Last night was one of my rare forays to a local club. Whitley Bay 3D Gamers meet on a Tuesday evening. Tuesdays are usually a bad night for me during school time but being the summer holidays I managed to free up an evening. The original plan was to play a game using the forthcoming Lardies Fighting Season rules which I was quite looking forward to. Unfortunately, Dougie, who was running the game was tied up at work and couldn’t make it but fortunately Lawrence arrived with the extensive makings of a Colonial game and so four us took the valiant forces of the crown (me, Callum, Nick and Alex) with Darrel helping Lawrence run the rebellious natives! As ever, we had the pleasure of playing over Lawrence’s excellent terrain with some lovely figures.
Myself and Callum took command of two units of Askari on the left.
Nick and Alex took two units of regular Sikhs on the right. We were using Herkybird’s solo system so the enemy were triggered by spotting ‘tokens’ to either reveal dummies or enemy troops. The Sikhs drew attention straight away.Meanwhile, the Askari began to cross the riverAn overall view of the advance.The Sikhs gave fire to the tribesman. Wounding quite a few and driving them back. The river was proving a hard slog to cross…Finally across, the first tribesmen approached driving back some of the Askari. Meanwhile the Sikhs pushed forward.As my Askari finally crossed more tribesmen burst from the treesWhile the other Askari had a little debate about advancing while knee deep in the river…. My troops fought valiantly in a to and fro battle with the enemy, gradually whittling down their numbers. Finally the rest of the Askari joined the line delivering supporting fire both for my troops and the Sikhs The Sikhs finally advanced up the centre only to be greeted by far more ferocious warriors!And after a long struggle my opponents were finally driven off. Things were now starting to get serious! As the Askari advanced they were immediately charged and driven back by native warriors With more advancing on the Sikhs The warriors charged in all down the line but the line held! The Sikhs started to take casualties (the red markers are wounds) but managed to wound the native chief. Before the warriors facing the Askari could regroup both Askari units charges them front, flank and rear and wrought terrible slaughter! The other warriors were pushed back by the Sikhs and a lucky shot finished of the chief and with that resistance melted away. Order was restored to Her Majesty’s colony!
It was a most entertaining game. I’ve only played Herkybird(Richard Bradley)’s rules a couple of times but I really enjoyed this. You can get the rules for this game and other periods on the download section Tyneside Wargames website.
And it was a most entertaining game from the social side as well. Plenty of good natured banter! Thanks to Lawrence for putting on the game and to Neil for keeping the club good and active and facilitating the organising of the weekly games. Not sure when I’ll get down again as school soon starts again but hopefully I can free up a Tuesday sometime!
Lucky you! – I missed a good game there! I love playing Colonials and Lawrence’s terrain is absolutely stunning!