Daleks versus the Afrika Korps - A strange encounter

Last night the Shed hosted a rather strange game of bolt action. I was joined by Mark & Steve for what they though was going to be a rather simple pulpy skirmish on my desert boards.

To be frank I cobbled the idea together about an hour before they arrived having decided to shuffle around the desert boards from last weeks crusader game.

The focal point of the table was my Egyptian temple sitting in the valley of the lost kings. Access to the valley was through the wadis beyond the Oasis.

The Nazi's (Mark of course) were given this briefing

Egypt - 1937

Transcripts from Radio Messages sent by Colonel Werden to Heinrich Himmler -

Herr Himmler

I am delighted to report that the dig in Cairo is proceeding as instructed. I have been informed by the archaeological team that they are about to open the doors to the outer crypt. It appears that the tomb has remained untouched in all these years. I believe we are on the verge of a most exciting discovery…

Morale remains high amongst the team only dampened by this dreaded heat and dust

Herr Himmler

At the request of Professor Benoit we assembled a series of monitors and testing equipment around the tomb entrance. Initial results suggest a high level of radioactivity and electrical interference beyond the tomb door. We will proceed with caution.

Herr Himmler

Grave news – Professor Benoit and his team broke the seal on the crypt this morning and entered the tomb. Two hours later there was no sign of him and his exploratory party. I instructed Kapitan Funf to assemble a small squad to investigate – they have entered the tomb. Soon after a lone trooper emerged with severe burns. Before he died de stated that Kapitan Funf and his squad had been wiped out…his last words were…Vernichten, Vernichten, Vernichten

Attention: Colonel Herzog

Since the last encrypted message from Colonel Werden we have heard no news from the excavation camp. You are to proceed with all speed to the camp, assess the issue and make the necessary steps to ensure the contents of the tomb do NOT fall into enemy hands

The Nazi forces (seven squads of infantry would enter middle right)

To the South lay the combined forces assembled by British Intelligence (3 squads of Sikh infantry and four squads of friendly Bedouins). Steve was given this briefing

........................................................................................................................................................

British Intelligence Briefing

Recent radio chatter in Cairo has picked up a series of messages from a German exaction dig in the valley of the kings to none other than Heinrich Himmler in Germany.

These messages were encrypted but our boffins have done their best to decipher them..

Herr Himmler

I am delighted to ……..the dig in ……….is proceeding as ………. informed ……… team that ………….. to open the doors to the ………………... It appears ……………………..untouched………….. years. I believe ………….. discovery…

Morale …………………….team……………………. only dampened by this dreaded……………….

Herr Himmler

At the request of Professor Benoit ……………………………………..and testing equipment …………….tomb entrance. ………………………….results suggest a high level…………………………….. interference …………….. We will proceed with caution.

Herr Himmler

Grave ………… Professor Benoit ……………………..broke the seal…………..this morning and………………………... Two hours ………………………..no sign of him………………………………..  instructed Kapitan…………………………… investigate…………… Soon after…………………a …….trooper…………….severe burns. …………………………………………………..last words ………….Vernichten, Vernichten, Vernichten

Captain Rogers

An assault force has been assemble just outside the valley of the kings –your mission to investigate what has happened and to take steps on ensuring that Nazis do not leave the area with anything important.

The British forces would enter from the Oasis

The British forces advance into the desert....

Meanwhilst the Germans enter the table - both sides heading for the dig

Inevitably this mad rush forward ended in tears as a firefight erupted between the opposing forces in the tight canyons

Lead by the Bedouin horse the British surged forward

The Afrika Korps set up a defensive screen....

and quickly establisghed firing positions in the scattered ruins around the temple

At this point something strange happened - the pillars around the temple started to glow - each turn another started to glow - eventually forming an electrical web over the structure.

Local diggers ran from the crypt entrance waving a heiroglyphic covered cloth...

This they handed to the Afrika Korps commander - look carefully !! You can see a tardis and a dalek...clues for what was about to happen....

Despite the strange lightshow above the temple the firefight continued between the forces - Arab horse charghed into a unit of Nazis - a very effective charge - the very first I have witnessed in Bolt Action

By now the temple was bathed in blue light and emerging from the entrance were some strange pepperpot shapes....

Each turn more units more forth. It became obvious to Mark and Steve that there own firefight was no longer important - they had to defeat a common foe...

