Happy Hogmanay!!

 

The bells are almost here so Happy Hogmanay to everyone... frankly 2024 was a bit of a shitstorm in many ways, so here's hoping 2025 is marginally better!!!

Awra best!!

Merry Xmas Everyone!!!

 

Merry Xmas everyone... I hope you get some nice toys (assuming you've been good... hmmm....)

Rome: Total War

 Had a first trial run through of the new Rome: Total War boardgame courtesy of my friend Mark who's huge order had just arrived.

If you've played the PC game then you'll know what to expect and it looks like great fun although it could be a bit of a beast in terms of time.  We managed to get through 3 or 4 turns over an evening although we were fumbling our way through the rules (luckily, Mark was well prepared and had been studying!)... I suspect for the next game we'd be a lot faster.

In each turn you can raise funds via taxation, spend it all on raising troops, research technology, build roads, markets, barracks, etc, send your agents out to negotiate treaties and trade (or more nefarious skullduggery!) and then get down to the serious business of sending those armies out to conquer, or in my case, bring civilised Pax Romana to the world.

In our test game we had Rome fitted against Carthage and Greece.  The battle system is quick and fairly simple with different troop types and terrain all featuring, and gives a good.flavour of the grand strategy level of the game.  Players also have a hand of cards which can add to the battles or other phases and add a lot of flavour.  As an example a trade deal I'd negotiated with my Greek allies was raided by pirates and somehow some of the profits found their way into my pocket... nothing to do with Rome of course!  Just as my army was about face of against Carthage an enemy agent introduced plague or poison into the camp wipingnout half the army and critically killing off Scipio Africanus!  

Great fun and looking forward to more games of this!

Bookshop haul

 Yesterday we popped into Hatchlands in Surrey for a quick dogwalk and lunch on our way back from some shopping.  One of the bonuses is that it has a small but pretty good 2nd hand bookshop onside (as well as selling very nice cheese & onion pasties in the cafe!)

I managed to pick up a nice selection of books

I've always been a big fan of CV Wedgwood's history books and was really pleased to see a Folio Society edition of her Thirty Years War.. a couple of years ago my son gave me a similar FS set of her English Civil War trilogy.

They also had a Folio Society editon of All Quiet on the Western Front which I gave to my son.  He has an decent collection of FS Society books and occasionally makes a bit of a profit buying and selling them.  Neither of us have read this before so it may be staying for a while.

Finally I picked up Anthony Beevor's account of the Crete campaign... something I know little about so I'm looking forward to reading this.  I find his books very accessible, although I did give up on his Russian Revolution book... to many "something-ovich's" and confusing political parties for me to keep track of!!

The Women's Institute Battalion of Death

Well, my VBCW Women's Institute force made their debut on Monday in an epic pre-xmas game at Eric the Shed's where we battled it out to seize the means of production at Christmas Tree Wood.

As predicted the WI didn't fare well... not surprising as it was their first outing and they didn't know what they were doing... they'll get the hang of it eventually (nothing to do with my tactics at all...)

There were 6 players in the game.  I know stuff happened at the other end of the table but it's a bit hazy.  It mainly seemed to involve our side's tanks blowing up!  And units in pillboxes becoming bullet magnets and dying bravely.

The Miners Battalion support the armoured column

My A/T gun faces down 'Big Red' an enormous Posties tank

At my end of the table the WI and their Miner allies were tussling with the Postman's Union forces to seize Mustard Manor.  I always find in these games that I'm too keen to grab the fortified locations but all this achieves is giving my opponent a nice static target to concentrate on.  Sure enough, once we'd taken possession of the building, the mortar rounds and artillery shells started landing and eventually drove us out with heavy losses.

Mustard Manor... home of the capitalist oppressors 

It did briefly give a good vantage point to call in my own artillery on the petrol station resulting in a spectacular (but not very effective) explosion.  I was gradually pushed back and lost my armour but the game ended on a pointlessly impressive moment as the remaining WI survivors charged back into the burning manor to drive out some naval troops in a ferocious hand to hand combat.  And that was the last time they were seen....

A great game and a nice way to finish off the year.

Some VBCW Reinforcements

 Way back at the beginning of the year I signed up to a Kickstarter for some 28mm VBCW "Ladies Who Lunch" figures from Tec Scene.  I don't tend to do many Kickstarters and luckily they've always delivered, admittedly usually late, but the goods have always turned up.

This one gave me a few worries as there was a long period of radio silence until October when there was an apology from the company explaining that they'd had health issues but were now trying to get back on track.  A good example of where a quick email would have saved a lot of angst.  Luckily my figures turned up in late October but looking at the comments on the KS page it looks like there are still some outstanding orders

The figures themselves are pretty good.  They're a range of armed 1940s style women, mostly rifle armed although there's a bren gunner, kne with a SMG and one with a pistol (and handbag).  There are also a selection of women armed with assorted handweapons including meat cleaver, a broom and a rolling pin!  These would be ideal for a 'Went the Day Well' scenario.  

Various other figures had been added onto the KS including land girls with bows, polo players and armed Beefeaters, but I'd avoided these.  I do think maybe the company over reached a bit and would have been better sticking to something more achievable.

The figures themselves are quite nice and ideal for a VBCW setting.  These will see action for the 1st time tomorrow (which means they're guaranteed to run away!!) in a pre-xmas game at Eric the Shed's.  I'll be fielding these along with my Armed Miners as a Women's Institute Battalion of Death.

Louisbourg 1758

 Another week, another boardgame!  This time a recent acquisition of my friend Andrew's.  This is Louisbourg 1758 a new game by Worthington Games

Similar to other games we've played before like like Quebec 1759 and Wilderness Empires, this is a very nice block game depicting Wolfe's attempts to land and capture the town of Louisbourg... one of my favourite periods.  As you'd expect from Worthington the board and components are very nice and the game is relatively simple.

The French are very outmatched and need to delay the British advance and then hold out in Louisbourg until the turn clock runs down. The British have a choice of 3 landing sites... I chose to concentrate everything onto one beach which initially paid off and Andrew's weedy French troops pulled back.  Each player has a hand of action cards but for several of the opening turns I only had cards that my opponent could use... eventually a couple of useful ones came my way, allowing me to make a rapid forced march and to have a bonus bombarding the French ships in the bay which resulted in sinking 1 of the 2 ships.  This proved vital as it meant the French ability to bombard my troops was significantly reduced.  

By the half way point I'd managed to surround the town and begin bombarding it.  Luck was on my side here as my dice rolls were singularly lucky (helped by the fact that I had the town surrounded on 3 sides, giving a bonus) and Andrew's counter-firing was singularly unlucky with some epically bad dice rolls!!  

The British win by either seizing the town or by moving their ships into the bay and still having a decent sized force surrounding Louisbourg.  I realised too late that simply bombarding the town was unlikely to win the game and that I needed to march troops around the bay to seize Lighthouse Point and Island Battery, allowing the ships to enter.  I managed to capture both strong points and on the final turn was poised to sail triumphantly into the bay when the weather turned and my ships were unable to move!!  Gutted!!  If I'd worked this key point out a couple of turns earlier I may have pulled it off but as it was, the French held out and Wolfe had to slink off with his tail between his legs (pun very much intended!)

An excellent game and worth looking out for.  Just the right level of complexity and a tight turn limit, which makes for a nail biting conclusion.