One of my Wirblewind's is missing: Collateral losses

Incident Report:

Bless the inquisitive nature of a small child, some fifteen months old (when the crime was committed). Returning home one evening I was greeted with the usual family pleasantries, all was as normal or so I thought. It was only later in the night did I discover that Daddy's play cupboard security had been breached. A minor case of a disgruntled dad and slightly amused mummy for the evening in BAFTA award winning mock consolation. Hmm.

You see things were rather a jumble in the 20mm section.In particular the "assembled and under-coated black" WIP tray. Hasagawa 20mm Churchill I and II's were scattered about and the Japanese Chi-Ho was rather Chi-Lo without a turret and Panzer IV tray was "upside down". (I could not bring myself to photograph the damage.)

However order was restored I thought the "damage" was limited to an unfortunate Churchill Mk I that was missing its 20mm main armament (some would say no real loss there then) and also something which could be replaced quite easily from the spares box. All was calm :)

However only recently did I discover there was a deeper missing "blank" where my Panther Battalion's (a very slow moving WIP wargaming project where I am still really assembling all the kits) AA platoon should have been. The neatness of the "pluck" was in stark contrast to the other mayhem. The search turned up nothing, so the Wirblewind (ESCI kit) is now posted MIA, but rather worryingly was the proximity of the crime scene to a waste basket.

Even more worryingly is that my youngest son (the felon/chief suspect) had a favourite game about a month ago called "putting things that were not supposed to go there in the bin". He was just copying what we did, that's part of learning after all. Shudder at the thought. Er, would my wife have spotted this treasure and plucked it from said bin, unlikely. So it is probably residing in a land-fill far, far away :(

Normandy Breakout Tutorial: BGC - Part I

The BGC (Battle Group Commander) learning tutorials continue. This time I get the pick of the crop from the 7th Armoured:

• An Armoured Regiment
• A Motorised (aka Foot as lorries die on the battlefield) Battalion
• An Armoured Infantry (Half-Track) Battalion

Unfortunately despite poring in my resources to the Recon phase, a bad set of dice-rolls (here we go a general making excuses already) made my set-up rather limited. (Not as bad as my fellow "learner" who dismissed recon and used his boys as fighters in the front line. The result was a shambles as he had to come in from the baseline probing blind and did not even reach as far forward as my jump-off position. I will always recon!). The infantry dismounted and the tanks hid behind a convenient wood (a German artillery "stonk" on me in the prep-phase would be rather uncomfortable). Armoured infantry to the left, foot-sloggers to the right and tanks to the rear. I have deliberately compressed my frontage to about twenty inches. The foot-sloggers are to cover the flank of the more mobile troops as they race unashamedly down the table edge.

Recon and Allied deployment over the German placed his troops. Two and a bit infantry companies plus a PAK 40 Coy [75mm A/T](see below). I intend to bypass the town, go to the edge of the wood with my foot-sloggers and drive over the hill with my (initially dismounted) armoured infantry and tanks. 

With no targets worthwhile to hit (I had only seen the German platoon in the town and he was in too good a covered position) I chose to lay down a (pre-plotted, as in before I knew where the rest of German units were) smoke screen for the armoured units and advance behind it (see below).

The smoke stayed where it should, covering the German positions nicely and congratulating myself on a good start (always a bad thing to do) the advance began.

Renaissance Reinforcements (2): German Men-at-Arms (Knights)

The horses are under orders:

Damn them for being so big (28mm) and "gorgeous" to paint. Trying to do them fast for this coming Monday but don't see it happening.

I will have to try and 'borrow' some cavalry again, oh the shame of it

:(

Return of the Painting Tray: Lysander IV

Just a final touch up with the paint brush for silver wing tip navigation lights and a nice (smelly) Humbrol matt all-over varnish, done the old fashion way with a brush (see below):

She stands ready for her first flight in support of the BEF somewhere near Calais:

That will do for now but two little modifications are on a future action list. The first is to drill two small holes, one above each landing light, to represent the fixed machine gun positions (yes thing was actually armed). Second, to fix some small bomb-lets underneath the mini-wings that stick out of fixed landing gear (once I make the Airfix Me109E as the Battle of Britain variant, I can use its spare bombs from the tropical variant). Yes the Lysander thing could actually (well perhaps theoretically in the operating manual) drop bombs too. 