We used the Dalek rules for Bolt Action published here

https://boltactiontimelord.wordpress.com/tag/daleks/

The only major modification being small arms gaineds a +1 penetration at very close range (ie under 6")

At this point a strange blue box appeared and a man claiming to be called the Doctor arrived - he quickly explained to the British commander that the only way to stop this invasion was to switch off the grid - each pylon had a switch at its base (found on a 9+). The Doctor could automatically find these.

I suspect if the Doctor had tried to talk to the Nazis he might have been shot ! True to form they had tried to shoot the local diggers only to be beaten by the Daleks

 

The next hour saw a furious and bloody firefight around the temple as each turn more daleks arrived. Casualties on both sides were extremely high but the combined forces of humanity were switching down the pylons slowly

The Afrika Korps soon realised that a long range exchange of fire was not working against their armoured opponents - subtlety was thrown out the window and everything descended into a point blank firefight.

More daleks arrived - ( i have nearly 90 of these magazine toys)

Links to build here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/something-very-different-from-shed28mm.html

By now things were getting desparate - the humans were riunning out of troops and the Dalek grid was still operational

With a sustained charge the Bedouins, Sikhs and Germans pushed forward. Sacrificing their lives to switch off the pylons  - success !

A few rounds later the Dalek menace had been halted - only three Sikh soldiers remained

What fun !!

Tune in soon for another Shed report

A Return to the Crusades

Over the last couple of weeks the Shed has taken on a distinctive Middle Eastern flavour, providing an opportunity to set up my desert boards and wheel out the Crusader and Saracen armies I painted the best part of two years ago.

The photos in this post come from some of the recent games

I think all Wargamers go through phases in their developments of new genres and I am no exception. I originally set out to create the two Crusading factions with a view of playing a multitude of games including Lion rampant, Crescent and Cross and Hail Caesar. In fact these forces have only ever visited the table about three times in their life and in every case we have used the Lion Rampant ruleset. I have decided that whilst I am painting up my Napoleonic’s we will give these boys a bit more airtime.

So two weeks ago Mark and I convened to play for the first time Crescent & Cross – these are the Crusading rules based on the successful Saga series brought to the wargames fraternity by Studio Tomahawk. Indeed I think I bought this ruleset over two years ago and having had a cursory glance through the beautiful rulebook we’d never actually played.

The rules are effectively the same as Saga in terms of combat, movement and force design. Of course what makes the Saga rules so very different are the use of custom dice and the battle boards. The two factions are represented by three forces on each side. The layout of the boards are somewhat different to the original saga boards but the mechanics are very similar. I don’t intend to put together a full review of these but rather how we coped with the introduction of the new forces.

In our first game Mark took on the Crusading force (chock full of charging knight abilities and governed by the key attributes of chivalry) whilst I took on the unpronounceable M.... faction (best described as suicidal fanatics). It became apparent in our first game that our force choice and composition did not best match the abilities of the board. For example I would have been much better off have smaller units to throw themselves against their Christian foes.

Suffice to say that the Infidel got crushed in the first game whereas the second game (Crusaders versus Saracens) appeared to be much more balanced. In the end the Crusaders won a second time round (a large part down to Mark learning the capabilities of his board).

I think it’s fair to say that saga is a firm favourite in the Shed especially when there is only two of us – this is in part down to the fact we have played sufficient times to understand the intricacies of the original boards. It’s going to take time to get used to the C&C boards but we will persevere.

Our second Crusades game was played on Monday night – this time it was a much bigger affair using Lion Rampant rules with circa 70 points aside. I have already mentioned in previous posts that we have chosen to drop the rule that a failed activation causes the whole army to miss out on orders. Each unit still has to roll for activation (attack, move, shoot) but the game now moves much quicker and a sixty point plus game can easily be fought in a couple of hours with two aside.

Alastair bought along his son on Monday so it seemed only right that as a family they should take on myself and Mark. This father/son combo played the Crusaders – they had over 18 units on the table – predominantly Knights, men at arms and armoured spears. Their forces were augmented with a sprinkling of crossbows, archers and bidowers.

By contrast the Saracens had 27 units on the table with the majority being lightly armed and far more missile troops – this was telling.

A combination of numerous missile troops, some great attack rolls and some really poor ( and I mean poor) morale checks on the Crusading side gave the Saracens a crushing victory. The Crusaders lost or had routed over 70% of the forces for possibly less than 20% of the Saracen force. 

