My first World War II tanks.

Hello again,

Wow two posts in one month! :)

I have painted up my first tanks to use in our Crossfire games. I have three Stug IV and three Pz IV F2. Painted in Normandy '44 camo scheme.

I followed a tutorial on how to paint and weather the tanks from FOW on You tube and used my airbrush.
I am very happy with how they have come together and I am keen to paint up some Shermans for the Allies next.

The tanks are all Old Glory's 15mm Command Decision range.

Cheers
Neil

Raid on Beni Saf

The Foreign Office
Lord Harrington
Whitehall
London

January 14th, 1885

I wish to report a favourable engagement of her majesties forces in North Africa. Acting on intelligence that the evil mastermind Malcolm X and his ally the traitorous El Lawrence had established a base of operations in the slaver town of Beni Saf in Algeria and were working on some new invention that could be used as a weapon to possibly threaten Cairo, it was decided that a punitive raid should be attempted to disrupt their plans and if possible destroy this new device. I have included observation photographs taken during the battle

A raiding force under the command of Captain Henderson RN OC HMES Hermes was organised on short notice. HMES Hermes fresh from repairs after the recent zambesi incident spearheaded the force which included a detachment of the 17th Unicycle lancers, A naval landing party under command of Lt Samson, A platoon of the Queen's Own Skywalkers and a detachment of the 1st Royal Impervious Regiment.
Surgeon Major GS Robertson commanded the ground forces.  A last minute request from the adventurer Allan Quartermain and Ms Mina Harker to join the expedition was granted by Henderson.

The plan was to travel inland from Cairo and rendevous south of the town and attack from inland thereby achieving surprise. The objective was to secure or destroy the device and inflict heavy damage on enemy forces present before withdrawing.

An initial reconnoiter prior to the engagement revealed a startling revelation. A light Aeronef bearing the French ensign was in the town and indicated that Malcolm X may be supported by the French Government.
A revised battle plan had the Hermes engage the French vessel while gound forces made for the dock area.

Our attempt at a surprise attack was a failure, for as soon as the Hermes approached, the French vessel moved to engage while mobs of arab troops rushed out from the buildings to engage the ground forces and man artillery pieces stationed on the roofs. Such was the preparedness of the enemy that we suspect that an agent may be operating in our Cairo office.

The opening shots of the battle were made by the Aeronef. The Hermes achieved an early success damaging the French vessel's propulsion system. The French commander attempted to close with the Hermes and the french crew attempted to grapple as the two vessels passed each other.

The French failed to grapple the Hermes and the gunner manning the port Nordenfelt machine gun raked the French deck killing several crew members. Surprisingly the enemy vessel was crewed by a bevy of french beauties. Despite the heat of battle some of the Hermes crew were dissapointed they didn't get to "grapple" with the enemy. 

The ground attack began with a rapid strike from the skywalker platoon that leapt into the town landing on the roof of a building and pouring a volley of fire down into the enemy ranks.

The 17th lancers charged into the town and engaged an enemy unit. Despite some inital success 17th lancers were destroyed but the enemy unit was also destroyed as an effective fighting force.

The destruction of the lancers proved to be the start of a dangerous period in the battle for our forces.

The Skywalkers were then set upon by the fantastical djinn warriors which had caused such carnage in the Zambesi disaster. These warriors appeared from no where and would be killed only to reappear. These ghost like creatures however proved deadly as the skywalkers were killed to a man. Only Lt Pelham managed to escape by launching into the air to catch a ride on the Hermes as it passed overhead.

Major Robertson moved into the town spearheaded by the Impervious suits. The naval landing party moved up in support. The leading impervious suits were attacked by the light steam charger that had been captured by the enemy at the Zambesi and by the remaining djinn warriors.

With the rapid loss of the lancers, skywalkers and half the impervious force the battle hung in the balance.

Captain Henderson decided he needed to take the docks himself and moved to take the drastic step of landing the Hermes at the dock moving through fire from the defendind arab sonic cannons.

Further surprises awaited Henderson and the crew of the Hermes as they scrambled from the deck to attack the docks. The strange device was apparently being made ready for transportation. The process was being supervised by the evil mastermind Malcolm X and amazingly Professor Heronimous Pratt and the famed Charles Darwin! Both scientists seemed to be under the mind control of a Martian!

It was thought that all Martians had died after their failed invasion attempt but this alien seemed healthy and dangerously in alliance with X. Perhaps alien technology is at work in the device.

Henderson and Quartermain scared off Malcolm X and began work on destroying the device. Lt Pelham engaged in battle with El Lawrence. Ms Harker no shrinking violet also engaged El Lawerence.

