Battale of Boldon Hill 1644

This can only be a vaugly historicval scenario as little detail of the acfual battle was recorded & survived.

The English (Mike, Mark & SteveJ) start deployed on the plateau with 8 cav (2 heavy), 4 pike & shot & 2 musketeer units.
The Scots (Jim & Chris) start deployed on the river flat with 6 cav, 5 pike & shot & 3 musjketeer unkits & 3 guns.
The objective is to control the road junction & the road off to the left in the pic.

Both sides sent their cavalry onto the plain on the left.  Tye Scots supported their cav with a pike & shot unit & their artillery.
In the centre the Scots took the house then lost in a counterattack.  But the Scots won the fight in the field to the left of the house & on theright of it the English fell abck up, the hill in the face of superior  munbers.  This left the unit in the house isolated & it fell back.

The English cavalry forced the Scots P&S on the hill to from hedgegog & musket fire accross the stream decimnated it.  But the distraction of the P&S support gave the Scots cavalry near parity in the cavalry fight & with good dice they held theri own.
The Scots  on the left of the house retired back over the creek as their victory was phyrric. 
On the right, the Scots infnatry swarmwed up the hill with supreior numbers & routed the English left.

At this stage the English still held control of the road to the left, but had lost more than half their force.  So both sides were happy to call off the fight & claim victory.

Bolt Action 1250 pts on big table

Objective: The railway station.

Sides:
Jim set up the scenario, Chris could choose his side & whether to attack or defend.
Chris took the Brits & defending.

Terrain: 
Orchards: Visibility 6", no run, move & fire 6". Wheeled 6", tracked no run.
Woods: Visibility 3". No run, max move 3" (may fire).  No wheeled, tracked move as infantry.
Low scrub on river bank: Soft cover, can be seen over. Only fully tracked vehicles & then 1 turn to cross.
High hedges beside roads: Soft cover, block line of sight unless in high vehicle (then obscure), or on hill. Only fully tracked vehicles & then 1 turn to push through.
Corn fields:  No run unless fully tracked. Stationary infantry are concealed.
Bugs count as half tracks for terrain effects.

Deployment:
Defenders nominate their side of the table & deploy first, with up to half their force within 24" of the railway station. Defenders can start dug in.
Attackers then deploy all their force no closer than 24" from any defenders, & not directly behind them. 
Remaining defenders come on as Reserves from their table edge from turn 3.

Rules: BA v3 with some CC house rules.

Pic from German side after deployment.

The Brits deployed in cover which allowed the Germans to start dangerously close to the objective & they also failed to garison the railway station itself (presumably afraid of it being hit by the Germans heavy mortar).  The Germans seized the chance & got the early command dice that allowed them to occupy the railway station.

The Brits counterattacked & re-took the station, but the Germans had brought up supports & took it back.  In the mean time the rest of the forces exchanged fire with the Germans doing best as they were more spread out & able to bring more barrels to bear.  The Brits second error was to bring their reserves in behind the initial deployment so their deployment was compromised by lack of space.  Arguably they woudl have been better served by attacking the Germans right flank to support the counterattack on the station.

Bolt Action 2500 pts

Chris & Mike: 2500 pts Soviets divided between them.
Steve & Mark: Each ahd a 1250 pt German force.
10'x 6' table. BA v3 rules with a few house tweeks.

The Soviets are on the near long side side of the table.

Most of the action was with iin the centre of the table where the infnatry fought for the village.
On then far flank the German panzers lurked behind their ridge for most the battle as the Sobiets cuatiously advanced.

Even after the panzers came out from cover, the armour battle was indecisive with both sides either missing their shots or failing to penatrate.
In the centre the Soviets got as far as taking the railway station, but the Germans drove them back with significant losses. 
The butcher's bill favoured the Germans, losing 3 units to 6. 

Palmyra v. Rome

A chance to blood my newly 3D printed camel troops in the service of Zenobia.
Palmyra: Chrisd & SteveJ
Rome: Jim & Mike

The Romans are on the near sid eof the table.  They put all their cavalry on their left flank while the Palmyrans split theirs with some on each flank.
The Romans immediately attcked on their left where their superior numbers of cavalry gave them an edge over the Palmyran cataphracts.
On the other flank, both sides stayed on their up-hill position on the large plateaus. 

