Tyneside Wargames Club Christmas Bash 2015

[NB I seem to be having some trouble getting images to open up in the ‘lightbox’ so if they don’t for you then hang fire while I work on a fix and pop back later!]

And so another year is over and I finally make it down to the Tyneside Club for my first game of the year there! Saturdays are just not good for me. Too much going on with the kids etc. I have made three games at the Whitley Bay club and should make their Christmas game next Tuesday. Tuesdays just seem to work better as I can go straight from work. I shall try and get down on a Saturday more often though as it is always good fun. But today was the Christmas game. Alcohol would be drunk. munchies eaten and good fun has by all. It was a pretty good turnout with six games running (pictures below) but I was slated to take part in a large Great War Spearhead game put on by Ian Logan. It was a large game played over the terrain sheet used for a recent Waterloo game but this saw the French holding the ridge line and the villages and being attacked by rather a lot of Germans! Myself, Rod and Dave lead the attack and against a cowardly French defence by Phil, Ian and Andy. Dave was our CinC and here was his masterful attack plan…

I was to take command of the 20th Division on the right. Three advance regiments and a reserve, all with attached artillery, and half a regiment of hussars. My orders were to advance to the front and attack the main ridge, using one regiment to screen the villages and prevent interference. It kind of went to plan. Sort of… in a lots of dead Germans kind of way…

My chaps are just on the right, the main German assault took up most of the table, and the German cavalry reserve can be seen bottom left.

My chaps begin to advance on the villages

The attack develops in the centre

Pushing ahead…

The main German attack.

It took me a little time to adjust to the rules. I was keeping battalions in nice unit lines. Then the French artillery landed. My CinC said, ‘checkerboard!’ so I made a nice neat corner to corner chess board type setup. Which still drew the artillery! Eventually I spaced them out a bit more. The French artillery was to prove deadly and I lost quite a few stands that way, but not as many as in the centre of the table….

View from the other flank

My first regiment foolishly forging ahead and about to lose six stands as the French line opens fire!

Although they eventually charged in there were not many left. They did however pass both their 50% and 66% morale checks so stayed to the bitter end!

My few cavalry swung round the flank to attack the French in the far right town but were then a little perturbed to find a whole French cavalry division bearing down on them!

My only real successes were taking two of the towns. Unfortunately one had to be abandoned as the regiment failed their 66% moral check!

As the cavalry swarmed round the flank I tried to being my infantry guns to bear on them…

Another regiment assaulted the French line but took many casualties

Having taken this town my troops surged out to kill the few stands in the area and prepare to continue the advance!

However, by now I had lost two more regiments and although the reserve cavalry were on the move it was clear that I had nothing much left to contest my flank….

At which point a strategic French victory was declared.

Lessons? Don’t bunch up or the artillery kills you. Don’t assault the lines alone as the whole French lines gets to shoot you! Get your own artillery in play earlier to soften up the lines!

I really enjoyed the game. I did find it a bit ‘messy’ in that trying to move lots of stands, keep them spaced out and remember what belonged to who was hard! It was probably more me needing to get used to the mechanisms! I’ve only played a couple of games of Modern Spearhead but the rules seem to flow quite well and once you have the hang of them the games move pretty quick.

Thanks to the chaps for a fun game and to Ian for organising.

Of the other five games, here are few pics:

Richard and Lawrence getting all Samurai!