ACW 15mm

Jim's Union (newly minted 3-D printed) v. Chris' CSA (old minifigs) in an encounter battle.
Both sides had 2 infantry divisions of 2 brigades of 6 regiments, 1 cavalry brigade of 4 regiments 2 rifled cannon & 2 Napoleons.  Deployment was by BAdice from a bag.

The Union are on the far side of the table.  Boths sides have theric avalry brigade on the road towards the village (on opposite sides of it).

The Union are making a general advance.  Boths sides have dismounted their cavalry in to near the village.

On the far flank the Union Division has stopped advancing & is extending its front towards the centre in support of the Union artillery.  In the centre CSA skirmishers have enagaed the advancing Union.

The Unjion charge up the ridge had mixed result.  The RH brigade was broken immediately while the LH brigade is doing alright.  In the village the dismounted CSA cavalry are attacking the dismounted Union cavalry.

The CSA division on the far flank has now got Attack orders & has advanced.
On teh centre ridge, the RH Union brigade's second line is holding on wheil teh LH brigade has broken their opponents front line & is following up. In the village the CSA cavalry is doing well, breaking half their opponents.

The Union Division on the ridge has been supported by a fresh brigade from the left flank division & getting well on top.  The CSA attack on the left has still not hit home.  The surving Union cavalty have holed up in buildings.  

The CSA arrack on the left has finally gone in, but the front line has been broken & the 2nd line is now being pounded from muskets in front & cannon from the flank & is about to break.  The CSA Division on the ridge has now broken.  It's game over for the Confederacy.

 

 

ACW 15mm:

Union:  Jim, Mitch & SteveJ.
CSA:  Mark, Mike & Chris.
Each side had one corps, each of 2 infantry divisions of 2 brigades, a cavalry brigade & 4 guns.
Rules: M2M house rules with moves & ranges reduced to 2/3 for the 15mm figs.
There were 3 objectives: 2 bridges & the railway station.

The Union are on the right or near side.  Both sides have their cavalry on the far side of the river.

Both sides have advanced & seized a bridge.  The Union skirmishers got to the railway station first.

There is an ongoing exchange of fire along the line as the Confederates prepare for an attack on the railway station.

The confederates took the station, but a Union counterattack took it back.  The union also got on top of the fire fight on the near flank & the Confederate right flank brigade has broken.
On the other side of the village the Union was driven back, but counterattacked & regained lost ground.  The Union also won the cavalry fight (mostly fought dismounted) on the far flank.

A deadly volley of Confedate musketry broke the Union line in the fenced field on the far side of the village, but it was too little too late & the Confederates conceded the battle & have begun to withdraw.

3-D printed reinforcements

The resurection of our old 15mm figures was limited by the fact that as 70's vintage figures are out of scale with modern 15mms (which are actually 18+mm).   My discovery of wargaming3D.com has solved our dilemma.   The site has a huge range of 3-D files for miniatures of all periods & scales, available for download at reasonable cost.  A file with ACW infantry with several varieties of equipment costs U$6.  So a kepi file & a hat file provides all the infantry reinforcements we need. 

The quality of the figures produced by my low cost Ender plastic printer is as good as the old minifigs, plenty good enough for wargames figs.  The only issue is that when you print a strip of figures you get fine strings of plastic between them as the printer does the figs 1 layer at a time.  But this is easily snipped off - no more trouble than flash on old metals or easier than assembling plastics off a spru.  The scale creep issue is easily dealt with by scaling to 90%.

Chris & I turned Camp Cromwell into Harpers Ferry this afternoon as the 3-D printer whirred away making new troops while we worked on re-organising his old 15mms. 

New figures on the right (mostly still unpainted) with old minfigs on the left.

A strip of infantry as they came off the printer.  The file provides individual figs which I have assembled with a base using Tinkercad.  Printing individual figs gives better quality with no hair, but is much slower as you have to remove the previous figure & restart, then the machine takes time to re-heat before starting again. 

There also many files good for topping other periods.  On the right, bought 28mm Napoleonic Austrian gun, on the left a 3D model with so far only one crew printed.  (For less numerous items, printing one fig at a time isn't a problem).

A strip of 28mm Punic infantry next to a Warlords phalangite.  The spears are a bit thick, that makes them robust.  (You could replace them with wire).

Rome v. Pontic Kingdom at Black Hills

Rome: Chris & PeterC
Mithradites' Pontic Kingdom: Jim

Deployment was a command group at time as dice drawn from bag BA style.  The Romans are on the far side.  The Ponts are outnumbered, but have more & better cavalry.  The Romans got most of the early dice out of the bag allowing Mithradites dictate the deployment. he chose to concentrate his cavalry on the right opposite the weaker Roman horse.

