOTING:

DIRECT FIRE

INFANTRY ROLL 1D6 PER FIGURE UP TO A RANGE OF 18” SCORING A HIT ON A ROLL OF 4+ IF THE TARGET IS IN THE OPEN, 5+ IF THE TARGET IS IN SOFT COVER OR 6 IF THE TARGET IS IN HARD COVER CANNOT HARM ARMOURED TARGETS

HEAVY MACHINE GUNS ROLL 4D6 AND HAVE A RANGE OF 27” AND SCORE HITS AS ABOVE
CANNOT HARM ARMOURED TARGETS

TANK/ANTI-TANK CANNONS ROLL 6-8D6 AND HAVE A RANGE OF 36” AND SCORE HITS AS ABOVE

INDIRECT FIRE

ROLL FOR DEVIATION 1D6/DIRECTION DICE

ARTILLERY ROLL 1D6 PER FIGURE UNDER A TEMPLATE AND SCORE HITS AS ABOVE

TEMPLATES ARE AS FOLLOWS - 2” MORTAR, 3” TANK CANNON/MEDIUM ARTILLERY GUN AND 5” HEAVY ARTILLERY GUN AND AIR ATTACK.

ARMOUR SAVES: ROLL 1D6 PER HIT

UNARMOURED VEHICLE (TRUCKS AND JEEPS) - 5+
LIGHT ARMOUR 4+
MEDIUM ARMOUR 3+
HEAVY ARMOUR 2+
CONCRETE BUNKER 2+

AN UNSAVED HIT WILL KO A VEHICLE

MORALE:
TEST WHEN A SQUAD SUFFERS CASUALTIES
EACH SQUAD HAS A BASIC MORALE SCORE OF 10 WHEN FULL STRENGTH

ROLL ID6

ADDITIONS AND DEDUCTIONS
EACH CASUALTY -1
TRANSPORT KO’D -1
UNDER TANK ATTACK -1
UNDER ARTILLERY OR AIR ATTACK -2
IN SOFT COVER +1
IN HARD COVER +2

+1D6 SCORE TO TEST

IF TOTAL IS 10 OR MORE THE SQUAD IS OK IF UNDER 10 THEY MUST FALL BACK AND TEST AGAIN NEXT MOVE

I also used a table to simulate command and control :  at the start of each turn I rolled 2d6 for the side whose turn it was and used a table like this...
 
Score
2 move and or shoot with 1 squad
3 move and or shoot with 1 tank
4 move and or shoot with 2 squads
5 move and or shoot with 2 tanks
6 move and or shoot with 3 squads
7 move and or shoot with 3 tanks
8 move and or shoot with 1 squad and 1 tank
9 move and shoot with 2 squads and 2 tanks
10 move and shoot with 3 squads and 3 tanks
11 move and shoot with all forces
12 move and shoot with all forces

Memoir '44 - Eastern Front

Here are a few shots from a scenario from the Eastern Front expansion with the addition of some snow covered hills downloaded and glued to mounting board.

The hills were made available to me by a member of the Memoir '44 forum and were originally made by someone going by the name of Dirkgent.

The people on the forum seem very helpful and friendly.

Memoir '44 still going strong!.

I'm still enjoying Memoir '44 and now am the proud owner of the Eastern Front expansion and the winter/desert board. I also treat myself to a box of the new Airfix British Infantry to better represent the British, Canadian and Polish units.

Here are some shots from a Gold Beach scenario downloaded from the Days Of Wonder website.

 The Airfix Brits look pretty good.

 German defenders in Le Hamel.

 Hitting the beach!.

 The card that enabled an Allied victory.

 Le Hamel and the Customshouse are taken.

Losses were quite high, though.

A 6 - 3 victory for the Allies.

I've been playing Memoir '44 several times a week now both on the board and online and I think it's great.

Memoir '44

I've been playing Memoir '44 almost every day for almost three weeks now, both on the board and online.

What a brilliant game and forty quid well spent!.



I learned a lot about the style of play by playing the AI online, aggressive moves seeming to be the way to go.

Anyway, I love it and there are loads of expansions to keep the interest going.