Renaissance Reinforcements (1): Germanic Men-At-Arms (Knights)

High on the adrenalin rush from the last Impetus game (see previous posts), I not only purchased the rules (my gaming luck can now only go downhill after "reading [and not understanding] the rules") and decided it was time to acquire some Renaissance Germanic Men-At-Arms cavalry types (see below) to complement my Formed Pike infantry and Shot Harquebusiers:

Courtesy of Redoubt Enterprises I now have twelve armoured cavalry "brutes" which will be enough to cover two "CP" (aka "Impact" Cavalry) formations. I found out to my cost that heavy 28mm metal is not cheap, but it has to be said they look "the business" and I just hope my painting does the figures the credit they deserve.

A look at the riders (see above) and a closer look at one on the horses (see below)

All I need is some space at the painting table, watch this space ;) 

PS: Another stack/cluster of Games Workshop paints were found dry as a bone and consigned to the waste bin. The change over to other acrylics (Vallejo and Anita's Acrylics continues apace)

Renaissance Impetus: End Game

Who would take the initiative? Can the Byzantine flip-flop and steal the thunder from beneath the whiskers of the Florentine general?

No

Initiative to Florence. The Florentine General elects to move the bulk of his army, choosing to keep the Swiss "for best" and starts a gruelling push of pike in the middle which results in the near destruction of both sides heavy infantry in the centre (see below). All the heavy infantry on table are now worn apart from the "Swiss Pike" (evil Florentine laughter fades away ... ).  

The Byzantine turn amounts to nothing much. A dabble of dice hear and a dabble of dice there, but no net effect. Next up, it is finally the turn of the Swiss unit waiting so patiently in the wings. In it goes like a hot knife through butter, the Swiss pike faces a disordered and damaged Byzantine heavy infantry unit (see below), the factors could be summed up in one word as "ow". Note: The base of the Florentine psychopathic knights visible top-right, still looking for more victims but not having much joy.

The Swiss certainly make their "impetus" or "impact" felt, leaving in their wake a trail of Byzantine dead heavy infantry (see below).

Bang goes the first Byzantine heavy infantry unit, spectacularly routed. The Swiss move straight on into another Byzantine heavy infantry unit. This in effect rescues the Florentine left wing cavalry, now rather badly damaged and just hanging on. Despite the scene set for a razzle dazzle of a finish the Swiss fizzle out and barely scratch the last unit. All-in-all it is still enough. The Byzantine army cohesion breaks and runs home. The artworks of Florence is saved by the men of the High Renaissance (yes those psychopathic Florentine Knights and brutal Swiss Pikemen, hmm).

In Summary:

All-in-all a fantastic little game and full credit to the Byzantine General (Yogi) who took everything fate threw at him on that night stoically on the chin (just like his more favoured Roman armies were noted for doing) and thanks to the "on-hand" umpire (Ken) who guided us skilfully through the rules. I am now totally hooked. Time to start the re-basing process (see the lurid card used as movement trays in the pictures, used out of pure necessity) and I need to start painting some Renaissance cavalry figures so I don't have to "borrow" my cavalry wings again from spare club armies.

Renaissance Impetus gets Brutal: Heavy Infantry Clash

The Byzantine's left was in deadly peril. Just a matter of time before the plate-clad good men of standing from Florence (all lovers of the arts), scythed forwards in a blood-letting frenzy into the rear of the Byzantine heavy infantry huddle (see below). Once there was four units of heavy infantry, suddenly there was only three (heavy infantry losing combat to a rear attack is removed from play, not so much impetus but the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse)!

The Byzantine right was looking likewise rather unsavoury as it was stalled with a melee of heavies, the balance of which slowly sliding against the Byzantine. The Byzantine "light horse" had gotten caught between an advancing Florentine pike block and more heavily plate armoured Florentine "artists" who painted in vivid red (see below) and 'evaporated'.

Desperate times dictate desperate measures. The Byzantine infantry must take it to the Florentine (and Swiss) Pike blocks before they were withered by the enfilading fire from Florentine hand-gunners marching up their flanks. One unit of heavy Byzantine infantry levelled, then tipped the cavalry battle on the Byzantine right wing (see below) in their favour. Was there now a golden ray of hope for the cunning and wily Persian (see below)? Looking promising!

The remaining two Byzantine heavy infantry attempted to charge in at the Florentine pike (and at the same time avoid the Swiss mercenary pike block - who wouldn't given the choice) to try and force the issue. Dice were rolled, one unit got in, one unit fell just short. Numbers would not be an issue, it would be push of pike versus long spear with a bit of "impetus". A grinding match ensued (see below) reducing by "the addition of casualty markers" but not killing both units (see below).

So the battle hangs in the balance. Note: the sinister mass of the Swiss pike block to the right middle (see above), the deadliest unit on the field of battle. All now depended on which side gained the initiative in the next round.