AVBCW Wychehill Roadblock

29/04/2012

Byakhee Gav H and I had a couple of games today:

The hard pressed workers from the BUF’s Shobdon ‘holiday’ camp having built a roadblock at the village of Wychehill* under the supervision of the Black Coats (Hi-de-Heil!**) were herded back to their holiday chalets at Shobdon, but the expected BUF detachment turned up late. The MHC decided to try and seize the roadblock to better control the roads to the Malverns so a mighty scuffle ensued.

I made Gav H play the tardy fascist bully boys (well he was late turning up), we deployed 30 infantry, HMG and command each, so a small battle.

the Eagle Eyed amongst you will spot it is very similar to the board JP & I used…Scenery Boy was lazy…

Through a combination of Event cards, Gav H’s untrained militia impetuously charged my veterans after a few rounds and got punished accordingly leaving one guy to limp off the board…

Meanwhile, his Veterans had entered the central barn, only to be trapped in a cross fire. His HMG had vacillated between advancing and running away. Eventually the combination of Flu and Dodgy Pints Events Cards sapped his BUF’s will to fight and they limped off.

More photos.

A victory for the MHC !
The road through Wychehill is in the control of the MHC.
🙂

* Wychehill is a village that features in author Phil Rickman’s “The Remains of An Altar”, part of a series of books based in Hereford and the Welsh border counties.

** Hi-de-Hi – a 1980’s BBC sitcom in a 1950’s holiday camp. Based on Butlins’ holiday camps that were run by the Red Coats who helped organise their victims ^^^^^ happy campers. ‘Organised’…”fun’…now all I need is a Gladys Black Coat figures…I’m sure JP will source something. 😉

Filed under AVBCW

AVBCW The Battle of Shobdon

27/04/2012

The recently activated Red fifth column in the three counties (Gloucs, Hereford and Worcs) took up arms today in an effort to free their worker Comrades from the Fascist bully boys’ work camp in north Herefordshire at Shobdon. The camp was established to provide cheap labour from the BUF’s political prisoners.

Lead by the red hot commander Redhotovski and his female commisar Seewherethisfitski and her imposing standard, some fourty lightly armed reds attacked the camp at Shobdon.

The Camp, was defended by 30 BUF and local sympathisers, which sported motorcycle side cars combinations and an armoured car:

The Reds made a good start, with Redhotovski and his female commisar Seewherethisfitski repeatedly encouraging their troops forward in the face of heavy fire. They then deployed Rattling Rosie:

They almost drove off the Fascists, only for the Weasley Wretches to turn up, literally drunk on cider and fanatically defending their captive work force upon whom they’d been preying in collusion with the corrupt fascists and their running dog capitalist chums…Either that or the BUF (British Union of Fascists) had deployed a spy from the BUF (British Union of Felines):

Despite further re-inforcements the Reds were kept at bay until dusk fell, at which point the black clad hordes slunk away into the night…leaving the Reds now at large in north Herefordshire – who knows when they will next turn up ?

More photos here.

The Reds didn’t manage to liberate any prisoners, but they gave the fascists a good kicking, and I managed to deploy my female Bolshevik standard bearer after so many years left on the playroom window sill.

Another good game with Byakhee JP !
🙂

Filed under AVBCW

SPAM, SPAM, LOVELY SPAM !!!!!!

26/04/2012

Sshh, dear, don’t cause a fuss. I’ll have your spam. I love it. I’m having spam spam spam spam spam spam spam beaked beans spam spam spam and spam!

Yes there has been Spam.

So I must be doing ok.

😉

Bloody Vikings !

Filed under Uncategorized

An RCW “What If ?”

25/04/2012

Filed under RCW / BoB

Disaster at The House of Doom

24/04/2012

I’ve played WHFB maybe a dozen times at Byakhee Jim’s house and all but one time (actually the previous time) something goes wrong. Having won my last battle there, I had hopes the trend had been broken Today’s battle was a hideous reversion to type.