The Roman medium cavalry swept aeay the smelly camels with hot dice leaving the cataphracts grossly outnumbered. 

The Romans cleared up the enemy right as both sides infantry were mainly spectators on their ridges. 

The Palmyrans formed a defensive position on the edge of their plateau as the Romans began an advance on the angle in the Palmyran line.

The Roamns took their time setting up before attacking the Palmyran right.

The Roamn cavalry charged uphill at infnatry as the legionaries moved up to attack the angle.

The Palmyrans puit up a some stiff resistance defending their ridge line, but the Roman concentration of force on the angle was too much for them.  A Palmyran counter attack on the far flank was too little too late.  

Bolt Action in the desert

British v. Italians: 1250 pts.
Jim set the game up, Chris could chose which side he wanted & took the Brits.

The Italians have about half their force dug in defending the village near the oasis.
The British will deploy overnight on the far side of the table (up to the line of rulers).
At dawn (turn 1) the British can begin their attack.
The Italian reserves can move onto the table from the near edge on turn 2.

The British advance on a broad front converging on  the village with infbatry & armour as their artillery engages from the ridges.
The Italians are rushing infantry forward with armour & artillery supportting from the ridge in their rear. 

The Fucileri in the village held on just long enough for the Parducci & Bersaglieri to arrive & take over the defence.  Bersaliageri on the left ridge suportted the left & the armour & artillery on the right supported their right.

We didn't limit the game to 6 turns because of the big table & went on for about 9.  In the end the Brits ran out of infantry & lost hope of taking the village as well as losing 6 units to 4.

ACW 28mm

Having been on an exhausting bushwalk today I wasn't up to doing much tonight, so the rest of the gang went DIY.  They re-used the terrain from last week, but selected ACW armies each of two similar divisions & swapped the buildings from European 15mm to ACW 28mm.

Union: Chris & Steve.
CSA: Mark & Mike.

Thre was no need for me to do anything as unpire as they all know the rules well.  There was actually less discussion about rules issues than usual. 

Union left flank (Chris) v. CSA right (Mark).

Union right (Steve) v. CSA left (Mike).

The battle was indecisive with low casualties so neither side even close to breaking & objectives were also evenly split.

Bolt Action: 2 x 1250 pts games

Germans: Jim & Steve
Allies: Mike & Chris

The 4 forces strated in the four corners of the table:
Steve's Germans Left foreground.  Jim's Germans right foreground.
Mikes' Brits far left. Chris' Soviets far right.
We used two dice bags, one for the left side of the table & one for the right side, keeping both sides in sych turn by turn.  Most fo the combat was side by side, but cross tabel fire was allowed & was used a bit. 

Steve's Germasn formed a defensive line on the hede.  Mike advanced but the combat on that side of the table never got to close quarters. By the end Mike had lost one unit & Steve none.
On the other side of the table both sides advnce & there was plenty of action in & around the the large wood right of centre.   The Germans got the better of it losing just 1 unit while destroying 7 Soviets units.
 

Byzantium v. Arabs take 3

 didn't get back from a bushwalk in tiem to set up a battle so we recycled last week's armies.
Byzantium: Mark (cavalry), Chris (infantry)
Arab: Jim (infantry), Renfrey (cavalry)

Both sides put all their cavalry on one flank, so it became two battles, inf v. inf & cav v. cav.

The Arabs advanced their infantry whuile the Byzantines advanced their cavalry, so both leading with their strongest arm.

On the right, the Byantine light horse swept away the Arab horse archers, then made way for the cataphracts.
In the infantry fight, both sides' left the left were doing well.

The cataphracts are predicably chewing up the Arab heavy cavalry.
The infantry fight has turnd into a revolving door with the Vargangians & allied inf being broken on the Byz's right while the Arab rigth also broke.

The Aeab infantry have broken more untis than they lost & have the upper hand, but the Aeab cavalry has been destroyed, so the Arabs fail the Aamy Morale Test & the Byzantines lose again.

Maybe given the continued Arab losses the new points system hasn't gone quite far enough, but on the other hand, the Arabs may have got a bad run of the dice tonight.