Quartermain and Henderson were able to destroy the device but Lt Pelham fell to El Lawrence. Ms Harker bravely faced the traitor alone and severely wounded the traitor. With the mysterious djinn reappearing to attack the docks the Hermes crew beat a quick retreat and took to the air. Sadly we do not have any further knowledge on the whereabouts of Darwin or Professor Pratt.

With their mission accomplished the Hermes and the remnants of our ground forces withdrew. Despite some heavy casualties our forces have managed to affect a serious rebuff to the enemy.

However the prescence of the French and Martians raises yet more questions. With the added aggression from the rebels under the command of the Mad Madhi. I urgently request a reenforcement of our Cairo garrison to counter this threat.

I remain your obedient servant,

Sir Evelyn Baring

British embassy

Cairo

English Civil War - Battle of Cheriton Nunawading Wargames Open Day 2011

Hello all,

It has been several months since my last post but I have not been idle I can assure you. Work commitments have prevented any posts to this blog but on the plus side I travelled to Europe for work training in Germany and managed a short holiday in the UK on the way.

I caught up with family in Wales and Chester, walked the wall of old chester, and stood on the spot where Charles I saw the rout of his royalist forces at the battle of Rowton Heath. I visited Caernarfon castle (which was a royalist stronghold during the civil war) and visited the museum of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (my cousin is a major in the regiment).

I then headed down to London and did the sightseeing tours of the Tower of London, Imperial War Museum and Apsley house (Duke of Wellington's London residence). In Berlin I visited Check Point Charlie, Reichstag, Brandenburg gate and other famous Berlin landmarks.

After a month of travelling it was good to finally come back to Melbourne and see my family again and get back to wargamming and my "projects".

First off the list was our club's annual public open day and myself and fellow NWA'er Tom were running a display game of the battle of Cheriton fought on the 29th of March,1644 between the Royalists commanded by Hopton and the Parliament forces under the commanded of Waller.

We have steadily built up our forces over the past year and we now have sizeable forces that really look stunning when set up on the battle field.

Here are the opening deployments:

This photo is from the parliament side. We see the parliament centre with four regiments of foot. The right flank has a troop of horse advancing while on the hill near Cheriton wood we have a unit of Dragoons and a small commanded shot unit. The left flank has a further two troops of horse. Waller surveys the battle from a small hill in the centre next to his artillery.

The Royalist deployment consisted of three regiments of foot in the centre. A Troop of curassiers and a firelock company occupy the hill next to Cheriton Wood. Royalist artillery deploy on the hill overlooking the battlefield. On the Royalist right flank two troops of horse and the dragoons advance towards Cheriton.

The miniatures used by both forces were mainly the Warlord Games plastics. Royalist horse were Renegade miniatures and there was a few foundry and Old glory minatures as well.

The rules used were Victory Without Quarter by Clarence Harrison. These rules use a card based turn sequence. These rules give a quick game with plenty of historical flavour. To speed up play a little we enabled leaders to issue movement orders to whole brigades.

The battle began with a general advance by both sides. Parliament had a early set back with the rout of a troop of horse on their left flank. The second parliament troop of horse had to turn quickly to close the gap on the flank.

The victorious royalists charged into the second parliament horse. But in the ensuing see saw fight the parliament horse got the better of their opponents and sent them fleeing to the rear.

The Royalist dragoons moved through the town of Cheriton to envelope the parliament flank.

By Cheriton wood the royalist curassiers moved down towards the royalist horse and charged but were halted by cool pistol fire from the Parliament Harquebusiers.

 As the royalist horse fell back the opposing foot came into contact. Volley fire rolled along the two battlelines. Colonel Samuel Jones' rebel green coats routed their opposing royalists also clothed in green.

The parliament horse troop exhausted from its previous melee succumbed to the second royalist horse and the parliament left flank lay wide open. The royalist horse charged towards to parliament artillery but were held in bad ground on the hill giving the rebel gunners time to pour grapeshot into the densely packed horse.

A second round of fire and the royalists broke!

Fortune swung back in parliament's favour. With the left flank temporairily secured, they routed a second regiment of foot while losing Samuel Jones' greencoats who had had enough of the fight. On the hill by Cheriton wood the curaissiers continued to fail to get to grips with the rebel horse.

As the rebel grey coated regiment swung round to hit the remaining royalist foot the royalist artillery spoke with fire and broke the rebels and sent the fleeing.

The battle balanced on a knife edge. As the afternoon draw to a close both sides had been blooded and either side could win the day if they broke another enemy unit.

Finally the royalist broke the rebel blue coated regiment and the battle was theirs!

The game was throughly enjoyed by both sides. The battle had many a tense moment. The VWQ rules can be a bit brutal but provide a quick game which still retains a historical feel. In the end history did not repeat itself with Hopton's forces winning a minor victory.

We had a lot of positive comments about our game during the day and we secured a honourable mention (4th) in the competition for best display.

Bye for now
Neil