An exposition of the Hobby of TableTop gaming.
With commentary, notes and other items connected to this hobby.
Saturday, April 23, 2022
End of an era ...Last of the War Dungeon
A great game player and keen historical student (especially the uniforms and personal effects of the 1880's to 1960's (from the Sudan & South Africa through the trenches of WWI and the tanks of WWII and on into Korea and Vietnam)) McLean, has announced a change in venue. Due to this change the War Dungeon, the game space under his home, will be shutting down at its current location in Nanaimo.
This was the set up for a final large game action, featuring his 1880's redcoats and Sudan miniatures and more.
Plenty of Jeff's former collection were featured in this mammoth game!
a view of the table from the south to north the river was 'attached' to the sea via a separate table
The situation was a Turkish walled city was coming under threat from massive forces approaching by land and sea!
some of the land attackers
The British had a chance to arrive before - or at the same time - or after - some of the attacking forces by sea.
Amazingly BOTH of the large British ships arrive BEFORE the mass of the attacking fleet.
the British force included a massive metal hull GUNBOAT
along with an armed merchant ship
The trick for the British forces is that they were limited in number ... the attackers would have an unknown number of waves of attacking forces both from land and sea.
Yours truly and my eldest son were tasked with coming up with some naval rules (to sort of match with the land rules) and handle the ships of both sides.
While other players took on the various attacking and defending columns of troops, our host ended up commanding some of the British forces in a supply column.
the pirate forces come on to engage the British
the supply columns are attacked in force ...
they then recoiled into a walled compound and fortified it
Meanwhile the island forces had seen the telegraph works being destroyed and at dawn witnessed the massed sails of the approaching pirates.
the burning telegraph works
Within a few turns the ships had all locked into combat and many boarding actions had been initiated.
Though two ships of the pirates were already sunk and the leader's vessel had capsized a landing boat full of Ghurkas who then proceeded to board the leader's boat and turn the decks into a red wash as the ship was sinking ...
boarding actions in progress
El-Gandalfi's command, just moments before the Ghurkas swarmed the decks ...
A little video was captured of the table around this point in the game:
Over in the land battle another British column had arrived and engaged forces outside the telegraph office ...
a furious fight at the hill slope to attempt to block the telegraph road access
more field artillery sallies from the walled town in an attempt to blast away the attacking land forces
overview of the land battle burning telegraph office seen in foreground to the right walled town in the distance
Supply column was overcome, while the naval fight continued, with the gunboat prevailing - now having sunk at least 5 sloops of the pirates and the command ship of El-Gandalfi!
gunboat laying waste to many smaller boats with wooden hulls
supply column captured by nomadic horsemen
The grinding attrition continued for a few more turns.
Valiantly, the troops from the island were transferred to the gunboat and a supply officer who fled the column managed to be rescued and attach to the gunboat as it steamed up river ...
the island garrison musters during the start of the day
loading into a launch, with some cavalry
the view of the telegraph fire
furious land battle near the telegraph office
neither side willing to surrender
the tribesmen who captured the telegraph office attempted to grab part of the supply column they were shot down by the gunboat!
view from the land to the sea
can you spot the opening between the two tables?
great view of the field
seeing the fort in the south with the pirates sails beyond
now the great gates to the walled town were to be sealed
Could the British stop the oncoming hordes?
the gun line (seen in the bottom of this image) did not manage to hold back the tide of onrushing Mahidist forces
casualties mounted on the gunboat even with the added redcoats to the marines not all guns could be kept manned
the balloonists view
out towards the telegraph office
the whole of the south of the field was now occupied by the attacking forces
even though the gunboat sank another three wooden pirate boats it was not enough to block the river channel
the pirates would succeed in penetrating the river channel and setting up a landing point close to the docks of the walled town
So ... just as in Khartoum, the British were not able to stem the tide of attackers from either land or sea.
Great final game set and match for the War Dungeon!
All the Kudos to MacLean for working it all up ... he's been studying the period in some detail and taking notes about everyone's terrain choices.
The amazing part about Jeff's collection, was that some were traded to MacLean by another gamer that had been gifted them after his passing - but could not see them stored, so it was decided to get them into the hands of someone who wanted to use them. I had already sold off many others in the year before Jeff's passing.
Those models that had been sold, were then traded to MacLean because of his keen interest in the large game and needing many cavalry, tribesmen and some more red coats. Upon receiving them, MacLean noted the similar paint jobs and the mounting on Canadian pennies (he bought/traded them from a US based gamer), which Jeff had done because the pennies were magnetic by then with next to zero copper or zinc any more in them. When MacLean cleaned off the covering from the bottoms he saw the same paint and numbering system that Jeff had used and knew that the minis were from the collection.
It would appear the troops did what they could to re-assemble for the right active player to get them on the table en mass.
In a uniform from the age of 13 to 30, learned much of 'military life' and after a decade of travel have settled down to start a family. Started with boardgames and RPG's in the 1970's and added tabletop miniatures in the 1990's. Now with a family of three boys, seeking to turn this sometime hobby into more of a lifestyle.
4 comments:
That’s an epic game! Kudos to the person/people who dreamed that up.
Fantastic looking game; really a suitable finale to the run of games played at The War Dungeon.
A wonderful final game for that locale, and good to know Jeff was...represented.
All the Kudos to MacLean for working it all up ... he's been studying the period in some detail and taking notes about everyone's terrain choices.
The amazing part about Jeff's collection, was that some were traded to MacLean by another gamer that had been gifted them after his passing - but could not see them stored, so it was decided to get them into the hands of someone who wanted to use them. I had already sold off many others in the year before Jeff's passing.
Those models that had been sold, were then traded to MacLean because of his keen interest in the large game and needing many cavalry, tribesmen and some more red coats. Upon receiving them, MacLean noted the similar paint jobs and the mounting on Canadian pennies (he bought/traded them from a US based gamer), which Jeff had done because the pennies were magnetic by then with next to zero copper or zinc any more in them. When MacLean cleaned off the covering from the bottoms he saw the same paint and numbering system that Jeff had used and knew that the minis were from the collection.
It would appear the troops did what they could to re-assemble for the right active player to get them on the table en mass.
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