York Model Railway Show.

Well it's not wargaming, and yet I do think there are some similarities betwixt the two hobbies, along the lines of terrain, modelling and so on. Trains can play a part in certain wargames, and on some of the model train layouts, you could certainly have a wargame. I wonder how many people do both hobbies?
We went along to this show (Title post is linked) over the weekend of 3rd April 2010, and had a jolly good day out. We got there around midday, as I was suffering from a beer overdose from the night before, and had to park on the muddy field which wasn't great, especially for one of our chums, (lots of mud splatter, revving of engine and spinning of wheels), so lesson learnt to get to these events earlier to be able to park on a good solid tarmac surface instead. Tickets were about £8 each, rather more than a wargames show, and the place seemed busy and happy enough. The food wasn't cheap either, but you get what you pay for, and the steak pie was a big improvement on the usual fayre at these sort of shows.
On walking in, this was the first layout I saw .. see, I do say there is some overlap between the hobbies!

A fine array of 20mm scale tanks and so on, on a WW2 English setting, which made me wonder if this fellow was a gamer too.

This was a huge layout, and the range and skill of the modelling was exceptional. This sort of layout would lend itself to a good skirmish game I thought.

Hobby in a suitcase? A nice touch, the case itself looked old and used, and I could just imagine it being used on an old train journey. Indeed, was a similar one used by Trevor Howard in a Brief Encounter?

This was a wonderful one, very localised in part, whilst giving a larger countryside view also. It must have took an awful lot of time and effort to get it just right.

No, not a model layout, but the actual racecourse itself..

The scale varied from around 25mm, down to this, I think around 2mm, so they could pack in a large area display on a smallish board.

Another picture of that first display, you really had to see this to appreciate it, it was that impressive. All it needed was an opposing army, some rules and dice.

A good day was had, the stalls were busy, and I was amazed at the amount of modelling array there was to buy. Picked up a fair few tips on flocking and blending different ideas into each other, and on general modelling too. I resisted the urge to dip into the model train hobby itself, and restricted my purchases to some paints and a few terrain bits.

Afterwards, we spent an hour or two in nearby York, and I saw this .. a Maybach, so my children told me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maybach). Now, my green Rover 75, parked behind, is a largeish car I thought, but this Maybach thing just dwarfed it. It was huge and massive. And I had to put this picture up, only because I hadn't seen one before. Not that I'd want one of course. Much.

A sift witter, and a welcome to Geordie, Grekwood, Fraxinus, Ubique, Michael, Sgt Steiner, Erwin, Joao, and Prufrock, thankyou all for joining and I hope you enjoy the Blog, apologies for a bit of a lack of posting lately as time has been tight but will improve soon, and I now have a nice backlog of various games to post up, which I will as soon as I can. Thanks for viewing, I do appreciate it.

Regards to all,

St George's Day.

Once again, the Flag of England was raised above Peeler Mansions, in celebration of Englands Day. Seems a shame to me that whilst other parts of the UK can have their own day, England seems to get left behind, and that some political types have hijacked both this flag and the Union flag for their own ends, particularly as it's election time at the moment. All that shouting and yarping and arguing on, there's just no need for it really, it's all just hot air, like you get from a volcanic eruption... a nice pleasant gentle discussion is all thats needed, in a good old genteel English way.

Here's a Link to The Royal Society of St George, an admirable and pleasant Society to be a member of.. http://www.royalsocietyofstgeorge.com/index2.htm

A Happy St George's Day to you all, and God Bless England, Harry and St George!

Regards,

DBACW Game.

Well it's been a while (again), but it can't be helped really. The usual work, shifts, family, etc etc, though to be fair we have done quite a lot of gaming too, it's just getting the time to post it up. And really I suppose, it's the gaming that's the more important part of the hobby, along with pies and beer and so on.
So, a while ago we gathered at Peeler Mansions for an ACW bash, using 1/72 plastic figures and the DBACW rules, available from the DBN Site (Post Title is Linked). These play well and easily, with each base representing a Regt, so four or five give you a Brigade, two or three Brigades give you a Division, and so on. Each base of troops can be Raw, Average or Veteran, Musket/Rifle armed, Artillery can be Smoothbore/Breechloading. These rules are, to be fair, a simple but effective representation of the ACW. I'm sure you get the gist.
On with the game .. The Rebels, under General E. Cautious were defending, and had kept a lot of their forces off table. The Union, under General D. Zaster (son of an Italian immigrant), formed up and went for a swift attack, hoping to overthrow the meagre enemy that they could see.