If anything volumes of missile armed troops (couple with skirmishing ability) continuously saps the Crusader strength and once courage/morale throws go awry there is little they can do to force a fight on their more lightly armed opponents. I am still in two minds as to whether these rules are biased in favour of archery but in our particular game they did force a decisive decision. I now know that the Crusaders themselves knew they had a deficit in this area of force composition and employed their own mounted skirmishers so maybe next time we will give them some of these versatile troops.   

Napoleonic Project Part 9 - Chasseurs a Cheval

Hiya Folks

Hot on the heels of my French Cuirassiers are the Light Cavalry - the Chasseurs a Cheval

If you missed the Cuirassier post you can find it here


http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/napoleonic-project-part-8-french.html

For some strange reason (OK - I got carried away on ebay) I have ended up with three regiments of these (each regiment 12 strong) - but it does give me some flexibility in the troops available for our games.

All three regiments are from Warlord Games - I was actually two figures short post ebay purchases so a couple of spare bodies from the British light dragoon set got roped in and painted up as best I could to look French (they did get the right french shako - so that certainly helps from a distance.

To date I have painted French Dragoons and the Curassiers. The plan is also to paint up one lancer unit and a Hussar regiment. These new three regiments will bring the total to seven. I'll probably add one more dragoon unit when funds permit to bolster the heavy cavalry division.

Whilst researching these units I discovered a wonderful article on the Warlord Games website and if you are looking to add these boys to your french army it is a must read

http://www.warlordgames.com/napoleons-eyes-and-ears-the-chasseurs-a-cheval-of-the-french-army/

Now I read this article a couple of times but did not refer to it during the painting phase !!

I should have done because my riders are all painted wrongly  - rather than fiving them solid green jackets with the appropriate coloured piping I painted their chest panels in the facing colour. I did consider repainting but in the end thought it would be unnecessary.

Onto the pictures....

Orange Facings

Blue Facings

Scarlet Facings

Almost All present - one has gone missing??

Dressing the lines

More very soon
part 10 can be found here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/napoleonic-project-part-10-french.html

Napoleonic Project part 8 - The French Cuirassiers

Afternoon All

If you missed the post concerning the French Artillery you can find it here - don't worry a link at the end of that post will bring you back here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/napoleonic-project-part-7-french-guns.html


So as I mentioned in my last post I had some French Cavalry units nearing completion and over the weekend I managed to finish off the Curassiers.

These are my favourite Napoleonic regiment of all time and if I hadn't discovered that there was one regiment in Spain - I would have bent history and ensured that these armoured plated boys would have made an appearance.

Fortunately one regiment did travel to the Peninsular - the 13th - whether they played any role is conjecture but they were there !

A fellow blogger has done a great write up on these chaps and it can be found here..

http://thenapoleonicwargamer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/13e-regiment-de-cuirassier.html


Sadly these horsemen did not wear the blue jacket but a brown one - once again I um'd and arh'd over whether mine should have a blue coat but in the end I followed history and plumped for the less regal looking brown version.

The figures themselves are from Perry and are full of character. They certainly look the part of heavy horse being more robust than the lighter cavalry units produced by the same company.

These are all based singly on 25mm x 50mm bases from warbases and then slotted into movements trays (3 per tray) - this allows the unit to be deployed on column and double line simply.

really must paint the moustaches

Looking forward to seeing these in action...

Up next will be the utilitarian french horse - Les Chasseurs a Cheval

part 9 can be found here
http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/napoleonic-project-part-9-chasseurs.html

Battle of Brentford Bridge - an ECW AAR

Hi Folks

Last Tuesday (Monday was a bank holiday) the Shed was somewhat light on the player numbers so Mark & I decided to fight the first battle listed in the new Pike & Shotte supplement - the Battle of Brentford Bridge....

heres what wiki says about the battle.....

The Battle of Brentford was a small pitched battle which took place on 12 November 1642, between a detachment of the Royalist army, (predominantly horse with one regiment of Welsh foot) under the command of Prince Rupert and two infantry regiments of Parliamentarians with some horse in support. The result was a victory for the Royalists

After the Battle of Edgehill (23 October) King Charles I captured Banbury (27 October) and was greeted by cheering crowds as he arrived in Oxford on 29 October. Prince Rupert swept down the Thames Valley, capturing Abingdon, Aylesbury and Maidenhead, from where he attempted to capture Windsor though failed due to Parliamentary strength there. After this many officers wanted to open peace negotiations, contrary to Rupert's desire to carry on to London, but the king agreed with the officers and so the Earl of Essex managed to overtake them and reach London with his Parliamentary army by 8 November.

