A weekend in Worcestershire

 

It's that time of year when I have to use up the annual leave that I inevitably failed to take last year...it's not that I don't like taking holidays but for reason I always seem to hang on to a few days 'just in case'.  So this week we took the opportunity to have a short break in Worcestershire.

My wife went to college in Worcester so we have friends in and around the city and have spent quite a bit of time there.  This time round we caught up with a couple of friends, had a long walk around the city and the riverside and a trek up into the Malvern Hills.  On one of the days Elaine indulged me and we we went down to Tewkesbury and followed the Battle trail which takes on some of the key locations of the 1471 battle

We stayed a few miles from Worcester at the Hadley Bowling Green Inn which I can highly recommend. Home of the oldest (or maybe 2nd oldest depending on who you believe) bowling greens in the country... I imagine there is a lot of inter-village rivalry to claim that sort of honour.  Allegedly Guy Fawkes stayed here while visiting Robert Catesby to do some plotting, but I reckon Fawkes is the English equivalent of Mary Queen of Scots and has stayed in every Inn and stately home in the country, mainly for tourism reasons!

The walk around Tewkesbury was interesting although inevitably parts of the site have been developed over the centuries.  There is a well marked 2 mile trail that circles the Abbey and some handy info boards give the background and point out key features such as the Bloody Meadow.  Elaine really enjoyed me explaining interesting facts to her in great detail!!

View of the battlefield from Windmill Hill

The Bloody Meadow

Cleo, looking out for any routing Lancastrians...

The Lancastrians broke and fled across this field, looking for the safety of the Abbey.

The Abbey is very impressive.  Some of the routing Lancastrians tried to claim sanctuary here without success.  The resulting slaughter led to the Abbey having to be closed and reconsecrated (and presumably there was a lot of cleaning required!)  There are several nobles buried there including Edward Prince of Wales (son of Henry VI)... fun fact: the only PoW to die in battle, and George Duke of Clarence, as well as John Courtenay, Earl of Devon.  It's very much a Kingmaker location

Before heading home we clambered up British Camp in the Malverns.  This Iron Age hillfort sits at a lofty 338m and really domnates the landscape.  It's thought to have been built in the 2nd century BCE and a castle, Colwall Castle,  was later built on the site in the mid 10th centry CE, possibly built by Harold Godwinson.  It went through some rebuilding during The Anarchy but was eventually destroyed by Henry II.  It's a bit of a climb up to the top although the paths are well maintained and the views are well worth it.  The banks and ditches are still very distinct.

The banks and ditches are still very intact

I still have one more day before going back to work tomorrow which will be spent chopping back branches in the garden and, perhaps, fortifying myself with coffee and cake!

Some new old books...

 A few books that I've recently picked up (all secondhand because I'm stingy!)

The Indian Mutiny by Saul David

An interesting read so far.  And lots of inspiration for gaming... I've already been browsing the Pendraken website!

Soldier Bear by Geoffrey Morgan and W. A. Lasocki

When I was a wee boy I had a copy of this book which I loved, the story of Voytek, the famous bear who 'helped' Polish troops at Monte Cassino where he reached the rank of Corporal.  Really pleased to have acquired a copy

The Atlas of Fantasy by JB Post

Another bit of a nostalgia purchase.  I used to regularly haunt John Smith's bookshop in Glasgow.  This shop was a Glasgow institution... founded in 1751 and the oldest bookselling company in the English speaking world.  Sadly the Glasgow shop closed in 2000 although it continues as an academic bookseller with branches in some universities.  Interestingly the company was founded by John Smith (obviously) on his return from the War of the Austrian Succession where he'd been wounded at the Battle of Laffeldt in 1747.  As well as bookselling he also provided snuff and coffee to his customers

I used to spend hours mooching about the shop and always coveted this book with its great range of maps from literature.  Sadly my pocket money didn't stretch that far, so I couldn't resist this copy, even if it's a bit beat up.

British Infantry Unifotms since 1660 by Michael Barthorp

Cisco was very interested in this one!!

