Neil Thomas Moderns Game

I played a Cold War Nato/Warsaw Pact game yesterday with Anthony who was keen to try out Neil Thomas inspired Modern Rules with his collection of 54mm moderns. These are mostly Esci 1/35th, plus 1/43rd tanks and other vehicles with the occasional 1/50th vehicle.

We played down the length of a 10 foot x 4.5 foot table. The rules seemed to work while, although as the Warsaw pact I was outgunned with T-55s against Chieftans!

Some pictures of the game:

Some Experimental painting

I have not played any 54mm games recently but have been doing some planning for games and this includes looking into using Neil Thomas's Napoleonic Rules for Napoleonics and also starting a 54mm ECW collection to initially use with File Leader.

Some test painting can be seen here:








I have also been casting and assembling more troops for the German Little Wars army to oppose my British. One unit of germans is done and I have half-way through assembling a unit of Bavarians, a unit of Jaegers and 3 gun crews. They should soon be ready for some winter painting sessions.

Second North-west Frontier Game

We finally managed to get together for another NWF game using The Sword and the Flame and our 54mm collection. I had managed to finish off some more terrain which meant we could use a full-sized 8' x 5' table for the game. The scenario involved the British entering the table from one of the short sides and attempting to relieve a garrison at the other end of the table by marching down the road and clearing the valley.

[caption id="attachment_310" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A general shot of the table[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_311" align="aligncenter" width="152"] The initial British column.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_315" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ~The Garrison awaiting the relief column[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_316" align="aligncenter" width="265"] The British commander taking his tea[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_321" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The opening British move[/caption]

In the end, the British relief column failed to make it through due to some good shooting by the Pathans and the British use of close order which meant they didn't bring enough rifles to bear and presented a dense target to the natives. The game was fun and we hope to play another quite soon...

First Sword and the Flame game

Anthony and I finally played our first game of The Sword and the Flame using our North-west Frontier collection. I didn't manage to quite finish building all the scenery I wanted but the table still looked pretty good.

The scenario was based on the example game in the TSATF rulebook with the British advancing down a valley to examine a partially destroyed fort.

The British had 1 unit of British foot, 1 unit of Indian Foot, a gun and 4 crew and a half-size cavalry unit.

The Pathans had 3 units (half guns. half swords) and an old gun with 3 crew.

The British advanced slowly and met some withering fire from a group of Pathans on the second turn (7 hits from 10 shots!), which brought that unit to a halt in the open. The British managed to contain the initial Pathan onslaught but lost a complete British unit with just one man helping a wounded colleage to the rear. The rest of the pathans attempted to attack the cavalry but decided that destroying a British unit was as good as it would get and retired satisfied.

Some pictures of the action follow:

54mm NorthWest Frontier

I have made a start on my North West Frontier Scenery so that Anthony and I can play some games with The Sword and The Flame rules.

First up is the Airfix Desert Outpost:



Then I have started chopping up some bits of packaging to make some rocks for my Afghans to hide in.



I have about 40 Afghans painted and just need to finish 20 more so we can have a game with half-size units.

H G Wells at Play

This is a Toy Soldier style painted version of our H G Wells figure playing Little Wars. it was painted for the trophy for the winner of the Funny Little Wars Centennial weekend - Anthony Morton.

You can buy your own copy here:

http://www.blackhat.co.uk/online_shop/product_info.php?products_id=2079

for £5.00 or it is available painted for £20.00

FLW Game Report Army Red vs Army Khaki

This is a game that Anthony Morton and I played at the Guildford Wargames Club last week between my own Army Red and his Army Khaki. Army Red is made up of castings from my own Little Wars Revisited range of 54mm Toy Soldiers. Anthony's Army Khaki is from AIP North-West Frontier figures and was also painted by me. I will eventually be painting up an opposing force of Afghans for use with FLW and TSATF rules.

The game was played on a 6 foot by 7 foot table with us playing down the length. There were two main farm buildings as objectives and a couple of woods and an outlying farm building. The farm was a 28mm EM4 Miniatures Farm which comes painted already. Being on the large side it worked well on a tabletop with 54mm figures.



This is Army Red set up on their baseline.



The following is Army Khaki:




The opening moves saw both forces approach the closest objectives with Army Khaki's cavalry on the left flank facing off Army Red's lancers.





Army Khaki started the game with both of their guns unlimbered on the baseline while Army Red pushed forward the light gun in support of the cavalry leaving the medium gun for use in counter-battery fire. After some ranging shots, the Army Khaki Medium gun was eliminated.

The Army Red Cavalry pushed forward.


And the two cavalry forces met by the farm.



Before the cavalry melee could start, Army Red's sniper eliminated two of the opposing cavalrymen which swung the resultant melee in Army Red's favour.



Both sides continued a cautious advance.





The Army Red Rifles unit eventually occupied the second farm building.



After a fierce firefight between the rifles and two enemy units, the rifles were forced out of the farm and the Indian infantry were able to occupy the farm building.

On the same turn the second Army Khki gun was eliminated.

The game was declared at that point as a narrow draw.