Gamng Garage 19/8/2008

Steve and Nick, Blitzkrieg Commander. The scenario for the trial version that used to be available on the web.

To cut a long story short, we both agreed we prefer Flames of War. Each side concentrated on moving their tanks, and their infantry were ignored as a side show. This may have been inexperience with the rules, but there just wasnt that feeling of 'fun' that we get from Flames of War.

Aigues-Mortes 07/08/08

Aigues-Mortes in the Camargue rivals Carcassonne - if somewhat less spectacular being in a flat swamp rather than on top of a dramatic hill..

The 13th century town wall is virtually intact forming a rectangle about 0.5 km square around the old town. It was originally built to protect the port which was then the Kingdom of France's only Mediterranean port. But after a hundred years or so, the port silted up & territorial gain gave the King a better port in Marseilles, so the place became a backwater (as it is named...Aigues-Mortes = dead water). It was still the only fortification in the whole area - presumably the only place where stones didn't sink into the swamp, so it was maintained as a garrison town and/or prison unit the 19th century. The place was such a backwater that using it as a quarry wasn't necessary so it survived pretty well intact until it's worth was appreciated. It hard to tell how much is restoration, but very much less than Carcassonne and what they have done is more authentic.

Le Baux de provence 07/08/08

Les Baux is a medieval citadel on a rock. Most of the fortifications were pulled down at the order of a King who was sick of having uppity barons defiantly sitting on impregnable hilltops, but what remains is pretty impressive. However the main attraction of the site is it's collection of reproduction siege engines including trebuchets which they fire off two of 4 times a day in summer.

The biggest trebuchet is a bit bigger than mine, but not much. They throw a 150mm diam plastic ball full of water about 80m in the demo. The machine could clearly do better but they have downpowered it for safety reasons. It's a pretty good looking machine & has some nice features. The winches are very neat - they get 6 volunteers to wind it up. They have a cunning method of avoiding the issue of reconnecting the winch rope each time. After cocking, they unreel the winch & loop the rope around a pin on top of the arm so it is launched with the missile, but tied to the top of the arm, it drops back. This loses some efficiency as energy is sucked up accelerating the rope, but for their purposes efficiency doesn't matter, while the ease of use does.

They also fired their traction treb. It didn't fire the missile far - partly because of inexperienced crew, but also it is not a well designed traction treb - far too heavy in construction - they should be very lightweight - their purpose is rapid fire anti-personnel, so they don't have to be heavy.

There were a couple of other small scale trebs they didn't fire off - toys really. Their battering ram looked pretty good. They also had a ballista of sorts - made from an 18th century engraving combining a crossbow with torsion action. It looks good but it's rubbish - the dreaming of an academic with no idea about what makes engines work. The machine clearly has never worked - the torsion mechanism is far too flimsy to do anything.

Unfortunately, the trebuchet operator's Anglais was on a par with my Francais and we were not able to enter into a productive discussion.

Gaming Garage 5/8/2008

Steve (Poros) vs Nick (Alexander)

We tried Alex vs the Indians using Warmaster Ancients. Nick was destroyed in short order, with Alex falling to some medium cavalry (and helped by some chariots), and the phalanx being trampled by Elephants.

We both decided we liked the warmaster system. It was a fun battle that could have gone the other way if Alex had managed to keep his troops in a coherent formation!

Gaming Garage 27/7/2008

Chris (Alexander) vs Nick (Poros), Warhammer Ancient Battles.

We used the same troops as we had for the Fields of Glory game two days before. The Alexandrian cavalry charged on each flank, taking out the Indian chariots and the Indian Elephants! Things looked bleak, especially as one elephant stampeded into the Indian infantry. Alexander moved in to finish off the poor unit of infantry, which routed. The stampeding elephant then moved into the companions, and sent Alexander routing off the field. Meanwhile the phalanx got to Poros, and left him dead on the battlefield. But with elephants stampeding in all directions, and both C in C's out of action, at this point it was impossible for anyone to do anything. Both armies were in chaos due to the elephants. So it was declared a bloody draw.

Picture is a stampeding elephant hitting the argyraspids from the flank, while a general looks on ineffectually.

Gaming Garage 25/07/2008

Field of Glory, Indians (Carl) vs Macedoneans (Nick), with Craig assisting.

Another trial of these rules. Deployment was slow and complex. Which is generally a good description of the rules in general. But this author enjoyed them as they had minimal record keeping, and once the rules were explained they seemed to flow.

The macedoneans had the terrain advantage, having a superior general. Their aim was to deploy hills everywhere, and find a nice protected defile they could march the pikemen through. This plan failed. They did however get a hill on the Indians left that restricted the Indian deployment. The Macedoneans then had the deployment advantage, and tried to deploy the Macedonean companians last and pick their attack. However, due to terrain, the Macedonean cavalry had to deploy in front of the Indian chariots, cavalry, and some archers -- the worst possible position.

The Macedonean plan was to use the pikes as an anvil to the companions being the hammer. But it worked the other way, with the pikemen going through the Indians like a knife through butter, while the companions were in a desperate fight for survival. Eventually the companions defeated their opposition -- largely through having Alexander lead them. But by that time the Indian right had dissapeared under the boots of the advancing phalanx.

Picture is Carl completing the deployment of the Indians.

Fort Carre Antibes

Fort Carre protected the port of Antibes when it was on the French border.

The town once had a wall all round as well, but only the sea wall & the fort remain.

It's a cute little fort. The photos of the model & the plan show the layout better than the actual pics.

Vist to Carcassonne

Carcassonnne is in SW France near the Spanish border. In the mid 19th century it's degredation as a stone quarry for teh new town below was stopped & a restoration program started that took 50 years.

The fortifications were started by the Romans & added to over many years up to about 1500.

The restoration has tried to restore the 14th century version. Some of the work is historically suss - in particular the conical roofs are typical of northern France, not the south -but the overall result is magnificent. In the long distance pic it literally looks unreal, but that's exactly how it looks.