Uniforms of the French Foreign Legion by Martin Windrow

These last 2 were sitting in the window of a local charity shop for a few weeks before I weakened and bought them.  Now I'm thinking about Beau Geste (or more likely, Carry On Follow That Camel!) as inspiration for games.

In my defence, all the books were very cheap... but, yes, I may have a 2nd hand book problem!!

Zulu: the Battle of Nyezane

 

This week I played the 1st game of the year with my friend Andrew and we decided to go with something different.  After a bit of mulling over a selection of ideas we settled on a colonial game, pitting Zulus against a British column.  My armies haven't seen the light of day for years so I was pleased to get them out.

As well as my main armies which are Baccus 6mm figures, I discovered several bases of Brits and Zulus which are (I think) Heroics and Ros.  I have no recollection of buying these (oh, come on... we've all done it!!) but it was immediately obvious that they look like tiny hobbits next to the Baccus figures!  They're very nice but not compatible at all so these will be off to eBay asap.

The next decision was which set of rules to use.  The choice was Black Powder or The Men Who Would Be Kings and after a bit of thinking I went with BP and one of the scenarios from the Zulu supplement.  I opted for the Battle of Nyezane as this seemed a nice, relatively straightforward scenario.  Coincidentally I discovered later that I'd already played out the same scenario at Eric the Shed's  7 years ago

On 22nd January 1879 Col. Pearson's column was slowly making its way into Zululand, heading towards Eshowe.  Crossing the Nyezane river, they were attacked by somewhere between 4-6,000 Zulus.  The scenario stipulates that the British must begin with around 1/3 of their troops on the north bank of the river, and finish with more than 1/2 across the Nyezane.  

The Zulus are hampered by only arriving on an odd dice result, but have the advantage of a bitnof cover behind a couple of sours which partially screen their advance.

The NNC bravely cross the Nyezane ahead of the main force

I began with the Natal Native Contingent deployed across the river with the Naval Brigade and regular infantry marching towards the bridge.  The Zulus had a patchy start with only around half of their commands arriving.  I, rather foolishly, decided that there was a chance to protect the north bank and not leave the NNC to claim all the glory.  

In my defence I may have been adopting the spirit of Col. Pearson and dismissing the chaps with pointy sticks as not much of a threat (the battle took place on the same day as Isandlwana)... or maybe I was just a bit over enthusiastic.  In hindsight I should have formed up along the edge of the drift and used it as a defensive line, but I was too mindful of the need to get troops onto the north bank.

The Naval troops hauled their 7 pounder and a gatling gun across the river and were joined by 2 squadrons of mounted infantry.  Incidentally this battle is believed to mark the 1st deployment of a gatling by the British army.  The Zulu horn swung rapidly across the flank and hammered into the artillery.  The gatling gun opened up at point blank range, shaking the Impi facing it but the whole Brigade was quickly overrun and broke.

The Naval Brigade ford the river

But the Zulus swarm around them

The regular infantry had pushed forward and eventually managed to form a firing line on the Zulus other flank and the NNC fell back rapidly to form up alongside them.  The Zulus decided at this point that they'd probably achieved as much as they were going to without incurring heavy casualties and decided to withdraw. 

The desperate firing line forms up

 They'd lost 1 out of 5 commands but had wiped out the Naval Brigade and a third of the British column... there would definitely be questions asked in Parliament!  We thought it would be interesting to refight this at some point using TMWWBKs to see how it plays out.

Midgard goodies

Somehow I recently won these lovely Midgard measuring sticks in a Facebook group competition run by the rules author, James Morris.

I'm hoping those are real rubies!

Obviously my ability to rustle up a catchy slogan was better than I thought!  If you fancy your own set they're available via North Star

I have to confess I still haven't actually played a game of Midgard yet but now I have these lovely rulers that'll have to change!

Painting update (dont faint...!): Fallout Factions

 The other day I picked up a paintbrush for the first time in months... I tend to have fits and starts of painting and once I stop I sometimes find it hard to get going again.

