Deutsch-OstAfrika - porters & Ruga-Ruga

An important component of the German forces in East Afrika were the porters, who kept the forces supplied, and the local irregulars or Ruga-Ruga. Both are usefully contained in the Hat set and they will both see more action than just in East Afrika.

Deutsch-Ostafrika - Feldkompagnien

Off to a good start with my Schutztruppe. I have created two Feldkompagnien using the Hat Askaris and the MGs from the Schutztruppe box.

I decided to keep the uniforms reasonably consistent as they might have appeared at the start of WW1

They will replace my old but rebased figures (link)

Gauntlet - Gettysburg day 3 and other games

A dry day after the torrential rain returning home yesterday. Rather than continuing the Korsun game, we switched to ACW after I was tempted by Steve's 10mm Gordon and Hague figures. he had a lot and looking through the new Black Powder "Glory Hallelujah" I picked the Gettysburg day 3 scenario as something suited to an all day game. Typically we had to make compromises with the number of figures per regiment to fit in with Steve's army, but we had enough figures, just! I took the roll of umpire, trying to remember all the well reasoned differences in the rules. in hindsight there were a number I missed, so perhaps we should have tried a smaller scenario first. However all six players had a great game. Despite the small scale we used 66% scaling for the game so the action moved quite quickly.

General Hancock (Jamie) surveys the neat Union line as Pickets Division heads for the Union left (note the authentic beard, but the hair length might be more suitable for JEB Stuart...)


After a couple of turns the Confederates surge onwards, but not as quick as they would have liked.


Gary S (playing Trimbles Division) ponders changing his command dice.


While Gary H (Union left flank) contemplates the advancing Rebels


The Union right comes under pressure


At long last Trimble (Confederate Gary) troop get into action and begin to roll up the Union right flank.


Unfortunately by this time the Confederate right under Pettigrew had been defeated and as people had to depart It was declared a very historical draw. Generally the ACW amendments worked well (when I remembered them) but the were a number of flaws in the scenario such as failing to define the objective and "point Z", which highlight poor proof reading of the book. I'll try and write a review once I have fully read it and played at least one other scenario. Thanks to Jamie, Richard, Gary x2, Andy and especially Steve (who provided the terrain and figures) for their participation.

Some other games at Gauntlet

Craig Cartmell demo'ing "Daisho"


and his other new game "Blood Eagle"


A big fantasy game Kings of War?




Dark ages game by Steve Oates (The Baggage Train)


One of the Flames of War competition boards for the desert


and for winter! Independently Pete D, picked the same trees as me


A big Team Yankee game on day 2




of course there were boardgames and other games such as X-wing, Frostgrave, etc. and the traditional WRG 6th edition contest. It seems everyone had a great weekend of relaxed gaming in ta friendly environment. Roll on Gauntlet 2017.

Gauntlet Day 1 - Korsun pocket 1944

Had a great days gaming at Gauntlet as three German platoons battled their way up the table to safety. The terrain is all mine and the figures are from various participants.

Table at the start, viewed from the east, the Germans have to cross from the closest edge (NE) to the far end (SW) across both tables and more to escape


German jumping off points are on the bottom (NE) edge marked by entrenchments


The SW table end. Theoretically there was another 12 foot to cross before the river!


And we are off, a boat is discovered in the wood (middle left side), but we need a vehicle to shift it! Luckily I discover a horse drawn wagon in the village


I successfully collect the boat and head off after the other platoons. (I don't want to be left behind)


Russians mass to block our path, Gary (Russian) got in the way of my lucky four phase move and suffered enormously, but it cleared our way out, Phew!.


Simon (German)on the left cautiously advances using the thickets for cover


Gary's Russians rout, but are replaced by another Platoon, supported by a T26. But Andy's (German right) Panzerschreck deals with it on the second attempt.


While I attempt to deal with Russian Ski Troops that arrived in our rear, Simon (German) deals with John's (Russian) troops that are blocking the way.


Overall TFL Chain of Command worked very well for the scenario, and doing the right thing, such as creating a crossfire zone pays off, just a pity for Gary that my die rolling was working well at that time as well. We decided that rather than continue the game on day two we would try something different tomorrow.

More pictures and commentary have been posted on Andy's blog (link)

yet more pictures and commentary on Richard P's blog (link)

On the workbench - July 2016

Gauntlet tomorrow and Sunday, then a big tidy up ready for starting the second half of the year as I've been debating various painting and modelling options since I returned from a week off visiting family and there was still mess from all the terrain modelling to sort out.

On the painting desk it's quite a simple month, it's back to German East Africa in WW1 to paint some new Feld-Kompanies, Schutztruppe, Ruga-Ruga and Porters all from Hat. There were quite a few memorable game with my old figures back in St Albans about 30 years ago, so I'm looking forward to refighting some of those actions again.

Half year progress report

A half year has flown by and it's time to review my progress against my plans. Overall I've made good progress with 917 items completed.

Painting/Modelling (all moderate sized projects)

• Terrain - only a few bits needed like new hedges are needed, but I'm tempted to produce some proper winter terrain to go with my figures - still not worked on the hedges, but the winter terrain has been a major effort. The winter hedges have confirmed the approach I'm going to use for my "summer" ones.
• Saracen cavalry and a few more archers (cf 2015) - completed
• Crusader cavalry (cf 2015) - completed
• HYW/WOTR English add some cavalry and a few more infantry (cf 2015) - completed
• Five Ancient German Warbands (18 strong) (cf 2015) - not yet started
• Some Assorted Ancient Light Troops to fill in various gaps in my armies (cf 2015) - not yet started
• Russian Partisans (cf 2015) - completed
• Upgrade my WW1 East African Germans with the new HaT figures (cf 2015) - really must do this! - These have just landed on the painting table
• Some extra Russians and Romanians for my WW2 winter games - completed
• More woodland Indians so I can fight more French & Indian War games - not yet started
• Plus a number of bits to fill in gaps in existing armies

Gaming

• It looks like I won't need to produce anything for this years big game and my Lentini terrain will get another outing
- Have replayed Lentini at Bristol, unfortunately the big game was cancelled and I replayed a bigger version of Stalingrad instead.
• One of the days at Gauntlet will be a Korsun pocket game, so I may need some terrain for this.
- Gauntlet is just about to happen and this has been a major focus for the last couple of months
• I'll also try and organise a big SYW game for one of the Deeside Defenders gaming weekends
- still to do, I'm wavering between rule sets - Honours of War, Black Powder or upgrading my own set.

Breakdown of painting/modelling completed
Well I've achieved 917 items so far, which is a reasonably total for half way through the year, broken down as follows

Medieval	419
Terrain	230
WW2	203
WW1	52
SYW	12
Revolution	1

Finally Stash reduction?
Down from 7,420 to 7,061, so moving in the right direction, although investing in the Plastic Soldier Kickstarter may push me a bit off track. If I can sell some stuff at Gauntlet it would help.

Last of the winter terrain - streams

Completed the reworking of the old Bellona(?) streams that Bob gave me at Phalanx. Hopefully I now have enough terrain for the Korsun pocket game at Gauntlet this weekend.

I still have plans to make some snow filled balkas and bridges.