WIP 10mm Republican Roman Army Part 2

 Finished basing the troops. I ran out of steel 20x40mm bases and had to improvise. I had some plastic bases hanging about that I cut down to size. So here are the Hastatii with Pilum and Shield.

Hastatii with Pilum and Shield.

And the Cavalry based and flocked. 

WIP 10mm Republican Roman Army

Getting a 10mm Republican Roman army based and ready is a great way to stay ahead of the club arms race, especially since 10mm provides fantastic rank-and-file mass on the table without requiring a massive playing area. I commenced to base the army that I received early in the spring, brough to life by Old Guard Painters. The figures being Pendraken Republican Roman Army Pack.

Partial - Pendraken Republican Roman Army Pack.

The more I look at the figures, the more I am thinking it might just be an ADLG army to play with.

Battlegroup Northag - Intro

 Today I got to revisit my early to mid 1980s wargaming, with an introduction to the Plastic Soldier Company Battlegroup NORTHAG. I was given a Soviet Recce force and thrown into the fray. In the 1980s the group I gamed with in Halifax mostly played the WRG Armored and Infantry Rules 1950 to 1985. Over the years we did occasional forays into TacForce, OMG and early in the new millennium Cold War Commander. However for the majority of the past 30 years my microarmor collection quietly sat on the storage shelf. I enjoyed today's revisit of the period. I am personally very happy that we didn't go through the hell of the Cold War becoming hot, but at the time it seemed that it was quite possible.

The powerplant objective at the far end of the table

The Crossroads that became today's focal point.

The T-64s of my Recce Platoon advance across the fields.

More Recce advance trough the countryside.

My luck runs out as the Germans start shooting down from the highrises. I lost 50% of my artillery spotters in an early firefight.

Turn 4 My Motorized infantry arrived last turn. First platoon advances trough the parkland towards the built up area. In the distance my tanks are engaged with the West German Recce

Today's game was a small meeting engagement between the Soviets and West Germans. The Bundeswehr gained control of two of the three objectives. The Soviets achieved only one. Both of the the T-64s were destroyed by infantry AT weapons on the 10-20 inch table on their frontal armor. Both times the German player (William) needed 10 or better on two dice to destroy the tanks. In both cases 11 was thrown. That plus a well placed artillery barrage, which destroyed three of my fire teams drove me above my BP limit. 

I have ordered a copy of the rules and intend to get my 6mm troops back onto the table 

Charge!-ing into the New Year

The title of this post is not mine. I stole it directly from Ross Mac and his post on a game, in which both he and I were participants. I was home, in Halifax over the Christmas holidays and met up with Lentulus  and Ross Mac on the 2nd day of the new year. 

Lentulus 

Tea was enjoyed in the company of the fair sex but as these things then to do do, the ladies retired to binge watch Castle and we tabletop warriors headed upstairs to the sanctum sanctorum. In addition to good company and conversation, the urge to throw some dice on the table soon overtook us.

Ross Mac

Lentulus suggested that we use his 10mm Pendraken 7YW miniatures for a quick game of Ross' Heart of Tin rules. Ross countered with a suggestion that we play a game of Charge!.Not having a copy of the rules available, we relied on Ross for the basics and soon were engaged in a fast and furious encounter on the the Hoft Bridge. 



We diced for sides. I was in command of the Bravants. The units of this force are christened with Quebec place names, and since I was visiting from Montreal, it was à propos that they fell under my command.  

Bravant Field Force Photo 1

Bravant Field Force Photo 2

Ross Mac and Lentulus shared joint command of the Stutz Baerkatz. Both sides had 2 guns under their command alone with a choice of  a mix of six units. These consisted of 24-figure infantry or 9-figure cavalry units. As fools seldom differ, both generals took four foot and two horse units to lead into battle.

The scenario was simple enough. I was to take the bridge and hold it long enough for the engineers to blow it.

Mid-way through the game. My forces are mainly on the left side of the river.

As can be seen from the above photo, I already loss one of my guns. It was destroyed in the first exchange of shot. It was a to prove to be a hard handicap to overcome. To quote Ross Mac directly, 

" An hour or so later as the firing died down and the smoke cleared, it appeared that the turning point had come early when I had chosen to unlimber sooner, moved my gun 6cm with a 50% chance to fire and succeeded, rolled a 4 to hit his artillery at 40cm range (4 ft range band) and then rolled a 6 to destroy Rob's gun before it even had a chance to unlimber. With such small forces and with our side only needing to hold the bridge, that 1 gun superiority tipped the balance with round after round of cannister. Well, after all, what did Napoleon ask?"

A fun time was had by all. 

I have a cousin who lives in Lachine and while under my command I took the opportunity to rename the Lachine Regiment of Foot, Queen Mary's Own in her honour.