The Battle of Hooks Farm, Woking

Saturday September 2nd saw the Battle of Hook's Farm take place in the Woking between the forces of Army Red and Dark Green (in my side garden).

The game was played using the Funny Little Wars rules with 6 infantry, 2 cavalry and 3 guns aside for a total of 120 infantry, 24 cavalry and 3 artillery. Each side also had one sniper.

I umpired.






Anthony with the forces of Army Red deployed on their baseline.



The battlefield of Hook Farm, showing the farm, firefly church, the cottage and the hovel. A small stone wall provides some cover in the middle.





Brian with the deployed forces of Army Dark Green.



Army Red start their initial manouevres.



The catering corps observing the action



Army Red send a cavalry detachment to seize the farm.



On the other flank the cavalry dash towards the church



Army Dark Green advance more cautiously having refused one flank





Army Red advance in a steady line



Both sides cavalry contest the farm



First blood to Army Green as a well placed shell kills some cavalry






General view of the battlefield



Army Dark Green deploy the guns



And the artillery duel begins











Army Green advance to line the wall



Army Red Sniper hides by the Hovel



Slavs skulk in cover - unfortunately they were hit by their own guns just after this as a stray shell landed in front of the woods...



Forced into retreat by their own artillery...



The action hots up with a firefight developing





By firefly church the Red cavalry threaten the Dark Green heavy gun.



And over run it



Dismounted cavalry fight over the farm...

The game was fun and eventually, Army Red got the better of the firefight and having spiked their guns Army Dark Green withdrew from the battlefield. We were very lucky with the weather.

We played from 11am to 5.30pm with an hour or so's break for lunch at 1pm and another short break for cake and tea...

Boer War Armoured Train

I have played a few 54mm games recently but not had time to write them up - hope to put up something soon.

I am currently working on a new piece for my Imperial Miniatures Toy Soldier range, which is a Boer War Armoured train.



The loco is nearly finished and once I have sorted a few bits I can start to work out what to make in metal. Currently it is laser-cut plywood with 3d printed parts.

The armoured wagon is getting there but needs quite a bit of work...

Zulu Wars: Portable Colonial Wargame

Anthony and I played this game a few weeks ago at the Guildford Club but I have been so busy with work that I haven't had chance to sort out the photographs and write it up.

The game was played on a 6' x 4' mat from Deep Cut Studios with a 6" grid on it using Anthony's collection of Little Legion 54mm glossy figures. Units were 6 figures strong.



The game was played down the length of the table and very, very loosely based on the Isandlwana scenario for The Sword and the Flame.

The rules used were Bob Cordery's Portable Colonial Wargames rules using the "sudden death" option without strength points for the units. A unit when shot, or losing melee either dies immediately or falls back a square.

Native units can move twice in a turn if they manage to throw a 5 or 6 on a die before moving, which gives them a mobility advantage.

For the first game, Anthony took 2 infantry, and artillery piece and a Gatling gun which proved slightly overwhelming in its firepower.







The gatling gun proved so effective that the Zulus were unable to close the left-hand horn around the flank (only having 6 units, I opted for a chest and one horn) and they were mowed down in their hundreds leading to a British Victory.



For the second game we reset and Anthony replaced the Gatling with a third Infantry unit and I again took eight units of Zulus.

The artillery piece on the flank proved much less effective than the gatling and the flank envelopment worked this time leading to a resounding British defeat as they were wiped from the map.









Again, another fun game which was quick enough to allow us to play two games in an evening.

19th Century Portable Wargame

I played another 19th Century game using The Portable Wargames rules this week. My hardback copy of the rules appears to have been lost in the post, so we played using the downloaded version. But, actually, we would have used that version anyway as I prefer it to the version published in the book. I will expand on that in a review of The Portable Wargame once I get a chance.

I chose Scenario 14 - A Static Defense from One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas and we rolled up our forces from the same book, adding 2 infantry to the totals for a total of 8 units.

The game was played on a 4' x 3' mat with 4" squares so I adjusted the map slightly to allow for the extra width over the 3' x 3' map in the One Hour Wargames book.

The scenario places the Red player (British played by Anthony in this case) in defence with the task of defending a hill and a town. They must start with hald their forces near each location and keep at least 2 units within 3 squares of the objectives at all times,.

The Blue Player (myself playing with German troops) has to take one objective and be the sole occupant at the end of the game on the 15th turn.

I added some extra cover to the map as we are playing a version of the Portable Wargame where a unit eiher dies or has to retreat if it is hit. If it can't retreat then it also dies (as we shall see).

Unusually, Anthony and I both rolled a 1 for our force composition which gave as each 2 artillery, 1 cavalry and 5 infantry. We designated the rifle troops on each side to be elite, all other units were average.



The initial deployment - the Germans had to enter the table on the southern edge on turn one.



The British left wing defending the town with the general.



Defence of the hill.


The initial deployment of the German attackers.

The second turn saw an artillery exchange which destroyed both the German guns (as they were unable to retreat) and caused the British to lose one gun (as it couldn't retreat) and one British foot unit was eliminated when the German gun overshot its original target.



The Germans advancing on the hill - the plan was a small nuisance force on the right flank and a main thrust at the hill.





Continuing to advance on the hill while the Bavarian unit threatens the town.





Germans advance on the hill fairly unhindered.


Just after this point the german cavalry were hit by artillery fire when the gun on the other flank missed the intended infantry target and hit the cavalry when they were unable to retreat.

The Bavaran infantry were able to extract revenge and destroyed the artillery the same turn.




The British cavalry finally move off the hill and get stuck in.



The Bavarians attempt to win the game all by themselves by finishing off the only British unit on that flank and taking the town. Sadly they pushed he British back but then failed to take the town and were destroyed.



On the other flank, this was the final result at the end of turn 15. The remaining German unit was unable to take the hill or force the remaining two British units from it.

It was a very close game with Anthony convinced he had lost about turn 8 when the hill looked likely to fall but his cavalry was able to survive a melee from two units and then turned that to their advantage to destroy most of the German attackers on that flank before being shot down.

Once again we managed a fun, very close game in just over 2 hours including set up and packing away - One Hour Wargames Scenarios with The Portable Wargames rules are proving a winning combination.

Garrison Abandoned!

We played a 4-player NWF 54mm game at the Guildford Club this week. It pitched Anthony and Alistair as the British attempting to relieve a Garrison against Andrew and I as the Afghans. We used The Sword and the Flame rules with half size units.



Slightly blurry view of the garrison awaiting their relief column.



Anthony and Alistair looking confident - this didn't last too long...

We set up with the Afghans using hidden movement and with a rule that they would be placed on the table if they fired, moved in the open or the British came within 12 inches of their concealment.



The game at the start without an Afghan in sight!

The British advanced cautiously onto the table. In fact, very cautiously as for the first few turns the Halt card came up in the movement phase and Alistair hardly moved his troops at all. The Afghans skulked from cover to cover waiting to see what the British planned and happy to leave the British Garrison to their own devices.



The first troops to engage were the horse on both sides but neither proved conclusive with the Afghan horse refusing to close.

Eventually, a Pathan sword unit charged the British flank and killed the majority of the unit sending the rest running to the rear.



On the their flank, Andrew's Pathans finally closed and repeated their success by polishing on another British unit.



At this point the British decided that discretion was the better part of valour and withdrew.

To be fair, the British fire power was poor and then Alistair threw 6 1's out of 9 throws in melee which really didn't help!

It was a fun game and everyone seemed to enjoy it.