American War of Independence British

I've also finished the remainder of the AWI British in 15mm. Again these are Essex figures most of which were painted years ago.

The 4th King's Own Foot:

The 9th East Norfolk Foot:

The 54th Foot:

The 60th Foot:

Combined Light Infantry:

The 42nd Royal Highland Regiment:

Royal Artillery and some Officers:

The 17th Light Dragoon's:

Loyalist Foot:

I now have two 15mm AWI forces neither of which is really quite big enough to make an army and as far as I know no one else at the club has anything suitable to play them either!

I guess the choice now is to leave them in the box never to see the light of day again or add some more units which, at the moment, I don't feel greatly inspired to do. At least they are all finished though!

Rommel Eastern Front buildings

Having bought a Russian army for Rommel I thought I should add some buildings as I didn't really have any suitable ones.

Timecast do a nice range of 6mm buildings which I think fit better with 10mm figures than 10mm buildings (also they are cheaper and lighter to carry) so I ordered a selection though not the impressive (and expensive at £80) Stalingrad Grain Elevator!

The first village:

A ruined village:

Another village:

Some thatched buildings:

Finally some markers for entrenchments:

I think they all came out really nicely, being made of resin they have a lot of texture and don't have the flat look of MDF buildings. Hopefully I'll be able to use them soon once I start playing Rommel again.

ADLG HYW English v Medieval Scottish

In all honesty I thought there was a good chance the pub where our club meets would not reopen. However, nineteen weeks after my last game at the club enough Covid19 restrictions had been lifted to reopen the pub and allow us to play again.

 For my first game I arranged to play Gordon using my newly painted HYW English army against his Medieval Scots. Gordon kindly agreed to play 300 pts so I could use all the new figures I'd painted. 

The table was largely devoid of terrain and both armies deployed in a single line. The English deployed with King Edward III on the left, Sir John Chandos left centre, the Black Prince on the right centre and the Earl of Oxford on the right commanding a small force of knights:

On the left the English line overlapped the Scots with a force of Bidets and Irish Kerns poised to outflank the Scottish line:

Some Scottish (or maybe French) mounted knights deploy in the middle of the Scots line:

On the right the Earl of Oxford faces a large number of Highlanders:

Both lines advance though the Scots try to refuse their right flank slightly:

The Black Prince readies his men to face the Scots attack:

On the left King Edward presses forward to make his numbers count:

The English longbowmen start to pepper the Scots line causing some losses:

First clash of arms as the Scots Pikes attack English knights and men at arms:

Sir John Chandos and the Black Prince are quickly engaged as well:

The Scots/French mounted knights break through the Black Princes longbowmen:

Hobilars move to fill the gaps caused by the longbowmen routing:

On the left King Edward's men start to cut their way through the Scots foot:

The entire line of battle, both sides inflicting and taking losses:

King Edward's men have destroyed the entire Scottish left flank almost:

Sir John Chandos' battle has had mixed fortunes while the Black Prince and the Earl of Oxford are under heavy pressure:

Chandos is slowly gaining the upper hand. The Scots army is close to breaking:

However, the Black Prince and Oxford are struggling and will be overwhelmed soon:

Chandos makes more progress but the Earl of Oxford is cut down and the Black Prince has few men left:

The final turn results in a mutual destruction with the Scots breaking easily while the English are just tipped into breaking exactly:

It was great to be back in action again and I really enjoyed playing Gordon with the game swinging back and forth right to the end. The army looked nice on the table and I think 300 pts perhaps works better for Medieval games where the units are more expensive.

Hopefully I'll be able to get more games in soon and actually use some of the new stuff I've painted!

TMOCB USMC v VC Downed Aircrew Recovery

Having acquired a helicopter and some downed aircrew figures I could now try out the rescuing the downed aircrew scenario from TMOCB. For the initial try out the opposition was provided by the VC.

Lieutenant Donovan and his men advance towards the site of the downed Huey. Sgt Elias is on the left with Rambo on the right:

The burning Huey:

The first VC section arrives but the villagers are unimpressed and only two bases join up:

The second VC section leader is more persuasive with the maximum four more bases joining his force:

Sgt Elias starts to search the jungle for the helicopter crew but is ambushed by VC! The VC are easily cut down though:

The M113's are back as a support option! They join up with Lt Donovan:

Sgt Rambo finds the first crewman. Unfortunately he is dead but at least his fate is known and his body recovered:

Rambo finds a second crewman, again dead:

The VC assault Rambo and his men!:

Rambo's men drive off the assault with no losses while the VC lose heavily:

Another VC section attempts to move into the village and begin recruiting. They only need a single 4 on six dice but fail leaving them stuck in the open:

Rambo's men wipe out the remainder of the VC section that assaulted them:

Lt Donovan and his men rush up behind Rambo but hit a booby trap, one base goes down:

The Americans are nicely concentrated and hope to take advantage of their heavy firepower to clear away any VC appearing:

Sgt Barnes and his squad appear. They search some bamboo and find the third helicopter crewman, again he is dead:

Another VC section moves up having recruited in the village:

Again the VC attempt to advance but fail, the failed activations are stymying their plans and this section is very vulnerable stuck in the open:

Sgt Elias and the M113's make the VC pay for their error, cutting the section in the open down:

Lt Donovan finds the last member of the helicopter crew, this one is alive!:

Yet again the VC fail to activate at a critical time:

So far everything is going the American's way:

The Americans take up defensive positions now they have found all the aircrew:

Lt Donovan calls down an artillery strike but it fails to hit the target:

The VC assault Lt Donovan and the M113's. They are thrown back but not before one M113 is destroyed by a valiant VC patriot:

The assaulting VC squad is reduced to just the leader:

At this point Lt Donovan makes a mistake! He attempts to call down an artillery strike on the larger VC section massing in the village. The strike is badly aimed however, with Donovan himself being hit! The VC section leader also goes down:

Even so it looks all over for the VC. The second VC section decides on a literal last throw of the dice and assaults the remaining M113 knocking it out!:

The VC follow up and destroy the remaining men of Lt Donovan's command taking out the (previously alive) last member of the helicopter crew:

Rambo and Elias cut down the last VC section ending the game:

The final scores - VC Turning Up (25), 4 Caches not found (4), 2 American bases killed (6), 2 M113's destroyed (6) and one unit destroyed (4) totalling 45 points. US score 19 VC killed (19), 4 units destroyed (16), 7 caches searched (4), 3 dead aircrew recovered (25) totalling 64 giving the Americans a 'Proper Win':

For much of the game (until Donovan's unwise and in all honesty unnecessary artillery request) the game looked like a walkover for the Americans, they were actually unlucky not to find more crew alive.

I think I make fewer errors with the Americans now and the luck which went all to the VC in the first few games seems to have deserted them now, an early activation failure with a unit really hurts as it stops the rest of the force from doing anything much for that turn. The VC had three turns when the first unit to activate failed with four or more activation dice.

I might try out the firebase game next, I can probably make something up from my 28mm WW2 scenery to see if it is worth trying to make some actual defences!