Both Jim & I were late for various reasons. He was playing Orcs again. He’s on a roll with them maxing out on artillery and heroes.

First Disaster: On arrival I found I had forgotten my army sheet.
I could remember most of it (actually about 95% of it) as it was substantially the same as the army I’d played there before.

I also forgot my camera I’d left recharging…so the two photos below are from Jim’s iPhone.

Previously I’d simply gone for forgetting my Dark Elf army book, or maybe forgetting key figures. These two account for 50% of the reasons for defeat.

Ok so we set up, I refused one flank except for using Mengil Manhide’s (10 strong) to target two Shamen he’d left unattended on the far flank. Jim deployed 4 stone throwers, 2 Doom Diver catapults and a bolt thrower. I’d planned to target these with harpies.

Jim won initiative, having heard his curses during rolling spells, I was (over) confident. He cast a spell on his own troops giving me a -1 to hit on them (simple version). He then hexed my main RXB unit.

Second Disaster: She who will not be named bungled the dispell roll ! So now I had re-roll all to hit and wound rolls of a 6.

Third disaster: shooting is dismal. Not just bad, dismal. My Repeat Bolt throwers did next to nothing. My only success was in killing a troll with Mengil’s troops.

Second turn: Jim manages to move his 25 strong Savage Orcs to within an inch of the flank of one of my RXB units, ummm not good. Jim targets my Black Guard. Raise deflector shields! After 3 stone throwers had hit the unit, they’d caused one casualty, through a combination of bad rolls by Jim and exceptionally lucky save/ward rolls by me. Then he targeted a doom diver on my High Sorceress hidden behind the RXB unit, the one flanked by Savage Orcs. Oh dear…Splat ! Exit one third level High Sorceress. Leadership rolls for the RXB and one Repeat Bolt Thrower are passed. But not by my unit of Black Guard nor another Repeat Bolt thrower…

Fourth Disaster: The Black Guard fail their Leadership re-roll (near army standard) and run sideways towards my other flank, ending up a good 20 inches away tearing a hole in my line… And that’s the unit in which my Sorceress is embedded.

Ok my turn, harpies charge the bolt thrower, so now my attempt to re-form the Black Guard.

Final Disaster: Black Guard again fail their Leadership test, and run off the board with the Sorceress.

  • So now I have lost 700+ points out of 2500 ish in one single turn.
  • The centre of my army line is broken
  • My one hard combat unit is gone.
  • I’m outflanked by essentially undamaged Orc units
  • I only have one High Sorceress left.

    • Ok, so I normally soldier on and try and retrieve something from this mess, so my magic phase does…nothing…my shooting phase kills a lone goblin boss on giant spider…combat phase my 10 harpies barely defeat a goblin bolt thrower crew.

    For once I called it a day then and there. Out gunned, out magic’d, out numbered and out manoeuvred.

    The House of Doom lives up to its reputation. 😦

    Back to the drawing board to cope with Orc columns.

    Maybe those Cold One Knights should be finished off… 😉

    Filed under Warhammer

    Buster & His new Friend

    23/04/2012

    I have cats as pets. I often get asked why I do not have a cat flap fitted to the back door.

    The following photos explain why – Basically, my cats bring home their new friends, whose batteries run down quite quickly. But may get lost under the sofa/bookcase/bed/whatever…

    And when you have a stoat brought home for your b’day, it gets a bit annoying.
    (No, I don’t have a photo of Mr Stoat, I was more concerned with ejecting him than getting a photo whilst he ripped my toes off with his sharp teeth!)

    More photos.

    NB: Buster was my late wife and I’s cat, who had to be put down last year due to heart problems. His brother is with my parents and I have to look after him on Beastwatch, more of which later….

    Filed under Uncategorized, Welcome

    Let there be light, and not rain. Painting Logs.

    22/04/2012

    This week’s weird weather continues, periods of bright sunshine between short sharp storm clouds and hail storms.