The Union had the advantage with Artillery, and here you can also see their Baggage, safely tucked away in the rear, out of harms way.

Some of the Confederates, Regular Infantry and Skirmishers, eagerly awaiting their chance for glory.

One Union column approaches the walled field upon the hill (Remember the Don Featherstone books? There was always a walled field in the ACW game).

Whilst the other column takes on the Rebel artillery, and promptly pops it off with a few well aimed shots.


All's looking good for the Union, as the Left flank takes the walled area, the Centre advances toward the defile, and the Right advances toward the town.

But then! A volley of shots from the previously hidden Rebels throws a few bases back in confusion, leaving the Zouaves (a colourful bunch) a tad isolated.

The Brigade General joins in, gives a few encouraging words ("Git forward you pansies!") and reforms his troops for another try.

On the Union Right, they settle down for a long range bombardment, whilst advancing through the town.

The Rebels advance to the wall, and mix it with a fire fight, taking and causing casualties.

Union troops advance toward that single base on the hill, with the knocked out Artillery, expecting an easy victory.

The Rebel General sends a Veteran Regt into the Centre town, hoping to slow the advance, to give time for reinforcements to arrive.

The Union artillery pops away at this Regt, who must have had a reflective shield, as all the shots missed. Damp powder maybe! On the Union left, equally poor dice resulted in both guns being lost to counter battery fire. Very poor. (For me and Rich anyway).

The Union column forced the Rebels back on the hill, and advanced cautiously.

The firefight on the Right continued..

.. with the Union getting the upper hand, but only after adding their Reserves. Those Rebel Sharpshooters were a real pain!

In the centre, the town was hotly contested. (Towns/BUA in these rules only give a small advantage, as the buildings were mostly just wooden types, thus giving less cover than solid European stone built ones).

What!! Just as the Union was looking to gain ground, (and about time, given the circumstances), a Rebel flank attack comes in on the Right. "Aw shucks" said Rich.

This was a most depressing event, as on the Right we'd forced them from the town and were looking to flank them,

and on the Left, we were finally getting in amongst them, giving them cold steel and a bit of a toeing.

Typically, some Reb cavalry went straight for the undefended Baggage, (lesson learnt!), and did an awful lot of ransacking, whooping about and whatnot. Damned Southerners!

The Reb reinforcements stormed through the town, and attacked the rear of the Union forces. Bar the shouting and caterwauling, it was all over. The Union had already suffered surprisingly heavy casualties in the initial fighting, due to poor dice from me & Rich, and decent dice from Alex & Dave, and so the remnants retired from the field. Well, that's putting it politely. "Running like lily livered chickens" was how the Reb players described it.

General E. Cautious retired, tired, to his encampment, full of tales of how he'd whupped those Dastardly Northerners.

So there we have it. It was a well played, hard fought game, and thoroughly enjoyed by all. My thanks to Rich, Alex and Dave.

A swift witter, we have a table booked at the Battle Group North show at Elvington Airfield in May, if anyone else is going, feel free to say hello, and a warm welcome to Tim, Wargamer1972 & Velarde, latest Followers, who have a fine selection of Blogs between them. Thanks for joining and hope you enjoy the Blog.

Regards,

Peeler

WW2 Airborne Drop at Ayton Bridge.

We gathered at Hairy Dave's Musical Mansion for a WW2 game, ably planned and put on by Alex, using his Rommel's Battles Rules (Plug-Available from the DBN Site!) and 6mm H&R figures and vehicles. The game was played over three sessions, and was both a learning and enjoyable experience.
The basics were that there was a weak German Brigade billeted around the local town and area, enjoying the easy life in Occupied Ayton, with a pillbox on the bridge. Reinforcements were available but a distance off, and had to be diced for. They varied between militia Naval Btns, and Tiger tank Btns. The main battle front was miles away, and the Germans thought that they were going to have a quiet time of it.
The British Airborne had a plan though ... to land by Parachute and Glider, take the bridge, storm the town, eject the defenders and then await the relief column coming up the main road. The necessary supplies were brought in from all four corners of the nearby shops, and the game was afoot.

