The Wind and the Lion Game

 The 1975 film The Wind and the Lion is very popular among my wargaming friends, so I thought I would host a game based on the final battle. I used Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles rules. The game started with 63 mounted Berbers charging the fortified village. In the film, set in 1903, the Moroccan Bashir is supported by Germans in spiked helmets. They are holding the Raisuli, a Berber brigand, played by Sean Connery, prisoner. Just to complicate things, a detachment of US Marines, along with Mrs. Pedecaris, who had been the prisoner of the Raisuli but is now in love with him, have freed the Raisuli and are fighting the Bashir's bodyguard and the Germans. It's all complete nonsense, historically. 

Two of the four players had never seen the film, but, without coaching, the game developed a narrative that was close to that of the film. In the end, The Berber horsemen, loyal to the Raisuli were able to triumph over the Germans and the Bashir's bodyguard.

Boxer Rebellion Train Game

 June must be wargame season! I drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles in order to spend the weekend with a good friend whose family was out of town. So, along with another friend, we played three games in two days and watched The Longest Day on DVD. We called our mini-convention Bachelor Wars 2024. My game was a 54mm Boxer Rebellion game from the Colonial Campaigns Boxer Rebellion scenario book by Mark Fastoso called Skirmish on the Rails. In the scenario, Admiral Seymour's relief force is stalled by broken rails in the track ahead. The Royal Marines must provide an escort to the repair party while the rest of the Royal Navy force stays behind to guard the train. Meanwhile the countryside is alive with Boxers who want to wipe out the repair party and possibly damage the train. We used The Sword and the Flame rules. The Boxers presented quite a threat, but the Boxer player was unable to roll to close to combat several times and so the Europeans were successful in their mission. With a different set of rules, it might have been a very different outcome!

Fictive 1813 Napoleonic battle

A French-allied force facing a Russo-Prussian force, to defend a strategic crossroad.

Steven as Prussian, Peter as Russian, Dirk with the French allies Bavarian-Württenberger force supported by french artillery and hussars, and Adrien with the French force.

Prussian and Russian forces were larger than the definding French. The French left were all veterans.

Peter attacked with his 3 regiments of dragoons while his infantry progressed towards the village and crossroad. The charge swept away a battery and 2 Bavarian infantry batalions, receiving themselves heavy losses. The French-allied right was already in big trouble from the start. Steven did, a more cautius advance as his hussars faced veterans French dragoons, but Adrian remaind on his positions.

On the far left, the third Russian dragoon unit attacked the Württenvberger jägers which turned out to be a fiasco. The unit was all but destroyed.

The clash between French Dragoons and Prussian hussars resulted in the dragoons retreating af table. 

Adrien went ofrward with his infantry near the village and was able to push bach the Prussians, but had now the problem of the hussars in his back. Moreover The Prussians were also able to drive of table  the veteran Polish troops on the extreme left. 

The French hussars on the right destroyed in their turn the remaining Russian dragoon unit. Suddenly, a whole new situation was created.  The W¨rttenberger jäger skirmish units could now deploy as skirmishes harrasing the Russian attack columns, that also had suffered heavely from the the remaining French battery.

The remaining Russian drgoons were finished off giving free hand to the French hussars that started to turn the Russian flank. The Russians had been able to eliminate the remaining batery facing them, but were by now forced to take defensive positions!

The Prussians had almost taken the village but had to fall back some distance.  And the Russian were by now desperate to keep their line, while being cut to pieces but the Württenberg-Bavarian musketry.

But for the French force of Adrian, to few troops remained on table.

With yet another batalions destroyed, his command was broken.  The Russians being saved by the bell.

It is a common mistake made by novice wargamers to start the battle with cavalry charges, while it is better to keep them in reserve to exploit weeknesses of the enemy, later i nthe battle. 

 

Knights and Bowmen - April 21th 2024

Some of our team members wanted to start making a new rule for battles with knights.

Steve had some basic "hit and save" rules. Steven brought the Britains bowmen and all other figures are from my childhood, being al arround 50 years old.

As most rule making is trail and error, the first games were done very quickly. 

Some suggestions of players were straight from our About Caesar rule, which is not the intention when making something new. So still much rewriting to do.

 

 

WWII Naval Wargame - played on 24/03/2024

Our friend Patrick has some WWII ship models and asked to test a simple rule from an old wargame rule book. Steven and me joined the game.

First game saw me and Steven each with an American battle ship escorted by 2 destroyers facing the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen

Both allied battleships started to target the Bismarck which concentrated it's fire first on the destoyers.

A mistake. The damage its sustained mounted rapidly, while the Prinz Eugen's range dropped short.

Torpedos from the destoyers finished of the Bismarck while the battleships took care of the Prinz Eugen. Clear German defeat.

The second game : The Ark Royal carrier, escorted by 2 destroyers,  had to cross the table , receiving from the other side of the table reinforcements of an American battleship, also escorted by 2 destroyers.

Again, the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen on the other side, while this time reinfored by 2 destoyers

This time as we had reorientated the wargame plates which reduced the distance between the enemy forces. This resulted with the destroyers rapidly wothin range to lauch their torpedos.  The damage that a torpedo inflicted was (to) heavy, and with the launch of 4 torpedos in close range, 3 hits resulted in the immidiate sinking of the Bismarck, which had hit the Ark Royal very hard, but was still afload. At the same time, a allied destroyer and a German one also were iliminated . 

The next the remaining german destroyer did put a torpedo into the Ark Royal, starting to sink. While with another allied destoyer put out of action, the remainder of the German fleet was destroyed. Another alllied victory, but a minor one with the goal of keeping the Ark Royal save, having failed.