The Romans advanced in echelon leading with their tight.  Mithradites also advanced immediately, but holding his left back.  First contact was Pontic Heavy cavalry v. Roman foot in the centre.

The Pontic cavalry charge against the legionaries was blessed with hot dice & smashed hole thru the Roman centre.  Their second line then wheeled left to flank the adjacent infantry. On the right the rest of the cavalry have made contact.  On the left the Romans have charged home against one phalanxe, but not yet reached the other one.

On the left the end phalanx has been broken, but in the centre nthe Romans pinned in front by the phalanx & attacked in rear by cavalry ahs been destroyed. On the right the Roman cavaly is only just holding on.

The victorious Romans on the far flank have turne to move to assist their comreades, but its too late.

An fine example of a good plan backed with hot dice being irressistable.  

 

Pike & shot 28mm

Swedes: Mike, Mitch & Jim
Empire: Steve, Chris & Mark
Umpire: Mark.  Rules M2M house rules.

The sedes onthe left put all their cavalry on their left.  The Empire who had superior numbers of cavalry put some on each flank.

Change of camera angle to behind Swede's left.  At first the Swedish cavalry advanced.  This promted the Empire to start beinging their left flank cavalry accross their rear to reinforce their left.  The Swedish cavalry then fell aback to theri original position on the ridge.  Onthe far flamk the Swedes are advancing.

Having consilidated their horse the Empire has advanced on the Swedish cavalry & charged the muskteers on their right.  On the far flank the Swedes were getting the best fo a mucktry duel, so the Empire attacked but only one tercio got the message.  In the centre both sides are happy with an artillery duel.

The Empire ahve charged up the ridge at the Swedish horse.  So far the fight is indecisive.  The cavalry attack on teh muskters was broken by the veteran foot throwing hot dice.  On thje far flank the 2nd yercio has charged, but too late, their comrades they failed to support have already been broken.

On the far flank the 2nd tercio has broken.  In the cavaly fight the Swedish horse has had some losses, but is getting on top.  

With their left shattered, their centre outflanked, & the cavalry about to break, the Empire concedes defeat.  The Empire erred in falling for the Swedes's feigned cavalry attack.  Their cavalry on the right had a ridge to defend & had musketeers support & were not really in danger whereas their cavalry could have made things very tough for the Swdish foot had they satayed on the left flank.  
  

Vale Mitzi

Mitzi had her last trip to the vet this morning after a brave fight against kidney failure.

The Falklands 1914

After the Coronel the RN sent two battlecruisers & some more armoured cruisers to deal with vonSpee.  Spee nearly caught the Brits re-coaling at Port Stanley but was a day late.  The Invincible & Inflexible were faster than the Scharnhorst & Gniesnau & set off in pursuit.  von Spee's ships could deal with British armoured cruisers, but the battlecruisers are class above.  The German light cruisers escaped, but the Scharnhorst & Gneisnau were no match for the 12" guns of the battelcruisers.

The LC Glasgow leads the BCs in pursuit of the Germans as their CAs drop behind.

When the first 12" shells start falling near them the Germans turn to try to get their 8" guns into range so they could try to fight back.

The Invincible & Indominable turn to Starboard to bring their broadsides to bear as the Germans close the range to shoot back.  The Glasgow has turned back to join the CAs.  The German LCs are steaming past the CAs flank.

The British BCs have turned again inside the Germans allowing their T to be crossed confident that the Germans mere 8" guns won't hurt them too badly.  The German LCs have got ahead of the CAs to draw the fire of the British CAs.

The bow guns of the Invincible are enough to shatter the Gneisnau.  The British CAs have turned to starboard to bring their broadsides to bear.

As the British BCs pass the sinking Gniesnau the Schanhorst cops the fire of the whole feet & soon joins her sister on the way to bottom of the Atlantic.  The German light crisers crank up to maxium speed, lay smoke & go to Rio.  

This wasn't much of a contest, but a good test of our new house rules, with the historical result seeming pretty inevitable.  The Germans had to get very lucky early to have chance against a stacked deck & they didn't. 