While in Reading Charles decided that the peace talks were inconclusive, and that if he advanced on London it might place him in a better negotiating position. So on 11 November he moved his army closer to London by encamping at Colnbrook and to put further pressure on the Parliamentarians he ordered Prince Rupert to take Brentford

On reaching London the Earl of Essex had not been idle, and had positioned men on the western approaches to London. One force covered the bridge at Kingston upon Thames while another, to the west, barricaded the small town of Brentford which lay on either side of the Thames concentrating their efforts in the proximity of the bridge that connected Old Brentford to New Brentford

On 12 November under cover of an early morning mist Rupert's cavalry and dragoons attacked the two regiments of Parliamentary foot, one under the command of Denzil Holles and the other of Lord Brooke, which were barricaded inside Brentford. The initial attack by the cavaliers on Sir Richard Wynne's house, an outpost west of Brentford held by Holles's regiment, was repulsed.

So a Welsh regiment of foot were ordered into action by Rupert. The combined force successfully captured the outpost and carried forward their attack into Brentford itself. They drove Holles's men over the bridge into the defences manned by Lord Brooke's men. These in turn were driven out of the town into open fields.[5] The fighting continued into late afternoon, before the survivors of Holles's and Brooke's regiments were able to disengage under the protection of John Hampden's infantry brigade, which arrived from Uxbridge to cover their withdrawal. Nevertheless, a large number of Holles's men were drowned while trying to escape their pursuers by swimming across the Thames. The Royalists captured 15 guns and 11 colours and about 500 prisoners,[8] including John Lilburne who was a captain in Brooke's regiment.

Having won the battle the Royalist forces sacked the town. This action encouraged those Londoners who feared for their property to side with the Parliamentarians.[7] On 13 November the main Parliamentary army under the command of Earl of Essex's heavily reinforced with the London trainbands and other London citizenry, assemble as an army of about 24,000 on Chelsea Field and advanced to Turnham Green in the vicinity of the main body of the Royalist army.

At a standoff known as the Battle of Turnham Green, the senior Parliamentarian officers not trusting the training of their forces in a battle of manoeuvre chose not to attack, and the King decided not to press his advance on London by giving battle against a force much larger than his decided, as it was near the end of the campaigning season, to retreat to Oxford where his army could be billeted over the winter.

So we set the table up according to the book and although the scenario didn't state one way another we assumed the river Brent was unfordable (and hence the need for the bridge).

The forces were deployed according to the set up.

It became apparent that the Parliamentarians (Me) had a job on their hands - half of the regiment belonging to Holles was on one side of the bridge in the town and the other half defending Wynn house, Given he was a sole commander of this regiment and could not be in two places at once was somewhat problematic.

The game started with Rupert's(Mark) forces advancing onto the centre. In front of them lay the defended hedgerows of Holles musketeers, cannon and some dragoons.

My tactic was simple - extricate the pikeblock from the forward defences and get it back into the town. The Battalia could afford the losses of the guns and musketeers but if it were to lose just one advance unit it would be broken and therefore unable to defend the fight that might come for the bridge.

As the Cavaliers advanced their Horse broke to the left hoping to cut off any retreat to the bridge. The forward infantry elements surged forward and engaged in a firefight with the defenders

Holles' command rolls just didn't happen - that damn pike block would not move !

The rebels decided to push up some much needed firesupport covering the bridge

By now Rupert's horse was on the move and was soon riding full pelt for the Bridge

The remainder of Holles Battalion in Brentford busied themselves with the defence

The leading elements of the Parliamentarians were now taking serious fire - and the Royalist reserves /Assault force hadn't even arrived

Here they come - four Pikes and loads of musketeers - they surged forward and took on the roundhead vanguard

Within a couple of rounds the defences around Wynn house crumbled and the road towards Brentford was clear

With a loud cheers they mopped up the remnants of the defence around Wynn house and pushed onto the river

However this desperate defence had allowed the brigades of Brookes and Hamden to deploy their forces - nothing was going to come across the bridge

and it didn't - for a few turns Rupert tried to rally his troops and get them to cross the bridge into a hail of lead - it was never going to happen

So here are our thoughts....