The British at the planning & briefing stage.. including a lesson in how to land Paras and Gliders (with the use of rulers and small pieces of paper- may sound odd, but it worked really well). They had to decide on flight path, height, and where to drop their various units. This all makes a realistic difference, as to casualties incurred and the "drop spread" of the units. Basically, the higher you drop, the less casualties you have, but they end up more spread out and more unformed.

The Germans, having already placed their initial meagre forces by map, went off to eat pizza and drink beer.

The initial set up, from the road to be used by the British relief column. Looks really peaceful doesn't it.

But all of a sudden, to the Germans surprise, whilst halfway through a crate of beer and with all the pizza eaten, the Brits landed, almost silently. The smaller paper represents Para Co's, and the larger represents the Gliders. All this happened without too much crashing into each other, but did cause a few casualties.

The paper drop comes off, to be replaced with the Glider models, which were pretty nice I have to say.

The Brits had decided on one massed Glider landing, which is initially dangerous due to overcrowding, but then good to have the troops all gathered together, and three separate Para drops. The drop nearest to the camera just happened to be in front of German MG's and a Tank Co, so got massacred, but the others did ok. The pillbox was taken out by a so very lucky shot from a 17pdr, and the Paras stormed over the Bridge, into the town from two directions, and quickly overwhelmed the over fed and half drunk German defenders.

The Brits were joined by young Jordan, who has an unnatural ability to throw 5's and 6's, (and is ALWAYS on the opposite side to myself). In my gaming frustration, at one stage I enquired of him," And just who invited you then eh!" To which, he replied," My Dad did." Well, you can't argue with that can you. Swapping his dice around made no difference either.
However, in the general chatter and and laughter we were able to sneak in a German spy, cunningly dressed in red, to listen over the British midway planning briefing, which was," Hold the Town and Bridge until relieved." So we didn't actually learn anything new there, and Doug got his butt verbally kicked for listening in. There was, at this stage, the chance of the Brits having a further drop of the Polish Brigade, but that would have meant they could only claim a draw for the game, so they decided to try and hold out without them.
For the Germans, the game was lost unless some decent Reinforcements appeared, the Naval infantry Btns etc having already appeared and been demolished by the Hard-As-Nails Paras.

Here was a funny-at one point, Alex the Umpire cried out,"Dave, throw one dice for your Artillery Comms" .... having two Dave's on the British side, they both duly obliged simultaneously and without conferring ... and both threw a One. It was the beginning of the turning of the tide..

The Germans finally got some decent stuff on the table, and after a prolonged bombardment of the Para Occupied Town, stormed in at close range with Tanks and Grenadiers. The Para Piat teams tried their best, but were overwhelmed. (They even had names, like Fearless Fred, Courageous Colin, and Runover Ryan). This was a game with a lot of humor and laughter in it. A serious game, seriously played, but as usual without the gamers taking themselves seriously.

The Paras had no choice but to leave the Town and retire over the Bridge, perhaps wishing they had called upon the Poles for assistance. Note the Casualty Station in the background, a nice touch which enabled the Brits to claim back some casualties overnight. The German one was miles away, so didn't count.

The German Armour had a right rampage through the town, flushing out any pockets of resistance from the brave Paras, but neatly avoided mixing it with that Gun on the Bridge. Well there's no point chucking in a winning hand is there, despite the Brit players taunts, cajoling and cries of "Bring it on then, take the Bridge if you're Tanks are good enough."

As the third session ended, it was a narrow win for the Germans, as the Brits had failed to hold the Bridge and Town for the required number of turns. They did still have the Bridge though, and had that relief column arrived..or the Poles..or had one Drop not been massacred at the beginning, it could all have been so different.

A valiant effort by the British Airborne, a decisive counter-attack by the Germans, and a damned good game all round. Well done Alex for the planning and putting it on, and thanks to the gamers Dave, Dave, Richie, Doug & Jordan.

Naturally, we were all a tad whacked after some prolonged and intense gaming, and so retired to the local Forge for refreshment and a good old witter.

Regards,