Kriegsspiel as it formed

A great video all about the formation of this grand hobby:

Mystery Inc. for PULP Action

Just finished a chess set for market and at the same time did up these fun little leagues for Pulp Action games:

Mystery Inc. ready for action!

Dr Shaggy and SK008Y

the league

more details about the Mystery Machine ...

Then I also did up some opponents ...

A few opponents for Mystery Inc.

No names or other details set yet ...

SHAKO game coming this Sunday at The War Dungeon, looking forward to getting the Napoleonic troops out on the table!

Garden Wars ECW Royal Parade Day

It was time to deal with the lawn and get it into shape for some sort of Garden Wars action.

It was also time to get some photos of the Royalist Army as I have it so far, there are still four squadrons of horse to finish for the Oxford army.

This is a posting all about eye candy and the Royalist ECW forces I have ready to take action.

How soon they take to the field will depend on how soon I can find opposition commander.

the whole force laid out with 4 yardsticks showing battle frontage

here two yardsticks are set against the forward one to show the depth of the formation of troops

I laid the troops out in there general arrival areas, with the Cornish brigade to the right wing alone, Oxford brigade facing south of the town, with the King in the town and the Welsh brigade to the north of the town.

Lacey Horse to the far right wing

Horse and other commands in Welsh contingent 'uniforms'

the Welsh army command stand, as usual all of my minis are on fender washers and so could easily be changed to smaller command stands or singles.

all the flags are about 2x as big as they would have been historically - done intentionally to make them more visible on the tabletop - or like here my backyard

the Royal Standard does stand out here

Welsh Dragons abound in the banners of the Welsh brigade

again another brigade commander who could also do army command

as with any photo shoot, sometimes a good picture appears out of nowhere

when the sun comes out thru the tree branches

or a quick shot done, without really caring how good it was at the time

The eye candy will round this posting out:

re-set Rupert in front of the Welsh petronels

The King with his lifeguard demi-lancers

wider shot of same, looking good with all the green

the royalists command all assembled

a moment in the sun for the yellow uniformed petronels

a final great shot of the Welsh force just being touched by the sunlight

Now to get finished with the current chess set, Pulp league(s) and then on to the Royalist horse to finish fully this stage of the ECW collection.

Why 'this stage'?  I have come to the conclusion that there must be some Scottish forces, or even a small Irish contingent, in order to properly game out the latter stages of the first English Civil War.

Fire & Fury Brigade in 15mm & THE WAR DUNGEON

On the road this time with Rob of Codsticker Historicals,

We traveled south of Nanaimo to THE WAR DUNGEON a creation of our host McLean, with family memorabilia included in the WWII section which also had WWI and Korea zones along with a supporting 'general' area with the television & sound system and the storage of his own miniatures collections.

McLean had done some re-arranging to have the 6'x7' table ready to go for the coming game.

My command was to be that of Longstreet at the Gaines Mill battle of June 1862, before Richmond, the high point of the Peninsula Campaign.

Part of Nate's collection, I commanded Longstreet's Division for this battle

The strategic situation, from Fortress Monroe to Richmond, our battle location in orange circle.  Map from Columbia Games Bobby Lee

Our game table location had a wonderful 'sample' trench leading into The War Dungeon as he calls it.

Then once 'inside' you see a WWI section:

Then into the WWII section, where the displays had been re-arranged to allow the 6'x7' table to be set up.

The RCAF uniform belonged to McLean's grandfather a bomber pilot, who painted silver bombs on the back of his flight jacket.

Finally going further into the rooms was the Korean part of the exhibit.

The circling back there was the media room with television, sound and a seating space along with the owners miniatures collection for games.

an avid re-enactor for a number of years McLean still has his kit

WWII German and Russian forces, then some 40K below

So there was plenty of military inspiration surrounding us so none could help but be distracted during lull times on the battlefield.

view from behind the union lines, the Boatswain Swamp flowing out to the lower left of this image, had a 'fortified position' at the edge of the hill and swamp that was the critical location of the Union position

further to the union right at start, mostly empty ground as the forces were going to arrive to fight on this ground

Hill was forced to attack on the first move of the game

the swamp defenses were just too much to overcome without a good artillery pounding to soften them up, Hill was repulsed

arriving confederates

a young history enthusiast was great to have at the table for the game, he certainly had an excellent macro camera for capturing the details on the 15mm miniatures

about an hour later, Hill was pushed back and many of the union forces were pouring in from the center right, seen here at the bottom right to the center of the photo

McLean had painted a brigade and they were now on the table for the first time, lower center of the image

later still, now my command, Longstreet, had begun to arrive and the clash of arms had begun in earnest on the union right

Longstreet formed up a gun line to pound the Union reserves in behind the works

center of the field, dominated by the Boatswain Creek/swamp/woods and two bridges - and you can see more of the collection behind the tables here

18h00 the BIG TURN as the entire confederate line advanced as one to slam into the union lines in all areas

close combat was initiated everywhere all at once!

the confederates on the union right had been pushing back forces since 17h00

confederates had crossed the creek in the woods and now ran directly into union Zouaves guarding the bridge

formed up Longstreet and Hill were to go in together

into the union works at the swamp's edge

creating one massive close quarters combat zone

the union had pushed out one more force to 'hopefully' repulse the veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia

the combat spectacle of the attack was good

battle progressed across the whole line

many great photo moments presented themselves

including some with terrain adding to the effects

 

a lone detachment of union cavalry performed a suicide charge ...

fired upon from front and flank the unit disintegrated before reaching the confederate forces (outlined in grey here)

 

now after 18h30, here the swamp lines had been breached in two places and ANV Veterans were pushing union forces off the hill

here seen are the veterans of ANV having cleared the work at the south end and now moved up the slope to shove union brigades out and away from the creek

clearer picture of same zone as above

final positions as of 17h30 as the twilight descended over the field, with confederate forces occupying the critical works and more confederates nearly reaching the only line of withdrawal for the union the victory for the confederacy was declared and all players shook hands

north wing

Hill's troops falled back

wider view from the south hill where Longstreet and Hill attack started

union lines hemmed in on two sides

a mass of union troops all worn and huddled together for mutual support

a union vedette that had side-stepped to escape confederate batteries enfilade fire

the far north woods

across the confederate lines looking south

the only union brigade still near the Boatswain creek, held a corner of the works and the bridge till dusk and the general retreat orders were sent

Overall we re-created history driven by the terrain that Rob had built based on a number of accounts and a topographical map of the area.

The attack of Longstreet went in 1 hour earlier than it did historically, yet due to the rules constraints I saw no way to 'take the works' in just one 1/2 hour 'turn'.  It needed at least two or better four (which it turned out we had as I did not fully understand the details of 'dusk' turn).

Excellent day, McLean has a really cool "War Dungeon" that could support many different games.

I suspect we will be returning again soon.