1. Rupert must have been incredibly lucky to have forces his way into Brentford - the narrow crossing coupled with matched forces certainly plays into the Parliamentarian hands

2. The only way we can see Rupert winning is 1) a very large dose of luck, 2) getting his cavalry to cut off the escape quickly and then bringings his troops up the road swiftly before the defenders have had a chance to deploy-

2. Had Holles brought up the other half of his brigade over the bridge to counter the attack then it might have been a different story. I did consider taking the fight to the Royalists but I would be giving away my key advantage.

A fun game - interesting to refight an historic action for a change and we look forward to the next scenario

see you all soon


Jump up to:

Top Tip - if you use Army Painters Dip

If like me you are lousy at painting I have discovered that the Army Painters dip covers a multitude of sins. It not only acts as a strong varnish to protect your minis in battle but it also delivers a rapid way of bringing poorly painted figures to a wargames standard.

However these pots of dip are not  cheap - current retail about 20 quid. Over the last three years I have got to the point where I have used around 30% of the tin and then a crust/skin forms on the surface of the paint. At first I thought this might be because air was getting to the dip and causing it to harden. So I began to wrap the tins once the lid was firmly on in clingfilm to create an airtight seal.

This did not prevent the skin from forming. I then had a eureka moment - and it really was like Archimedes Eurejka moment when he discovered displacement. I figured out that the skin is forming because the amount of air inside the tin is sufficient to cause this reaction - how do i remove the air?

Simples - I add something else to the pot to raise the level of the dip and create less air.

In my case I have used a solid pebble as I doubt this will chemically react with the dip.

As you can see the pebble has raised the dip level

This hopefully solves an issue, saves money and is of interest to all you other 'dippers'

cheers

Napoleonic Project Part 7 - The French Guns

Just in case you were thinking that I had 'ceased fire' on this massive project I am sad to say you are very mistaken....

Previous posting was here
http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/napoleonic-project-part-6-british.html

So lets do a quick resume of where I have got to and whats still in the pipe...

Each Regiment consists of 12 Cavalry or 24 Infantry - all based separately and then in movement trays (three figures for cavalry and four for infantry)

PAINTED

• British Command Stands (10)
• British Artillery - 6 Artillery pieces and crew
• British Infantry - 12 Battalions painted (inc 2 Highland & 1 Rifle)
• British Dragoons - 1 Regiment
• French Dragoons - 1 Regiment
• French Artillery - 6 Artillery pieces and crew (pictures below)

Total painted - 38 Horse, 348 infantry, 12 guns

ALMOST COMPLETED

• French Curassiers - 1 regiment painted in brown coats as there was only one regiment in Spain
• French Chasseurs a Cheval - 3 regiments (just need to base)
• French Light Infantry - four regiments almost completed

Almost painted - 48 Horse, 96 infantry

TO BE STARTED

• French Line Infantry - 8 Infantry Regiments
• French Hussars - 2 Regiments
• French Lancers - 1 Regiment
• British Light Dragoons - 2 Regiments
• British Hussars - 1 Regiment
• Portuguese line Infantry - 2 Regiments
• Portuguese Cacadores - 1 Regiment
• French Old Guard - I regiment (I know they did not fight in Spain)
• French Command

To be painted - 88 Horse, 288 Infantry 

TO BE PURCHASED

• Portuguese Infantry - one more box to complete a 3 strong brigade
• British Heavy Dragoons - 2 Regiments - waiting on Warlord to release on June 17th
• French Line Infantry - 3 more regiments

To be bought and painted - 24 Horse, 96 Infantry

This makes a total of 

Guns - 12

Cavalry - 174

Infantry - 828

a total of 1014 figures....gulp....

By my reckoning I am out about 40% of the way through this painting marathon (give me zulus to paint any day) and should be complete come the end of the summer

The Foot Artillery shown today were sourced at Salute direct from Victrix - these were a joy to build and assemble and at 40 quid for six guns and crew great value (7 quid/gun). I decided on four medium and two large guns. At some point in time I am going to need to source French Horse Artillery but I think I can wait for the moment.

Two 12 lbs

4 x 8lbs

Close up - painting these was good practice for the forthcoming french infantry

Another view

All six batteries

Part 8 - the Cuirassiers can be found here
http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/napoleonic-project-part-8-french.html