    I took a risk (see Spackle) and went up to the garage to varnish some of the back log of figures and scenery and seem to have got away with it. In the short few minutes of gathering up the items, walking to the garage, spraying and walking back to the house, the brilliant sunshine had been replaced by another hail storm. So I couldn’t finish off the second unit of AVBCW troops. Half an hour later and now I’m back on the ‘net, the sun is out again and I can finish them off.

    Just as well, as this week I now have lined up a WHFB game at The House Of Doom (Jim’s), and two AVBCW games lined up (Friday & Sunday) here. And for Friday I have to have some barbed wire fencing ready…
    So there should be more new content over the next week. 🙂

    In an effort to keep me focused, I’ve also been maintaining a spreadsheet listing all of finished paint jobs for the last 2+ years. This is based on the same calculations as in the Ooh Shiny Complex (see RHS). To my surprise WHFB stuff is only a third of the output, with scenery and 15mm now accounting for more. I’m doing this just to see what I am painting and how much, and how much time I procrastinate as the Lead Mountain grows ever bigger (and my chances of surviving anything other than a direct nuclear strike increase).

    How many readers keep a log of their painting ?
    I’d be interested to know…

    Filed under AVBCW, Scenery, Warhammer

    Laserburn – Across Town

    20/04/2012

    Byakhees Rich & Darren C (whose first game in 20+ years this was) played a three way battle, Nah Olos (me) was heading for his goal when two rival gangs felt their territory infringed.

    Rich started on the left, me lower end in the picture, Darren C on the right.

    I got my posterior handed to me on a plate in the first round really, with Rich’s Heavy Bolt Gunner knocking down several troops. After that we shot each other to pieces and decided we’d need a few mor rules for a rule set published in 1983.

    So we made some up on the spot and will incorporate them later…

    That said, for a game that old it still does have a lot of good ideas !

    Filed under 15mm Sci-Fi

    Laserburn – The Landing Pad

    19/04/2012

    Another from the Archives of Carcosa. Byakhee Anthony & I played our first Laserburn game for a good 20 years.

    The mercenary Nah Olos (me) and his crew have been hired to seize the Landing Pad on a planet.

    Anthony played the authorities. It was a short game that reminded us how much we’d forgotten about Laserburn. We used simplified stat lines to keep things going.

    Nah Olos’ mercenaries prevailed, but at a cost and only because the landing pad crew came over to their side. A firefight ensued in the main street of the landing pad area, and there was a surprising number of injuries to ‘left legs’. (In Leaserburn, each shot is determined to hit part of the body)

    Good fun, and this lead on to more things. A few more photos here.

    To Be Continued.

    PS: I am updating the links page to include links to 15mm manufacturers that I used for this and subsequent games. 🙂

    Filed under 15mm Sci-Fi

    WHFB – Battle of Karak Beer – the Dwarf Beer generator

    19/04/2012

    A very different battle played some time ago. In an even earlier battle, the Dwarves had been driven back into their tunnels by Beastmen and Dark Elves. This scenario now was about the Dwarves protecting their beer generator.

    The table was 8×4′, and was a complex of halls an passages. I photocopied lots of paved area from one of the old Dungeon Floor Plans GW did back in the early to mid 1980’s.

    the copies were cut up and blu-tac’d to the chipboard, with the aim of the two interlopers coming on on opposite sides of the board at one end of the table, and the Dwarves waiting for them at the other (short) end of the table. The dwarves were also given some barricades.

    Here’s the table, with a byakhee lurking at the far end. 😉

    This was one of the last games we played as a three sided game. WHFB simply isn’t geared up for anything other than two sides due to its very rigid I-Go-You-Go turn sequence, plus the magic phase goes pear shaped. Nonetheless we had a good game, with the Beastmen coming off worst, the Dark Elves also being beaten off and a battered Dwarf General supping beer at the end.

    More pictures here.

    Filed under Warhammer

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