I want to get back to working on my 'Epic' scale ECW figures but in the meantime I've been painting some of the Fallout Factions figures from Modiphius, for my friend Andrew.  The Nuka World set comes with 2 factions, each 10 strong.  There are a host of weapon choices to be made, and this is something that I found quite intimidating.  There are quite specific combinations of weapon loadouts which are permitted and, as the figures are meant to be WYSIWIG I was quite stressed assembling them incase I picked the 'wrong' choices!

Once I'd got over the anxiety-inducing (and quite fiddly) building stage, the figures were very nice to paint.  The 1st Faction, the Operators are quite uniform in their style.  They're described as more of a crime syndicate than a gang of raiders, so I went with a very Fallout shade of blue (Vallejo Caspian Blue).  

I also had some scenery to paint... from the Red Rocket location.  Quite simple to paint... Red speed paint with some weathering and rust patches.

Next up are The Pack who seem to be a much more ragged bunch of Raiders...  now I'm off to raise my stress levels by doing some more figure assembly!

Nostalgia boardgames #2 GEV

Next up in my short series of nostalgic boardgame purchases is G.E.V which is a sequel of sorts to the more famous Ogre.  Ogre is a game played a lot when it first came out.  I think my copy came from a games shop on Glasgow's Great Western Road (Games Gallery? )

Following the success of Ogre, which pitted a single monster cybernetic tank against a range of more conventional tanks, GEVs, infantry, and artillery, GEV is more of a conventional game with a range of troops types on both sides including mobile howitzer, light tanks and even a train.  The terrain also gets a bit of a revamp... Ogre takes place in a bit of a wasteland while GEV includes forests, swamps, water and towns.  Ogres feature if you want, but it's much more of a conventional near-future game.

There are a number of scenarios ranging from Breakthrough, Raid to attacking a train.  

There's also the option to create your own with a points system.  Thankfully it keeps the simple mechanics from Ogre... combat results are based on a simple ratio basis (with that icon of 80s boardgames, a CRT) and either result in no effect, disrupted or destroyed.  It's the right level of simplicity for a game like this and makes it nice and speedy.

Who doesn't love a CRT!?

It's a nice extension to the classic Ogre game without taking away from the simplicity of the original.

Nostalgia boardgames #1 - Ice War

I managed to pick up several old boardgames via eBay recently, all of which either scratch that nostalgia itch (I played a game in 1984... it must be good, right??) or have been on my wish list for many years.  So this is the 1st of a series of posts on each game.  Beginning with...Ice War.

Set in the far future (2007... sigh...) this is one of the Microgame series that came out in the late 70s- early 80s.  I'm a big fan of these games... I loved the format when they 1st came out, not least because they were cheap!  But they were a really accessible way to try out different settings and styles of games.  By the nature of the format they were quite limited in production values and complexity but, when they worked, they really worked well and featured some fascinating concepts and rules.  Admittedly sometimes they sucked but, for the price (even as a poor schoolboy/student at the time) it was worth a punt.

I guess the equivalent today might be the Osprey Blue book rules (Pikeman's Lament, En Garde etc)

Ice War was game #9 in the series and came out in 1978.  It imagines a war between the USA and the 'European Socialist Alliance' who have invaded Alaska to seize control of oil fields.  I mean... it's a bit far-fetched.  Who could imagine the USA and European countries going to war over frozen northern territories.... oh... erm.....

A bit like other Metagaming games like Ogre, GEV etc, the designers have a bit of a thing for hovercraft.  The ESA are attacking with troops mounted on these, along with tanks and missile firing artillery.  These are lobbing tactical nukes around which have the added fun of changing the terrain as the game progresses, tundra to mud and ice to water.  It was this concept that I always found fascinating.  Different vehicles can cope with some terrain, but not others.

The ESA have the advantage of hidden movement which has to be noted off-map and strikes me as ripe for confusion, but the USA can use satellites to try and detect the invaders.  There seems to be an optional rule to allow hidden movement for both sides which is either genius or madness!  I suspect this might be a level of complexity too far which probably isn't helpful with a small map and fiddley counters and is probably best ignored.  The changing terrain means getting the right troops in the right place is important, otherwise their advance might grind to a swampy halt as the ground beneath them changes to radioactive mud.

More games to follow...