 

The Coronel 1914

 In 1914 the German Far East squadron abanded their base in China before the Japanese (who were on the Allies side that war) could crush them. The Emden went raiding in the Indian ocean, the rest of the fleet, commanded by Adniral von Spee. crossed the Pacific & on the 1st of November was intercepted by a Royal Navy force commanded bu Admiral Cradock 

The German had 2 armoured cruisers, Gniesnau & Scharnhorst, & 3 light cruisers, Dresden, Nurnberg & Leizig.  The British has 2 armoured cruisers, Monmouth & Good Hope, an armed liner, Otrano, a light cruiser, Glasgow and an obsolete battleship, Canopus.  When the Germasn were sighted late in the day, the Canopus which was not only old, but in great need of an engine overhaul, had dropped back behind the faster cruisers.  Imbued with Nelson spirit, Cradock did not wait for the Canopus & charged into action. Von Spee completely out-manouvred him & both British armoured cruisers were sunk whle the Germans suffered little damage.

The Germans are at far end of the table.  The forward LCs have sighted the enemy.  The Germans are steaming on, but our British Admiral isn't a Cradock.  The Monmouth is doing about face leading his cruisers back to consolidate his fleet.

The Brits are doing a second U turn to get the Canopus to the head of their column.

The Britsh have competed their manouvres to put Canopus at the head of their fleet.  The Germans have turned their CAs to starboard to try & cross the British T with the Leipzig & Dresden on their left flank.

The Glasgow & Oranto turned again to starboard to engage the Liepzig & Dresden.  Leipzig was hit hard by the 9" guns of Good Hope & turned away leaving Dresden facing Glasgow & Oranto alone.  Next turn she too had to turn away.
A brief rudder problem sent the Scharhorst to port & robbed the Germans of any chance of cross the British T & the main fleets passed each other at close range trading blows. The Monmouth blew up & sunk under a hail of 8: shells, but while the Canopus was obsolete ,she packed 4 12" guns & had plenty of armour to resist the largest German guns (8"), so the Germans were also being hit hard.

The Gniesnau is now sinking & Canopus turns to bring her guns to bear on Scharnhorst.

The Scharnhorst is following her sister to the bottom.

The 3 german light cruisers made their gettaway into the night, all with heavy damage.  The Brits can claim victory losing 1 CA to the German's 2.  Our more sensible Godard cannot celebrate his victory as he had gone down with the Monmouth, but the Brits can afford to lose her, they clearly have gained command of the Eastern Pacific.

Our von Spee was out-manouvred, but the game demonstrated very clearly that Godard was foolhardy to attack without Canopus.  Old & slow as she was, she was still a battleship & a tough nut for armoured cruisers.  The Germans should have tried to use their speed to stay away from Canopus & concentrate on the British cruisers.

The ships for the game are 3D printed at 1:1500 scale.   The rules are our Cruiser house rules for small naval actions in the battleship era. They are a modification our Dreadnought rules.  The Dreadnought rules are designed for large fleet actions with cruisers & destroyers treated ina simplified way as ther battleships are the main game.  These rules are for smaller actions with cruisers & destroyers the main game. 

Mech War in Europe

Germans: Mark & Chris
US: Mike, SteveJ & Mitch
2 mechanised forces in an encounter battle using house rules.

The Germans are on the left.

On the far flank Shermans & Sturts are facing Stugs & Pak 40s.  In te cntre MkIVs have deploued o the cntal ridge supported by 2 Tigers. They are being engaged by Shermans behind the village & M10s on the near flank. 

On the far flank the Stugs & Paks have got the upper hand.  In the centre both sides have had losses, but as yet no decisive outcome. Both sides infantry have stayed out of the action leaving the fight to the armour.

In the center the MkIVs have takena pounding, but the Stugs on the far flank have moved towards the centre & the Tigers have moved up on their right.  The Tigers took out all but one of the M10s before the last M10 took out the Tigers with some seriously hot shooting.  But it was too little too late as the Stugs & MkIVs took out the Shermans in the centre & the US failed army morale.  

Mech War in the desert: Brits v. Italians

 Jim's Italians v. Chris' Brits. House rules.  Encounter battle.  Deployement BA style. 

The Italians are on the near side.

Both sides are sending most of their infantry into the oasis & have most of their tanks on the far flank.

On the near flank 4 Italian light tanks are doing well against 4 Crusaders.  On the far flank the Brits have advanced & the Italians have advanced over the ridge to take them on.  In the centre the bugs were doing serious damage to the Bersegliari until the Italian artlery landed on them with a bunch of good dice.

On both flanks the Italian armour have had good runs of luck & destroyed the British armour.

With their armour gone & plenty of Carri left, the British position is hopeless.  A bif win for the Italians.